A dog park is longed for by many Ellwood and surrounding area residents, including a woman named Ashley Fisher, a resident of North Sewickley, who decided it’s time to initiate a change.
Fisher started a petition last week, called “Let’s build a Dog Park!” on The Petition Site, which already has nearly 100 signatures. The end goal is to have 1,000 signatures before being presented to council.
“I would love a place to socialize with other dog lovers while my dog is having some supervised fun off leash,” Fisher, who owns a three year old Goldendoodle named Winston, stated.
She believes there are many positive outcomes to having a community dog park including a safe place for dogs to play and for dog owners to socialize with one another, it promotes a dog friendly community and increases the livability for residents with small yards, and it allows those that are handicapped or senior citizens who are unable to walk their dog a place to exercise them.
“A well exercised dog is a well behaved dog,” Fisher says. Photo by Cassandra Douglas/Ellwoodcity.org
“A well exercised dog is a well behaved dog,” she said.
The addition of a dog park isn’t a newly proposed idea, according to Borough Manager Robert Villella.
“There has been discussion in the past about adding a dog park to the area, but nothing materialized because we haven’t been able to secure an appropriate location or maintenance crew,” Villella stated and added that another issue could be liability. “It’s not something that we are ruling out, however, and if enough people show interest in it then council would again discuss the possibilities of adding one.”
While Fisher hopes to see a dog park added to Ewing Park, she is not opposed to the park placement in another surrounding community like Franklin Township or North Sewickley.
“In Ewing Park people already come and walk their dogs, it would be wonderful if after a brief dog walk the dog can be brought to a dog park nearby to play fetch or just run around. Communities are trending towards developing to be more dog friendly. Just look around us, New Castle, Cranberry and Brady’s Run communities all have dog parks. Why not Ellwood City? I do not object to a dog park in Franklin Twp or North Sewickley, anywhere would be a victory in my eyes, I just feel the Ewing Park area is more central to the population with a dog community already around it,” Fisher said.
To sign the petition, click here.
Tell us what you think about a dog park addition to Ellwood City! If you like the idea, where would you like to see one placed, and if you don’t like the idea, why?
Like the idea of a dog park. A penned in section for larger breeds with a section for smaller breeds right next to it sharing a divider / security fence. 100 x 50 yards each would be awesome. Ewing Park or Merit Book would be ideal locations