Hyattsville begins plans for dog park

Facility could include pavilion for owners

Brentwood resident Jeffrey Clark said most dog owners usually want to take their dogs to parks to help them get exercise and become familiar with other animals.

‘‘It’s a way that dogs can be socialized to other dogs. With this [park] that’s being proposed, it would be the length of three or four yards all strung together,” he said. ‘‘It’s a way that they can get exercise and get social interaction with other dogs and a way that we can get social interaction with other dog owners.”

Ten years ago there was an interest in having a dog park in Hyattsville, but it never got traction, Navarra said.

‘‘Now we’ve been able to budget money for the project [to move forward],” she said.

Navarra said Park and Planning hopes to open the park by fall but the $100,000 for construction wasn’t budgeted into the Capital Improvement Plan until fiscal 2010, which begins July 1, 2009.

The money would cover construction of a 6-foot-tall fence around the entire park, a few trees, and stone dust for the entranceway to the park to fill in the spaces between gravel or paving stones.

But Brad Frome, an aide to County Councilman William Campos (D-Dist. 2) of Hyattsville, said they will work to get the money sooner.

About 15 residents met at the Hyattsville Municipal Building June 11 to discuss the dog park. Navarra said Park and Planning generally does not maintain dog parks and called for volunteers to organize some type of group to maintain it.

‘‘There’s also an insurance issue [that needs to be taken care of] with liability insurance,” Navarra said.

There is a similar group for the Acredale Community Park dog park in College Park where Park and Planning provided the land and the group, the College Park Dog Park Association, operates the park. The group has a $40 membership fee for the first dog and $30 for each additional dog to help cover maintenance fees.

Charlene Howard of Mount Rainier said she has been involved with the College Park dog park since it opened in 2002.

‘‘I was hoping that Park and Planning staff would fold dog parks into their system,” she said. ‘‘A lot of costs come up. I advocate that Park and Planning have a line item for basic maintenance.”

If they include the membership fee, Clark said it may keep some dog owners away and decrease the use of the park.

Navarra urged potential dog park users to write letters to Park and Planning detailing their concerns and asking for changes to be made.

‘‘What we want right now is to have something that has everything set up except for a water source...and to get people into the park as soon as possible,” Frome said.

E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.