New park going to the dogs

There has been talk of building an off-leash dog park in the Sandpoint area for some time, so when the Panhandle Animal Shelter and city of Ponderay partnered up to construct a park next to the shelter, the community jumped on board.

They took the project and made it their own, with more than 50 organizations, construction companies and suppliers among others who have contributed to the park, which is slated to open in June.

“The people that come together, it’s just amazing,” said Ponderay Mayor Steve Geiger. “There are a lot of people who want to help … that’s what I see from our community. We have a lot of great businesses and a lot of stuff happens because of them.”

No one has put in as much effort, however, as the project manager for the park, Steve Nybank. With nearly 2,000 hours and about 3,000 miles in on the project, Nybank has studied parks across the country and boiled it down to every detail, right down to the types of nuts and bolts.

“So when you look at this from the perspective of a community project, you have established organizations like ours and the city,” said PAS executive director Mandy Evans. “But this is a community member who has really taken this project and brought it through to fruition … and all of his efforts have been just to give the community a dog park.”

In surveying about 30 parks, and speaking with managers of nearly as many more, Nybank discovered things those parks would do differently if they had it to do over. This, he said, gave him some good insight to “do it right the first time.”

The 1.8-acre lot adjacent to the animal shelter is the perfect location, he said, because it is in a community where there is a lot of walking traffic and there a lot of working people who need a place to take their dogs when they get home.

“That part of the demographic is growing so rapidly in high-density homes in the Ponderay area and then kind of on the north side of Sandpoint, it was just a perfect fit,” Nybank said.

The parcel also has a hill, which Nybank said will remain there for sound protection from the barking dogs. In talking with residents, however, Nybank said everyone has been very supportive of the park.

The dog park will have a separate area for large dogs and small dogs, with separate entrances and an additional exit gate for the large dogs. That way the tired pups won’t meet a fresh, excited dog just coming in and wanting to play. An old hydrant that was donated to PAS will serve as a “welcome post,” where Nybank said they can lift their legs if they so choose, before entering the park.

Visitors will then enter under a large gazebo with steel columns. While the cost for eight posts was about $4,700, Nybank said they will be indestructible.

The surface of the park will be quarter-inch to three-eighths pea gravel, which Nybank said will come from the Spokane aquifer. Cloth will go underneath the four inches of gravel, keeping the park dust free, he said. In addition, Nybank said the sunlight will help cook bacteria off the gravel, keeping pathogen levels low.

The benches and trash cans are the same style as the cities of Ponderay and Sandpoint existing features, in the color of blue consistent with Ponderay. They will be powder-coated to prevent rusting as well. Nybank said the benches will be designed so that little dogs can not get their paws stuck between the metal slats, and the big dogs won’t get their claws stuck.

“It really became quite a process coming up with the right bench,” Nybank said. “They are super designed from the standpoint they can’t hurt an animal, and a child wouldn’t get hurt on them either,”

The two water fountains will also be blue, and will not only have a sensor to fill up the dog bowl at the bottom, they will also be ADA compliant. In fact, the park will be one of the only fully ADA compliant dog parks in the country with four-foot wide gates, and five-foot wide concrete paths. The concrete has to be a certain slope, width and surface for ADA compliance, he said.

“I am very much in believing that it’s not just you and I who are healthy that can run around with our dogs, but what about elderly people who are immunocompromised, what about people in wheelchairs or walkers,” he said.

The dogs will not only be able to roam and socialize, but there will be agility and activity equipment inside the park as well. In addition to the benches, granite boulders from the Dover area will make up seating walls on the hill, located on the north side of the park.

There will be three “beautiful” maple trees in the yard, Nybank said, though they will not be full grown for a few years yet. Nybank researched trees, working with Jared Yost, an urban forester with the city of Sandpoint, to determine what would be the perfect tree for the park. The leaves couldn’t have sharp tips, he said, because then they get caught up in the rock and can not easily be removed. They also could not drop seeds or sap. He ultimately found the three red maples in Bonners Ferry. As they need to be watered for the first three years, he said, the watering system, donated by the Co-Op Country Store, will be underground.

In addition, security lighting will be installed on the gazebo, and Avista is installing three street lights around the park. The park will also have electricity, and Nybank said that bands will be brought in once a month over the summer to play music and raise money for the shelter.

The fence around the park will be a commercial-grade black vinyl that will feature several steel silhouette’s of people and their pets. The silhouettes are being done by Sandpoint High School welding students, who are using the school’s new CNC machine to cut the steel. They will then be sent off to Top Dawg Powder Coating before installation on the fence.

A trail system will go around the perimeter of the fence to allow socialization for dogs who aren’t quite ready to be off-leash inside the park. The trail system will also tie the dog park to McNearney Park.

“I always thought it would be a great connection with Kootenai Cutoff and the park right next to it,” Geiger said. “It’s just going to be a great use, being able to drive by and see this nice facility and folk out there with their animals.”

Evans said the park will add a lot of value to the shelter as well, because for people to have a proper outlet for their pups reduces the chance that an animal will be surrendered.

“Thirty minutes of play is like a two-hour walk, and who in this day and age that works has time to go release two-hours of energy for their dog, when you can go to a dog park for a brief amount of time and allow the dog to get out and play,” Evans said.

Construction on the project will begin as soon as the snow melts, and two grand openings will be held in June.

— one for the donors and one for the public. By the park is finished, Nybank estimates the improvements will have cost just under $200,000. By the time the project is complete, it will be worth approximately $600,000, he said. Earlier in the month, Nybank said they were within $20,000 of meeting their fundraising goal for the project.

“It has just been amazing what this community has done,” he said.