Committee identifies 3 locations for potential Wareham dog park

Sep 30, 2016

Since they started meeting in June, members of the town’s Dog Park Study Committee have made serious progress in identifying locations for an off leash park where canines can run free.

Committee members have ranked three locations based on preference, which was whittled from an initial list of seven sites. All of the properties are currently owned by the town.

Without giving the exact addresses of the areas, members said the sites are on Charge Pond Road, Onset Avenue and Tihonet Road.

Trenton Blanchard said the committee is studying the feasibility of the different sites and had preliminary work to do before the exact locations would be disclosed publicly.

At October’s Town Meeting, the committee will present a report of its activities over the past few months and give an update on future activities.

The dog park is being spearheaded by members of DPAW (Dog Park Affiliation of Wareham) who started the effort in 2015.

Initially, the group hoped to open a park at Minot Forest with $100,000 in Community Preservation Act funds. At April’s Town Meeting, the group withdrew its request after issues regarding safety, liability and maintenance were raised.

In the wake of the meeting, the five-person Dog Park Study Committee was formed to study the issue.

In addition to finding dog park locations, committee members requested information from 10 Massachusetts cities and towns that opened dog parks.

Of those 10, the committee received responses from three: Provincetown, Mashpee and Falmouth.

Those towns provided background on how dog parks were opened, including information on insurance and other potential hurdles.

The committee will continue to seek information from towns with dog parks to help plan Wareham's park.