The City Council’s ad hoc committee on a dog park met for the first time recently and has already identified a possible site for the park on city property off Neck Road.
The committee chairman, Councilor Christopher Crean, said that when he became involved in the project he started to consider all the city properties which might have land available for use as a dog park and reached out to all city departments for ideas.
He pointed out that the Friends of the Westfield Dog Park members had only had discussions with Parks and Recreation Department officials and said that department has limited space.
“Their properties are already spoken for” he said but other departments control large amounts of land in the city.
He said that fellow committee member Councilor James Adams had spoken with David Billips, the superintendent of the water resources department, which includes the wastewater treatment plant at the end of Neck Road.
Crean said that Billips offered the use of property near the plant for a dog park.
“There’s 50 acres down there, it’s a substantial amount of land that’s available” he said.
Crean distributed maps of the area and indicated a cleared area not far from the plant which he said might be used. The property contains an open field backed up by a wooded area which extends to the river.
The city property is a peninsula bounded by a curve of the Westfield River and there are no residential properties nearby.
The area suggested for the dog park is on the edge of the property and about 200 yards from the gate of the treatment plant. The boundary line to the north is marked by a row of large concrete pipe sections which have apparently been discarded by CEMEX over the years.
Crean said that the area is low-lying and subject to occasional flooding in years when there is unusually heavy rain. He also said that there is a possibility of an odor from the wastewater plant.
The committee includes officers of the Friends of the Westfield Dog Bark and Marilyn Sandidge, the vice president of the volunteer group, said that it appeared that the property indicated could be suitable for one of the dog park plans the committee has considered.
She said that the committee favors building a park which includes a fenced area, where dogs can be contained, within a larger area where walking trails could be established for dogs which can be trusted to stay near their owners or are kept on a leash.
The committee had given serious consideration to locating the park at the unused Arms Brook Park off Lockhouse road and Sandidge said “That was the plan we were going to use there.”
“We (the Dog Bark Friends) have enough money to enclose a small place” she said. “We could put together the fencing for a small enclosure as part of a larger (area).”
Ed Phillips, the president of the Friends group and also a member of the ad hoc committee, said that although the group has already raised some money, more is expected when the group is granted 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, a process which is well underway.
He said that he knows people “who are anxious to donate” but are waiting for the group to be granted full tax-exempt status.
Crean held out the possibility that some other funding might be found to augment that available to the Dog Bark Friends and said that city-provided “water and electricity would be no problem” at the Neck Road site.
Sandidge and Phillips walked over the site the day after the meeting and said that the clear and level area could accommodate a fenced area about 175 feet by 150 feet and still leave an open and flat area about 150 feet by 125 feet which, with an application of gravel, could be used for parking.
Trees along Neck Road would provide some shade for the field and the fenced area could extend a short distance into the woods bordering the field.
Behind the field are ridges and scrub growth extending to the river which is currently choked with deadfall. The evidence of the last year’s Halloween storm is widespread in the area and a considerable amount of debris has been illegally dumped there over the years.
Crean did ask that the members of the committee go to the area to look over the site. Sandidge said that the Dog Bark Friends are planning to gather there on Saturday to examine the location.
Sandidge said that the Neck Road site has “some really positive factors” such as the lack of residential neighborhoods nearby and said that the 1,000 feet of river frontage would be attractive to many dogs.
However, she said “It’s questionable what the air quality would be in the summer near the water treatment plant” and said that other sites will still be considered.
Crean said “I don’t really see any negatives with it” but stressed that he and his committee will continue to pursue alternatives. He queried the committee members about the problems associated with a dog park at Arms Brook Park and was told that members of the city’s Flood Control Commission had objected to those plans and that the costs of providing a driveway and parking there were beyond the resources of the Dog Bark Friends.
He said that there might be other suitable areas elsewhere in the city which are controlled by other city departments. “I’d like to find something that would be permanent, that people would be happy with” he said.
The committee will next meet, he said, on Wednesday, April 11, at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.
