North Castle Advances Consideration of Dog Park for Town

North Castle officials signaled their support last week for the development of a dog park after scores of residents have leaned on town government over the years to open a facility for their pets.

The Town Board authorized Superintendent of Recreation and Parks Matt Trainor to pursue implementation of the park in the area between the platform tennis courts and the bathrooms at Community Park. A dog park was one of the top recreation priorities in a resident survey conducted by the town’s Parks & Recreation Advisory Board in 2022.

“I think a dog park is certainly a great opportunity,” Supervisor Joe Rende said. “It’s been proposed a number of times that this is something the community wants and I think we should continue the process of looking into it.”

While exact cost and dimensions of the dog park are unknown, Councilman Matt Milim, the Town Board’s liaison to the advisory board, said he expects Trainor to provide that information to the board. Milim estimated that the facility would cover roughly a half to three-quarters of an acre and expects the outlay to be under $100,000.

One of the most enthusiastic supporters among North Castle residents is Mollie Meyer and her 12-year-old daughter Juliet. They made a presentation to the Town Board at last week’s meeting in hopes of convincing the town to move forward with the project.

Meyer said in the 10 years she and her family have lived in town, discussions for a dog park have been persistent. A desire for North Castle to have its own dog park was borne out by the 2022 survey.

“So of the top seven (priorities), which is really the community’s request for future projects, all seven are either in progress or completed, which is amazing, except for the dog park,” Meyer said.

She and her daughter visited about a half-dozen other dog parks in the area to compare and contrast. Juliet Meyer said that dog parks provide physical and socialization benefits for the dogs and their owners and help with instilling a strong sense of community.

A set of rules would need to be decided upon and posted at the park, which include owners being obligated to cleaning up their dog’s waste, and to have separate areas for smaller and larger dogs, she said.

Juliet Meyer said their family’s dog, Lily, a two-year-old Cavapoo, enjoys interacting with other dogs, something that is common among man’s best friend.

“I think it’s good for a bunch of things in the town, and it’s also really good because Lily, our dog, she likes to run around with other dogs,” she said. “We took her to a dog park (on Saturday) and she had a lot of fun.”

While there was unanimous support for a dog park on the board, there was some concern about making sure it is established safely and operates effectively. Councilwoman Barbara DiGiacinto said she wanted to form a task force comprised of various stakeholders, including dog owners such as the Meyers, Trainor, the advisory board, a veterinarian and perhaps others to ensure it is as safe as possible.

She also wondered whether it should just be used by town residents, and if so, how to be certain only those people have access to the site.

“It just makes it a safer environment,” DiGiacinto said. “Is it going to be perfect? Absolutely not, but I think it just raises the bar that there are standards, that it is not you all come and bring your dogs and we’ll all get along.”

However, Milim said he believes formation of a task force would unnecessarily delay the project. Many communities have established dog parks and there is precedent about what works best.

“If we wanted to kill this project, or we wanted to delay it indefinitely, we could come up with process upon process upon process and drag it out years,” Milim said. “But I think that’s overcomplicating it and not what residents want.”

Councilman Jose Berra said he thought it was a great idea and supported the town moving forward, but wanted to first have some certainty regarding cost and liability for the town.

Mollie Meyer said she and many other residents are hopeful the park can open sometime this year. She anticipated that about three-quarters of the space will be for large dogs while the remainder is the area for smaller dogs. The larger and smaller dogs would likely be determined by weight, with them separated at about the 25- to 30-pound mark.

In her research of other communities, fencing is usually metal or wire and at least four feet high. Wood chips are the most common type of surface but there is also a special dog turf that can be explored. In most other areas, the park is open from dawn to dusk and typically year-round, she said.

“I would like to see it happen as soon as possible,” Meyer said. “There’s not any construction, there’s not any building, I think it just comes down to the next step, which is really the research into the fencing, the material and any cost associated with the upkeep and adding the fencing and getting the right people to install it.”

Previously, Wampus Brook Park South had been proposed as the site of a dog park. But that received pushback because it is at the highly visible intersection of Bedford Road and Maple Avenue.