The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Dog park receives new equipment
The canine residents in Eastlake now have agility equipment to play on at the Eastlake Dog Park.
The dog park, located at 35576 Lakeshore Blvd., closed from July 16-18 for the installation of the new items.
The agility equipment which includes a jumping bar, rings and a barrel that the dogs can run, jump and climb on was obtained through the PetSafe Bark for your Park Grant.
Eastlake was one of only 25 cities nationwide selected to receive a grant award from the organization in 2017 and only one of 10 cities selected to be awarded $5,000 worth of commercial grade dog equipment.
The idea to apply for the grant came from a resident of the city who approached Mayor Dennis Morley several years ago with an advertisement on the grant. The city applied for it at that time but did not receive it. But the second year Eastlake was successful, according to Eastlake Assistant Finance Director Karen Kolk.
To qualify for the grant, the city had to supply dimensions of the park where the equipment was going and provide a summary providing some background on the city and why the city was in need of a good dog park along with support from the community.
Additionally they had to provide a summary on why they needed PetSafe’s assistance with funding for a dog park.
Kolk submitted a statement telling PetSafe about the war memorial for veteran dogs and about the Boulevard of Flags and other details about Eastlake that she thought may help the city stand out among the other applicants. She also told them about how the dog park uses social media with the Eastlake Dog Park Facebook page.
She also used the Facebook page to raise community support for the dog park by having dog owners post a photo of their dog using the slogan “Our pets need a safe place to play” and explain why their pets needed a safe place to place. They also used #thankyoupetsafe with the post to get the message to PetSafe.
Kolk explained in the application that Eastlake is city of almost 18,000 and there were 12,000 dog licenses sold in Lake County with a good portion of them being sold in Eastlake. She also noted that the city had just recently come out of a fiscal emergency and although the city was on the rebound financially they still needed assistance to improve the park.
Kolk who owns five dogs worked with the mayor who is a former dog owner to pick out the equipment for the park.
The city was notified in the fall about being awarded the grant which allowed them to go through and pick out the package they wanted for the park. They opted for the most popular package the company had.
According to Kolk, the package they originally picked was above the $5,000 grant awarded and they tried to mix and match pieces to come under that, but the people at PetSafe told them not to worry about it and sent $5,700 worth of agility equipment they had picked out at no additional cost.
The equipment arrived over the winter and was stored until weather permitted the installation of it.
The dog park has been in existence for a couple of years and is one of the first off-leash, fenced-in parks in the area.
Kolk believes the upgrades to the dog park were needed based on the amount of residents in the city that are dog lovers and have dogs. She feels the dogs need a safe place where they are contained to play.
“I am very happy with it.
I’m excited to see the dogs playing in it, and I’m excited to get down there with one of my dogs,” Kolk said. “People are really happy about it and they have already started posting pictures of their dogs playing there. I’m really happy about the way it turned out.”
Eastlake resident and dog owner Joe Lariccia is glad that the city is doing something with the park.
“It’s nice that they have something to play in now besides an open field,” Lariccia said.
Diane Walker of Eastlake lives in an apartment and feels the park is a great for her dog Yagger who likes to get out and play. Walker who takes Yagger to the park twice a day agreed with Lariccia and said she thinks it’s nice that they (the city) are doing a little more to fix it up.”
“People are really happy about it and they have already started posting pictures of their dogs playing there. I’m really happy about the way it turned out.”
— Eastlake Assistant Finance Director Karen Kolk