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Date: 7/27/2022
EASTHAMPTON – During a meeting on July 20, the Easthampton Parks & Recreation Commission met to discuss the possibility of a dog park being built in Nonotuck Park.
Efforts to bring an off-leash dog park to the city were originally discussed back in 2018, 2019 and 2020, but talks were tabled after no viable location was discovered. Discussions around a dog park in Easthampton have returned, however, after a Facebook group called “Friends of the Easthampton Dog Park” was formed to fundraise and petition for a location. Currently, there are 200 members in the group and over 170 signatures in support of a dog park.
The president of the group, Joan Kurtz, presented a couple of different location ideas in Nonotuck Park to the Parks and Recreation Commission on July 20. “If you can have playgrounds in here, you can have a dog park,” said Kurtz, during the meeting.
The main suggested location by Kurtz was a densely wooded area diagonal to the pool and beyond the bathrooms that are adjacent to Pavilion 1. Kurtz argued that this was a safe and secure location with a lot of trees for shade. The dog park Facebook group based their suggested decision off several criteria including, environmental impacts, size, noise, vehicular and pedestrian access, adequate drainage, parking, minimal “spill-over,” space for park accessories, ADA compliancy, visibility, adjacent land use compatibility and site infrastructure. After considering those criteria, the group figure that this location would be most ideal. “This is a great space to have a dog park because there’s a lot of trees for shade,” said Kurtz.
According to Kurtz, the group does have a Stanton Foundation grant that provides up to $250,000, which includes labor, materials, and other “hard” construction costs. Berkshire Design is also working with the group on specific logistics that are environmentally friendly.
“We don’t want to knock down trees,” said Kurtz. “That whole area was chosen because it’s far enough away where it’s accessible but it’s not going to interfere with the pavilion or the playground.”
John Mason, the director of Parks and Recreation, said however that the suggested location features pink lady slipper flowers, which are protected by law in Massachusetts. “That area is covered in pink lady flowers,” said Mason. “There is a law in Massachusetts that limits picking them…so there is an environmental hurdle with that location.”
Mason said he can reach out to professional botanists as well as people at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife at the state level to learn more about the flowers.
“Based on this criteria, it seems very difficult to find a site for a dog park,” said Paul St. Pierre, the chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission. “I do remember during the conversations we had before, there was a lot of pushback with other sites … and frankly I think some of that was misguided. This perception that this is going to be a huge, loud dog park is just crazy to me.”
City Councilor Owen Zaret, who has been working on this project since 2018, commended the work the dog park group has been doing to get to this point and summarized the trial and error with other potential sites prior to officially landing on this one.
“I want to thank the Parks and Recreation Commission for taking this up,” said Zaret. “Now, we can actually discuss this. I think the site is interesting, and I think there’s a potential for collaboration to look at other sites in the city.”
Talks surrounding this issue will continue into the coming weeks. “I am optimistic that we will find something,” said St. Pierre.