To the editor:

Along with a group of friends we take our dogs for a walk every day at the Clinton off leash dog park. It is a physically and mentally healthy activity for both humans and pets.

This park is the most used year-round outdoor park in Lawrence and visibly the least maintained. Parks and Rec has decided, because of budget cuts, to stop mowing paths on a large area of the park. Even when they were mowing in this area, most of the park except for walking paths is overgrown with tall weeds, and we are forced to use a filthy pit toilet that the city has promised in the past to replace but never has. Dog park users do not ask for much, some maintenance and hopefully a bathroom you do not have to be desperate to use while the city spends tens of thousands on a skateboard park, aquatic center and other parks that are visited a lot less. Please support the off leash park, like other parks, for all to enjoy!

John and Rusty Shelton,

Lawrence