The Kenai City Council will consider at its Jan. 5 meeting whether or not to award $63,000 for ongoing efforts to put a dog park in Kenai. The funds would build on a previous city investment of $25,000 in the project and assist with design and construction needs, per the legislation up for consideration.
Efforts to create a dog park, which will be located at Daubenspeck Family Park in Kenai, have been underway for years and have mostly been driven by volunteer labor and financial donations. The project has benefited from about $60,000 in in-kind contributions including the clearing of land, participation in Kenai’s Fourth of July parade and removal of tree stumps.
Park organizers told city council members during an Oct. 6 meeting that the expected completion date of the park was pushed back from spring to summer of 2022 due to construction delays.
Crystal Locke, who said she was speaking as a member of a committee organized around the dog park, told the Kenai City Council during its Nov. 3 meeting that about $56,000 is still needed for the park. The group of people currently spearheading the park efforts, Locke said, is different from the group that got the ball rolling.
“Many that started that and made promises and things to pretty much fund the entire park through volunteerism and fundraising and things like that — that committee dissolved and left the park just kind of hanging out there without being completed and nobody to take the helm,” Locke said.
The Kenai City Council first gave the park a green light in 2018 after community members voiced their support. The council voted earlier this year to grant $25,000 for fencing as part of the city’s fiscal year 2022 budget from a special city fund. That fund was made possible by Harold and Rita Daubenspeck, who donated land — including the subsurface mineral rights — to the city in the 1980s with the understanding that resulting profits would be used for “athletic programs” sponsored by the city.
Locke said during the council’s Nov. 3 meeting that the money appropriated earlier this year was used to purchase fencing, but other things have come up that were not included in the original project budget. It’s also been determined that the 4-foot-tall fence is not going to be high enough to accommodate large dogs.
“We have discovered that our 4-foot fence is not going to be sufficient,” Locke said. “Granted, large dogs jump higher, but it’s actually because of the snow buildup that we’re going to need a 6-foot fence instead of a 4-foot fence.”
Kenai Vice Mayor Jim Glendening and council members Teea Winger and James Baisden, who are sponsoring the legislation that would give the park an additional $63,000, wrote in a Dec. 9 memo to the council that the additional funding will help support “design and construction needs” for the park and that community fundraising efforts are ongoing.
“To ensure the project is built to the desired standards, it is important for the City to continue working forward with the volunteers to assist in its completion, including managing some of the more complicated aspects of the project,” the memo says. “Completion of the park will provide new recreational opportunities for residents and visitors.”
According to the legislation, volunteers requested assistance from the city to help complete some “complicated construction aspects” of the project, such as lighting, water supply, security, sidewalks that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and concrete work.
“Despite the prior appropriation and fundraising efforts, additional funds are needed to complete the project,” the legislation says. “ … The dog park will be the first of its kind in the City and provide new recreational opportunities for residents and visitors.”
The council approved the introduction of legislation during its Dec. 15 meeting. The funds will be up for a public hearing and final vote during the council’s Jan. 5 meeting.
Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.
