The dog park days of summer
Acitizen-led project to bring an off-leash park to Lennoxville is picking up steam, with a growing number of local dog owners adding their voices to those calling for a safe and secure location to let their canine companions out for a run.
“What do you do with your dog if they need to run and there is no closed in area that is safe?” asked Lennoxville resident Ashley Boynton, pointing out that people who live in apartments or with small or un-fenced yards are very limited in their options when it comes to taking their dog out to play.
That in mind, Boynton said that
she was immediately interested when her neighbour Roy Patterson started to advocate for the creation of a dog park in the community in April. She got involved more directly in May and since that time an official organizing committee was formed and a Facebook group of more than 250 supporters has gathered around the idea.
“We sent in a petition and we’re just waiting to hear back from the town,” she said.
The City of Sherbrooke currently has three parks with designated offleash areas, but Boynton said that they are all at least 15 minutes’ drive from the borough and, from what she has heard, quite busy. She also contrasted
that number with the City of Montreal, which boasts more than 50 such parks.
“Roy is very optimistic,” she said. “I feel like maybe it’s not going to be as easy as we think.”
The Lennoxville Borough Council officially acknowledged receipt of the dog park committee’s petition during their July 6 meeting, but Borough President Claude Charron said that the matter is now in the hands of the city’s services to evaluate.
Even if the project is given approval, Charron said that implementation would have to happen through Lennoxville’s dedicated parks budget, which has already been accounted for this