The creation of a dog park, a refurbished playground and a new trail system all took the first step toward fruition, after gaining initial approval from Selectmen Tuesday night.

Selectmen gave the town Open Space Committee approval to submit grant applications to the Community Preservation Committee for the three different recreation projects.

Any department seeking Community Preservation Act funding must go before Selectmen, the Finance Committee and the Community Preservation Committee to apply for funds. The projects will ultimately have to be approved by Town Meeting in order to take effect.

The state Community Preservation Act was adopted by Wareham voters in April 2002. The funds come from a 3 percent surcharge levied on residential property above the first $100,000 of assessed property. The state partially matches the locally-raised funds. That money must be used for historic preservation, affordable housing, preservation of open space or recreation.

Open Space Committee chairman Sandy Slavin spoke about all three projects at Tuesday's Selectmen meeting. The proposed location of the dog park and a small parking lot would be on one acre of cleared land at Minot Forest.

The second project is funding an engineering study to rebuild the Swifts Beach playground, which is on town property.

The third project would be to create a multi-use, handicap accessible trail system through the uplands at the Bryant Farm.

Slavin said no cost estimates were made on the projects, before clearing this first hurdle of approval. She said there would be no incremental cost to the town for maintenance of the projects. She said a nonprofit group, which has yet to be formed, would maintain the dog park, the Open Space Committee would maintain the new trail system, and Municipal Maintenance will continue to mow the playground area at Swifts Beach.

Each of these projects was included in one form or another in the playground and open space assessment plan done for the town last November. The assessment, conducted by BL Companies Engineering, suggested $80,000 of improvements at the Swifts Beach playground. This includes $25,000 for creating 15 additional parking spots, $25,000 to replace the chain link fence with a wooden rail fence, and $15,000 to renovate the dilapidated pavilion.

The plan, which is located on the town website under the Open Space Committee, also includes an assessment for a multi-use trail at Bryant Farm at $60,000, and a one acre dog park (also at Bryant Park, in the assessment plan) at $25,000. Slavin said the idea for the dog park at Bryant Farm had to be nixed, because of issues with wetlands.