LAKEWOOD – The Lakewood Village Board would like to remind residents that registration at the Lakewood Dog Park is mandatory.

An unregistered and unvaccinated dog recently entered the park and attacked another dog and bit a young woman. The dog was quarantined for 10 days, and the vaccination records didn’t show that the dog had a rabies vaccination.

“That brings the question that I don’t have the answer to, and I don’t know if there is an answer, if there is a way to prevent that – unregistered and unvaccinated dogs (entering the park),” said Andrea Windoft, village treasurer. “The gate’s unlocked; they can come and go. They simply don’t read the rules that are posted out there.”

Tad Wright, village attorney, said the man who brought in the unregistered dog could be charged with trespassing since the dog park is fenced in with posted rules.

“It would be no different than being in the park after hours,” he said. “The dog not vaccinated would probably be an agricultural marketing law violation.”

A conversation began about what the village could do to make the dog park a safer place.

“There is a possibility that you are going to be amongst dogs that they can get a little out of hand,” said Cara Birrittieri. “But there are two possible problems. Number one is being bit or nipped at and drawing blood, which is apparently what happened. Number two is if the dog isn’t vaccinated, it could be carrying, Lord forbid, rabies or something else.”

Birrittieri said the most important thing is to make sure the dogs are vaccinated, and that registered dogs must wear their tags while in the park with random checks once in a while. Windoft said that is something new she is in the process of looking at. She said she was looking into buying simple triangular scarves of one color that every dog entering the dog park must wear. This would allow people to know which dogs belong in the park and which ones don’t.

Susan Lang said the village could have people sign a waiver that their dog is safe and under control.

“It is amazing how a lot of the people down there are the policing force,” Windoft said. “We get a lot of phone calls in this office about unruly dogs or (people saying) ‘I don’t think this person is registered.'”

Registration for the dog park can be done online or at the village hall at 20 W. Summit St. It’s free and mandatory to register.

In other news, three public hearings were set for April 13. The special use permit of Farmer Brown’s on 274 E. Fairmount Ave., the site plan review application of the Save-A-Lot Food Store, and Lakewood’s tentative budget for 2015-16 were set for 6:40, 6:45 and 6:50 p.m., respectively.