A volunteer group is calling the city's bureaucracy "obstructionist" after a plan to initiate a dog-waste program in a city park has been stalled over semantics.

The Kilcona Park Dog Club said it purchased signage and enlisted sponsorship for a dog-waste program at the park in the northeast corner of the city. President Donna Henry, however, said objections from a city organization, including how the signs are worded, came to them after grants were rewarded and after orders were placed for signs and bag dispensers.

"A month after the grant was awarded the public services starts playing games like this," she said. "It shouldn't be this hard."

Among the issues handcuffing the club is signage that did not meet approval by Sponsor Winnipeg, the program that oversees naming and sponsor partnerships on city assets.

Henry said the wording Sponsor Winnipeg requested doesn't fairly recognize the contributions of corporate sponsors who are the financial force behind bringing the program to reality.

The club had the signs manufactured and paid for at a cost of $1,900 and now the city has told the club to go back and purchase new signs with city-approved wording.

Henry said the signs now need to be approved by the city CAO, another hurdle that means they likely won't be in place in time for snow fall and the ground freezing.

"We just think this is total bureaucratic overkill when the city's top civil servant has to approve poop-bag dispenser signs," she said.

"... This is blind bureaucracy run amok. It's been going on for so long with this project that Kilcona Park Dog Club is really losing its appetite for fundraising for park improvements."

It is a runaround that doesn't sit well with Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, who thinks the volunteer group is being unfairly burdened in attempting to do a good thing for the community and city.

"This is putting this volunteer organization through hell to put up six pooper scoopers," Wyatt said. "We should be thanking them instead of making their lives miserable."

Wyatt called Sponsor Winnipeg "an absolute mess" and called the hoops the dog club has had to jump through "outrageous."

david.larkins@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @LarkinsWSun