WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission Tuesday night closed its public hearing into a proposed city dog park that has been a long-term project for a core group of supporters. Friends of Westfield Dog Bark, a non-profit group, along with its president, Edward J. Phillips, is continuing its ongoing endeavor to provide dog owners with a park for their pets....
A site off Lockhouse Road in Westfield is being considered for a dog park like this one at the Community Garden in Northampton.
WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission Tuesday night closed its public hearing into a proposed city dog park that has been a long-term project for a core group of supporters.
Friends of Westfield Dog Bark, a non-profit group, along with its president, Edward J. Phillips, is continuing its ongoing endeavor to provide dog owners with a park for their pets. While plans for the facility have long been in the making, it has been three years since the latest proposal has been considered under the auspices of the Parks and Recreation Department.
“I asked Park and Rec if I can see it before I die,” Phillips said after the meeting.
The site currently under consideration is located off Lockhouse Road behind Arms Brook Park in the area of an earthen dam used to protect the city against flooding and encompasses a one-third of an acre area that would be fully fenced to allow dogs to run off-leash while supervised by a handler.
Members of the Friends of Westfield Dog Bark said they have raised enough money to fund the smaller area that will be enclosed by a 300-foot circumference of fencing so that there are no right angles where a dog could be cornered. The group is not asking the city to maintain the park.
The friends group is also proposing a larger, five-acre area “for dogs that can be trusted to pay attention to their handlers,” Phillips said.
Henry Warchol, a long-time flood control member unhappy with the plan for a dog park, has said the area needs increased security, surveillance and fencing around the perimeter and fears that a dog park will increase public attention to the dam area.
“This dam holds water back from Wyben, Montgomery and part of Southampton,” he said.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik has voiced his support for a dog park, as well as city Engineer Mark S. Cressotti whose department has drawn-up plans for the park.
“The engineering office has come up with the design, I have filed the permits for the park and I am the liaison for the project with the mayor’s office and flood control,” Cressotti said.