Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@shawanoleader.com
The possibility of having a dog park somewhere in the Shawano area could be rekindled after the issue came up during a joint meeting this week between city and county officials.
Sandy Steinke, who sits on both the Common Council and the County Board, brought up the issue during a presentation on the city park system. She noted that the issue was brought to the county previously, but the board rejected a recommendation to set up a dog park at a clay borrow site near Belle Plaine.
“That is something that I think a lot of people in the city would like to see — a small dog park — but it’d be huge,” Steinke said.
There are more than 25 parks within the city limits, but signs on all the park fences state dogs may not enter.
Matt Hendricks, city park and recreation director, noted that the city recently put up plastic bag stations along the Mountain Bay Trail, as that is the only outdoor rec area maintained by the city where dogs are not forbidden.
Hendricks pointed out that more municipalities are setting space aside for dog parks.
“There are a couple of things about dog parks that are nicer than the standard park,” Hendricks said. “For one, it’s fairly common to charge a user fee, although you’re not going to recoup 100 percent of your initial cost up front. You generally don’t need a huge area. Five to 10 or 12 acres is usually sufficient.”
Hendricks noted the city, if it were to develop a dog park, could set up a user fee that could be tacked onto the annual dog licenses that the city requires. That money could be applied to park maintenance, he said.
Setting up fencing and signs would be a cost, but the area would likely be grass free, so park staff would not have to mow the area, Hendricks said.
Hendricks suggested a park area near the landfill in Shawano, noting it was far enough away from city residents and could be accessed by vehicles. Pitfalls, however, are that dog owners could not easily walk to the area, and much of the land is cedar swamp.
“This would be a great project for us to work on (with the county), because people from the county would probably use it, too,” Hendricks said. “I would expect the usage to be greater than just the people who live in the city limits.”
Supervisor Deb Noffke noted that the group that had brought the dog park issue to the county in 2012 was enthusiastic, but much of the expense of creating the park would have rested on the county.