Councillor wants increased security at dog park

  Ward 6 City Councillor Richard Serino wants the City of Revere to provide some extra security measures at the Paws & Play Dog Park on Sargent Street. At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Serino introduced an order asking that funds from the city’s dog park revolving account be used to install a security camera at the park due to issues with dogs being abandoned at the park and with aggressive dogs attacking other dogs and people.

  “This is pretty sickening – that I have to put this in for this reason, but last month someone abandoned two Maltese dogs [at the park],” said Serino. A local kennel owner did take the two dogs in, but Serino said it was still despicable that someone would just drop off their dogs and abandon them.

  “Having a camera there, at least we’d be able to see a license plate or catch somebody,” Serino said.

  There have also been other issues at the park that could be alleviated in part with the installation of a security camera, Serino said. “Dogs have attacked other dogs, and people are bringing large dogs into the small dog area and vice versa,” said Serino. “So just having a camera there and utilizing the funds from dog licenses and the revolving account should take care of it, could try to stop some of these issues.”

  In other business, Serino also proposed that the city look into establishing a fire extinguisher recycling program, such as one some surrounding cities have in place. “This issue was brought to me by a resident in Ward 6 who received a new fire extinguisher from our fire department,” said Serino. “He had years ago purchased the fire extinguisher that he had in his home from an online website, and he was not able to return that on the online site, and he was not able to return it to the city.”

  Serino said fire extinguishers are considered hazardous material and can’t be disposed of in the regular trash.

  Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri introduced an order at the request of the employees in the city’s Substance Use Disorder and Homelessness Initiatives Office in recognition of Overdose Awareness Month. The order requests the mayor to have Human Resources direct all departments to amend and/or replace stigmatizing language and terminology with person-centered language in all City of Revere documents with respect to substance use disorder, behavioral health, people in recovery, people who use drugs (PWUD) and people who have been involved in the justice system. “This here is an important step toward knocking down the stigma of addiction and those that suffer by it,” said Silvestri.