SCARBOROUGH – By voting for a far-reaching leash law, the Scarborough Town Council has unleashed the dogs of war, at least in terms of citizen petitions.

In a surprise move that left audience members feeling “blindsided,” the Town Council on Wednesday, Oct. 2, went far beyond federal demands for a stronger summertime leash law on public beaches, voting instead to ban dogs from being off leash on any public property anywhere in town all year long.

The only exceptions are for hunting dogs at work and for free run allowed in “designated areas.” Although there has been talk of creating dog parks in Scarborough, no such designated areas exist at this time.

“What was that?” said Mast Road resident Julie Hannon, amid a small group of dog lovers gathered in the hall outside council chambers immediately after the vote. “That was ridiculous. I can’t believe we were blindsided like that.

“There were a boatload of people that I think thought this was a done deal, who said, ‘OK, so we’re going to lose beach [access] from this time to this time.’ I don’t think anybody had any clue we were going to lose it year round. No one ever suggested that.”

“I think we’re all just in shock a little bit,” said Suzanne Foley-Ferguson, one of the leading voices in the ad hoc advocacy group, Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough.

Last Thursday morning, barely 12 hours after the council vote, members of the advocacy group, took out the first petitions in hopes of overturning the council vote.

“We are manning a table all week at town hall,” said Foley-Ferguson via email on Tuesday. Petitioners also will be at the post office and upcoming candidates night events, and the Dog Paws Inn is collecting signatures at its kennels on Gorham Road.

“The numbers are looking great, the feedback overall is positive, and people petitioning remain pumped up,” said Foley-Ferguson. “We are confident that we can meet the deadline of Oct. 22.”

According to Scarborough’s Town Charter, petitioners have 20 days in which to collect the requisite number of signatures needed to overturn last week’s council vote. Names must be signed on town-provided petitions by registered Scarborough voters, and at least 25 percent of the turnout at the most recent gubernatorial election (2,379 signatures) is needed.

If the signature drive is successful, the town clerk has 10 working days to certify the petitions. If the minimum number of signatures are validated, the council must schedule a public hearing within 30 days, and a public vote must be held within 30 days of the hearing. Based on the Oct. 22 deadline for petitioning, a public vote would occur no later than Jan. 4, 2014.

However, in a bit of a local twist, the attempt to overturn the council vote can prevail at the polls but still fail if at least 2,379 residents do not turn out to vote on the issue.

According to Police Chief Robert Moulton, his officers will refrain from enforcing the new leash law while petitioning is under way.

“It is the intention of the town to use discretion in not enforcing the new ordinance during the petition period,” read a notice posted on the department’s Facebook page. “This decision is based on a desire to respect the spirit of the citizen’s initiative process. Should the petitioners be successful in collecting the requisite number of valid signatures and a special election is scheduled, discretion in enforcement will continue until the question is decided by a vote of the majority of the voters. In the meantime, the regulations in place prior to the vote of Oct. 2, 2013, will be enforced.”

The same notice was posted on the town’s website and as a preamble to the new ordinance adopted by the Town Council.

The previous rules, in place since 2004, allowed dogs to be off leash on municipal beaches from sunrise to 9 a.m. between April 15 and Sept. 15. During those months, they were not allowed on beaches at all between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and could be present only on a leash from 5 p.m. until sunset. There were no restrictions during the remaining six months of the year.

The move to change that began soon after July 15, when a dog killed a piping plover chick. The mauling occurred at about 7 a.m. on Pine Point Beach, at a time when the dog was allowed to run free. The chick was the only surviving hatchling of the only plover pair seen at Pine Point this past summer.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched an investigation, which it refused to acknowledge until Sept. 11, and Andrew Tittler, acting assistant regional solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior, sent the town a notice of violation of the Endangered Species Act. The notice, which included a $12,000 fine, said Scarborough “did knowingly cause” the chick’s demise because its rules limiting dog access to beaches were not stringent enough.

Tittler noted that officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked Scarborough to strengthen its leash law three times between May 2001 and April 2004. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife made its own attempt, sending a letter and dispatching an endangered species biologist to address the council in May 2004. State officials tried again to open a dialogue on the issue on July 10, just five days before its fears were realized, wrote Tittler.

However, Councilor Judy Roy pointed out during the Oct. 2 meeting that Fish and Wildlife signed off on the town’s beach management plan in July 2012, under the previous leash law.

In a deal brokered with the feds, Scarborough agreed to require dogs to be leashed at all times on public beaches between April 1 and Aug. 31, with leads to be 8 feet or shorter. The town also agreed to create the 20-hour per week position of “piping plover coordinator” to oversee a host of new public education and enforcement policies. In return, the town’s fine was lowered from $12,000 to $500.

Turnout from dog owners has dwindled at council meetings during the past two months – from a standing-room-only crowd of more than 120 to the 50 or so at Wednesday’s meeting – as residents became resigned to the inevitability of new restrictions on dogs during the plover nesting season.

Then came the town-wide leash law, which councilors saw as a possible amendment for the first time at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Although it was Councilor Kate St. Clair who motioned it onto the table, Town Manager Tom Hall said he drafted the provision at the direction of Councilor Richard Sullivan, who chairs the council’s ordinance committee.

Sullivan did not speak to the motion directly during the Oct. 2 meeting and could not be reached for comment afterward. St. Clair, however, defended the change as a way to force continued dialogue between the town and dog lovers.

“It sounds pat, but I’m hoping that by doing this it’s going to force some people to have to come to the table,” said St. Clair. “We need to come up with these designated areas. The town is big enough, we have enough land, there’s no reason we can’t come to a compromise on this.”

“We have to make some changes,” said St. Clair. “I have no problem saying we are being forced to make some changes. We need to do it, and I feel like this is a way that will bring everybody [together]. Everybody’s got to come to the table.”

Councilors Sullivan, Ed Blaise and Richard Benedict supported St. Clair’s motion. It was opposed by councilors Jessica Holbrook, Judy Roy and Chairman Ron Ahlquist, largely on the grounds that no “designated area” yet exists in Scarborough where dogs can run free.

“This is kind of getting the cart before the horse,” said Ahlquist.

Many residents, however, felt the new restriction went beyond concerns about the fate of the plover. Benedict and St. Clair have both spoken at recent council meetings about how unleashed dogs bother people, as well.

“They just did this to serve their own personal agendas, and the plovers presented them with a red herring,” said Holmes Road resident Liam Sommers. “They did not listen to the people. They never had any intention of listening to the people. This goes so far beyond benefiting the plover. The plovers are on the beaches for four months, they just banned dogs everywhere for 12. Explain that. This is insane.”

“People are going to be furious,” said Foley-Ferguson. “They are going to be really, really upset about this. I know people who don’t even own dogs who will be frustrated.”

Donald Brigham asks questions of Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough member Maureen Burns Tuesday as she collects signatures outside Scarborough Town Hall in hopes of overturning an ordinance update adopted last week by the Town Council that will require dogs to be leashed at all times when on public property.According to a Scarborough Town Council decision last week, dogs will not be allowed off leash on public property, including Pine Point Beach, pictured above.