The popular dog park at Del Mar Park in Morro Bay is now closed as well as the tennis courts at Monte Young Park due to damages caused by the recent storm.
High winds hit the City of Morro Bay during Sunday’s storm, causing trees to uproot and large, heavy branches to fall at Del Mar Park.
“At the dog park itself, there’s a lot of branches that are still hanging in the trees and it’s what they call widow-makers so out of safety and precaution, we’re closing down the dog park,” said Carlos Mendoza, City of Morro Bay Public Works Maintenance Manager.
Hailley Howard is visiting her dad who lives in Morro Bay and after visiting the dog park with her dogs just before the storm, she was surprised to see the recent damage.
“It’s always shocking to see Mother Nature’s wrath. We were not anticipating downed foliage. We were more just anticipating mud. This kind of shows us how bad the storm was,” Howard said.
Some people say the closure of the park isn’t stopping their dogs from having fun.
“Well, it does just what we’re doing here today, outside of the park because it’s closed and locked. There’s some friends walking up the trail here and we all meet and let our dogs run up and down the hills. She’s good enough where she doesn’t run off at all,” said Clark Routledge, Morro Bay resident.
“There’s still dogs who are trying to get their park time in so we can still have some socializing which is awesome,” Howard said.
Mendoza says repairs at the dog park are not expected to exceed $10,000, Along with fence repairs, the cypress tree that uprooted needs to be removed and trees trimmed.
“One of the issues we’re having is access to the park itself because the ground is so saturated, we’re not able to bring equipment in to do the work,” Mendoza said.
The strong winds also caused the 16-foot fence at Monte Young Park to lean heavily towards the tennis courts. The removal and reinstallation of a new fence is estimated to coast around $40,000.
“Out of precaution again, we’ve closed that section of the park, the tennis courts,” Mendoza said.
Despite the two closures, people in the community say it comes with major storms.
“It’s totally understandable. We can’t prevent the damages, just a little expensive on the part of the board,” Routledge said.
Mendoza says despite tree branches falling citywide, there was no other major damage in Morro Bay due to the storm.
The dog park is expected to reopen by Saturday, February 24 and the tennis courts by Saturday, April 20.
