Committee presents dog park plans

RED OAK — A new Red Oak park will soon be going to the dogs … literally.

At their April meeting last week, members of the Park and Tree board reviewed a committee’s report regarding an off-leash dog park, to be located near the south city well.

Committee chair Dr. Catherine Wolff said with 40 percent of Red Oak residents owning a total of about 1,700 dogs, the park would be a valuable community resource.

“We think a dog park would add some variety to our parks in Red Oak,” she said. “And we thought an off-leash dog park would be a great facility for well-behaved citizens, and our well-behaved canine citizens.”

The fenced park would include three segregated sections for different sized dogs: toy (under 10 pounds), small (between 10-25 pounds) and large (more than 25 pounds).

Other amenities in the proposal include:

— A double-gated entry to the largeand small dog area;

— Graveled parking areas;

— Water fountain for dogs and people in each section;

— Covered trash receptacles, and pooper scooper stations at each entrance;

— Concrete benches;

— Trees;

— A graveled walking path around the perimeter of the large dog area.

Park and Tree Board President Bill Drey said the park would provide another reason for motorists to stop in Red Oak.

“I guarantee you for people traveling through … with dogs, they look for places to stop with dog parks,” he said.

The idea for the park came from Red Oak’s 7 for 11 project, in which seven community suggested projects were selected to be completed by 2011.

The next step for the dog park will be establishing cost estimates, which will be reviewed at the May meeting.

Local option sales tax funds will be used for the project.

Also at the meeting, the board:

— Approved an agreement with the Montgomery County Family YMCA to manage the City pool this summer. Under the agreement, the YMCA Aquatics Director will serve as pool manager. Following this agreement, the board also hired an assistant manager and several lifeguards.

— Discussed the need for a recreational vehicle dump station.

“Currently, there is no dump station in Red Oak … and residents are driving to Viking Lake to use its dump station,” Drey said. The board will review possible locations at its May meeting.