A tighter leash on dog owners in Chelmsford?
A few months from now, the pile of droppings left in a Chelmsford park recently by Kaley, a 3-year-old golden retriever, could cost her owner a $10 fine.
The threat of a fine probably isn't needed for Kaley's owner, Cheryl Callahan, who dashed to her car and returned with some paper towels to scoop up the waste. But just a few feet away, another pile was decaying into a white mound that helped explain why officials want to stiffen the penalty.
There's nothing new about removing dog waste from the public domain, but tomorrow's Town Meeting will ask representatives to tighten the language of the town's animal bylaw. The proposal also specifies that ``no owner or keeper of any dog shall permit such dog to run at large at any time."
Town Clerk Betty Delaney said the town has no plans to launch a dragnet for scofflaw pet owners. The town hopes the increased fines will raise money to help pay for upkeep of the town's dog kennel, she said, and the tougher language will give officials the tools needed to crack down when problems arise.
``This way, we have some teeth in it," she said.
The proposed bylaw would impose a $10 fine for failure to remove animal waste. For allowing a dog to run at large, the fines would run from $50 for a first offense to $200 for the third offense in a calendar year, if the owner takes the matter through the courts. An excessively noisy dog, or one without a license or rabies vaccination, would cost an owner $25 for each offense.
Another change replaces the words ``dog officer" with ``animal control officer." Most other requirements of the bylaw remain the same.
The new measure would replace a vaguely worded bylaw that calls for fines ranging from $25 to $150 if a dog owner chooses to appeal the citation and take it to court.
Fall Town Meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Senior Center on Groton Road. If the bylaw is approved, it will take effect as soon as the state attorney general OK's it, said Bernadette Gilet of the town clerk's office.
Though the focus is on keeping unleashed dogs off streets, news of the proposal has caused anxiety in the open spaces where many of the town's 3,100 dog owners meet.
In Chelmsford, pet owners see dogs and masters as welcome members to a private club. In the open lots, ball fields, reservations, and on school grounds where dogs from around town gather, people's income, profession, and car model don't matter. What they wear and whom they know is irrelevant. What matters is that they arrive with a dog at a consistent hour almost daily.
Ask Randy Houle, for example, the name of another dog owner, and he'll tell you he doesn't know. But ask him a dog's name and he's got it down pat.
Houle said he spends time every day outdoors with his dog, a 6-year-old mixed breed named Riley, even when snow covers the ground. ``It's part of my routine," he said.
On a recent afternoon, Riley was playing with Kaley. Soon they were joined by Boca, owned by Tom Duggan, and Sonny, owned by Doug Nebel. The four canines ran and walked at different paces, sometimes coming together for a romp, sometimes leaping away for a spin around the field.
A sign at the entrance of their informal dog park requests that the owners clean up after their dogs, as if offering grudging approval of their presence. All of the owners said they are glad to help out.
``This is too much of a wonderful resource to mess it up for everybody," said Callahan. But all four of the owners asked that the park's location not be disclosed, so as not to call too much attention to their clandestine encounters.
A few miles away, at Roberts Field, Theresa Tobin, Denise Curran, and Karin Bischoff arrived in the early morning to exercise their dogs, allowing the animals to swim in the park's pond.
They said they have cleaned up the park, not just of dog waste, but of litter in general, as a good-will gesture, knowing that the dogs' presence there depends on not inconveniencing anyone else.
``We try to go there really early and then we can let them off their leashes and roughhouse a little bit and play in the water," said Bischoff, whose golden retriever is 2 years old. ``There isn't a lot of open space for your dog to be able to run and play with other dogs."
``I am very careful to have her on the leash, but when no one else is around, we just let them run around and play," said Tobin, who has an 11-month-old Wheaton terrier, ``so I guess that's under the radar."
Tobin, who once lived in San Diego, noted that the California city has 12 locations designated for dogs, including a beach devoted to the four-legged pets.
In New Hampshire, the Nashua Dog Owners Group has arranged for a play group to meet Sunday mornings on the grounds of the Bellavance Beverage Co. on Northwest Boulevard. The group recently presented the city with a proposal for a permanent dog park on Grand Avenue, according to the website, nashuadog.org.
But in Chelmsford, every public field and park is spoken for by ballplayers and playground users.
Paul McDougall said he was chatting with a fellow dog owner this week at Southwell Field Complex in North Chelmsford, another gathering spot for dog owners, about the scarcity of dog parks.
``There are certain owners who won't pick up after their dogs, and they make it bad for the other people," he said.
Scott Ubele, deputy chief of police in Chelmsford, said there was no special impetus for updating the bylaw other than that it hadn't been changed in 10 years.
According to Gilet, ``We're trying to make people responsible for their dogs."
But Bischoff had another point of view.
``I think the people who pick up after their dogs are going to pick up regardless of whether there's a law, and the people who wouldn't, still won't," she said. ``I don't know who's going to be there to enforce it."
Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com. 
