If Selectmen Bless, Pilot Dog Park May Open in November

The American Legion function room filled with more than 150 people – mostly dog owners – as Dedham Parks and Recreation commissioners laid out their plan to push ahead with .

"We are trying to get a dog park this year. It could be as soon as November," said commissioner Chuck Dello Iacono.

Just last week, the Finance Committee took a bite out of the dog park passing at Special Town Meeting with a 4-3 vote not to support.

The commission, however, has shifted gears this week and will seek support from the Board of Selectmen to temporarily bypass Town Meeting. The plan calls for a temporary park to open on town-owned land at the on Common Street.

A town bylaw bans unleashed dogs on parkland, and a bylaw revision – which the seeks to do – would need approval from the state Attorney General’s office. That, commissioners say, would take at least three months – longer than the commission’s timeline to get the dog park off the ground.

Commissioners will appear in front of the Board of Selectmen next week seeking permission to use a vacant field at the Dolan Center as a pilot dog park.

"The test is to see the use of the facility and the cleanliness," Dello Iacono said. "Policing the grounds will really be up to [dog owners]."

A pilot program would show how many residents use the park and its success. It also would give the commissioners more tools in their arsenal when they have a second crack at passing an article, which could come at May's Annual Town Meeting, commission chair John Maida said.

While the pilot would last three months, Maida acknowledged they could extend their agreement with the Board of Selectmen if it proves successful.

Under a Parks and Recreation plan, an acre-sized dog park could be built at one of three locations, depending on community support: the town-owned Striar property, or .

"We need to keep this tax-dollar friendly. I don't want to spend tax dollars," Dello Iacono said. "We could build, at any one of those three properties, not a fully functional, but a functional, passive, off-leash dog park for between $10,000 and $15,000."

Dello Iacono pitched a yearly usage fee for dog owners to maintain an operating budget, and a five-person sub-committee to oversee the management of the park.

"We've been told this can't impact certain budgets negatively, so we are looking at every option," commissioner Dan Hart said.

As currently planned, each of the three proposed locations would be new construction and not take away from current space at either Fairbanks Park or Condon Park, commissioners said.

"Every location is in addition to [the parks]," Dello Iacono said. "We are not taking over a soccer field, baseball diamond or football field."

The commission still needs to settle on hour restrictions, cleaning and other rules for the park in order to satisfy neighbors who may oppose a park. 

"People are out trying to exercise their best friend. They're trying to excercise themsevles. We need a location where people can go to excercise with their friend," Dello Iacono said.