Work started on a new dog park in the City of Grande Prairie Tuesday. It will be built in South Bear Creek Park, west of the current dog park and north of the bike skills park.
Parks Supervisor Christine Chambul says the decision to build a second dog park in the area came from handfuls of requests from residents in the municipality.
“Ever since I started, tons of citizens have been requesting it saying, ‘we need a new dog park; we need a dog park or an area for small dogs.'”
The dog park will be fenced in with benches and garbage bins. Chambul says the space will have a section for small dogs and a section for all dogs to make it more user-friendly for pets of any size.
“A lot of people don’t bring their small dogs to the dog park… so it’ll be nice for those people to feel a bit more comfortable bringing their little dogs.”
Choosing the location of the park was not an easy task and took some time. Although there will be two dog parks in the same area, Chambul says this was the best area they could find.
“The piece of land that we selected was just an open field that wasn’t being utilized anyways, and it’s in proximity to parking… so that’s kind of why we chose that location.”
Chambul adds the city is going to continue to look for more locations to bring in another dog park in the future.
“It would be nice to have one in the north end or the west just to spread it out a bit more, but this was the best we could come up with for right now.”
The dog park is set to open to the public and pets later this month. The city also has two off-leash dog parks at 108 Street and 117 Avenue and in Crystal Ridge that are not fenced in.