Midtown NoHo NC Approves Funding For Whitnall Dog Park Lights

At its monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Midtown NoHo Neighborhood Council voted to fund the lights at the for a year, starting in July. Last month, in what was believed to have been a close 7-6 vote, the council voted to stop funding the lights, even though the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council had voted to fund half of the annual cost, which is $846.

However, the tabulation of the votes had been miscalculated, and the vote was actually a 6-6 tie. After the meeting, the mistake was discovered, and according to Department of Neighborhood Empowerment rules, the issue had to be re-voted on, according to MTNHNC President Mary Garcia.

If the council had decided against funding the lights, the decision could have turned them off at the park for the third time in a year. See previous stories, and the attached video from 2011:

So on Wednesday the issue was debated again, and some residents who use the park regularly showed up and spoke in favor of keeping the lights on, including one who brought a petition that over 200 local residents had signed in support of the lights. This time, only one councilmember voted against funding the lights.

"It's a brief respite for all the people in the neighborhood and their pets. It's a family place," Garcia told Patch. At the meeting last month, Garcia had spoken in favor of funding the lights and expressed dismay at the outcome.

"I think a lot of people took it for granted. I mean, who would vote against the dog park?" she said.

Garcia also said that many of the people that use the park and spoke at the meeting vowed to continue to make improvements there.

"We are also going to work with the council together as a team to address and make additional improvements," Michelle Guza, a regular park user who also attended the meeting, said in an email.

The lights, which were installed in 2005, typically stay on until around 8:20 p.m., and many people in the neighborhood heavily utilize the park at night. But when the lights are off, the entire area becomes nearly pitch black after sundown and mostly unused.

The dispute over who should pay for the lights is between the GTLNC and MTNHNC against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. According to MTNHNC Treasurer Diann Corral and several other council members, the agreement that was reached with the LADWP when they were installed only called on the neighborhood councils to pay for three years of the power bills, and the issue has never been fully resolved. Wednesday's vote only guaranteed the lights would stay on for another year, from July 2012 through June 2012, but Garcia expressed the belief that Councilman Paul Krekorian's office could help get the bill paid in the future.