By Joe Lamb thecabin.net Copyright 2010 The Cabin. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Conway City Council could sign off on a long-awaited dog park and an ordinance prohibiting smoking at all city parks in coming weeks.

The plan discussed at Tuesday night’s council meeting involves a park near the public entrance to Beaverfork Lake, where about two acres seldom used by visitors, which is near a public bathroom, present what city officials now consider the best place for a dog park.

Parks and Recreation Director Bryan Knopp is preparing plans for such a park, which he said would cost “at most” $20,000 to $25,000. 

The cost would come in the form of fencing and plumbing for whatever dog and/or human watering stations would be installed. Nearby street lights would provide some after-dark lighting, but the installation of other lights would also be considered, Knopp said. 

Though reduced sales tax income has stressed the city’s general budget to the point that city services could be reduced if the economic climate does not improve, Mayor Tab Townsell said that spending city money on a dog park would not mean less money for general city operations.

“The only place we’re having trouble financially is the general fund, and these revenues that would build a dog park will not come from general fund revenue, they come from park revenue.”

This “park revenue” is generated by the city’s Advertising and Promotions Commission “hamburger tax” and by park impact fees paid through new development. Neither of these funding streams may legally be used for any purpose other than parks.

“They’re locked-in by law,” Townsell said. 

Plans had been discussed to install a dog park at Laurel Park, but concerns from neighboring residents about noise and from park visitors about the proximity of dogs to the playground caused city officials to look elsewhere. 

Several members of the Conway Dog Park Association spoke to the council Tuesday, and none seemed to be against the Beaverfork Lake location. 

Generating other park-related discussion at Tuesday’s meeting were a pair of plastic jugs that between them held about 2 gallons worth of cigarette butts picked up from Laurel Park — most found near the playground. 

The jugs completed several circuits about the meeting tables as aldermen were eager to pass them from in front of themselves to their peers for closer inspection, sometimes with a few ceremonial words.

The carelessly discarded smokers’ remnants were collected from the park by members of the Asian Pacific Coalition for Smoke Free Arkansas, several of whom spoke to the council in favor of banning smoking in local parks on the basis that the roughly 25 percent of the population that chooses to smoke should not negatively affect the other 75 percent.

Townsell said that an ordinance banning smoking in city parks would likely find council approval, but how to handle the issue of snuff or “dip” could generate more discussion.

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)