Dog Park Update

We need to catch you up on a few things.  First of all, last Tuesday night, our mayor made the Dog Park Committee official!  He formally established it and the city council voted on it!  The first meeting is planned for the 22nd!  And I think I already told you that mom was . . .

The other thing is that mom and dad met the city worker at the dog park on Friday so they could inspect the fence line.  Since the fence was not installed with animals in mind, mom wanted to make sure there were no escape routes.  Oh, it is a VERY good thing they decided to do an inspection!  Let's just say the committee won't run out of things to do for some time!

This is what it looks like.  It is just under 7 acres.  BUTT, see the line that looks like an upside down "L"?  That actually is a canal!  The photo doesn't show it but there is a steep berm that must be crossed then on the opposite side is the canal.  The city said they'd slope the walls so no doggies got stuck in it.  There usually isn't much water in it cuz it hardly ever rains here but in the spring it might have a lot of water in it for a few days.  Anyway, the play area is actually just the center area, about 3 acres.  BUTT that is 3 acres more than we have now!  Mom says there are things that must be done to get it ready and then other things as improvements.  The committee needs to get this planned out so the mayor can report back to the council and they can vote on it in August.

It's pretty easy to see that we have gate problems.  Not only are there no double gates, but the single gates have huge gaps in them.

Fences need mended.

This is the canal.  So you have to come up over the berm and canal is on opposite side.  The berm is higher than this photo shows so it is a bit of an obstruction to the canal in itself.  But there are hazards for sure!

And to complicate matters, the area will still function as a retention basin.  In another state that might make it useless but in our dry state it TYPICALLY would only be an issue a couple days every year.  So it isn't a big deal but anything put in the park will have to deal with the possibility of being submerged.

Mom says it will be a challenge but she's going to work her hardest to give me and Stanley a local place to play!

UPDATE:  On Sunday, there was a BIG article in the newspaper about our dog park!

Murphy & Stanley