Council agrees to give land for Tiverton dog park

TIVERTON — The Town Council agreed Monday to donate some town land for a dog park.

The land is behind the Crandall Road fire station and just south of the Tiverton Public Library parking lot off Roosevelt Way.

Councilman Joseph Perry, who is the council liaison to the committee that is planning the Ray Jones Memorial Dog Park, said the parcel is 2.1 acres, but just 1.25 acres would be used for the park so there will be a treed buffer around it.

The dog park planning committee, co-chaired by Barbara Pelletier and David Paull, hopes to meet with the Library Board of Trustees soon to discuss where the entrance to the dog park should be.

Plans for a dog park were discussed in earnest following the April, 2019, death of Raymond Jones who was the town’s beloved dog officer for 20 years, until 2006.

“We’ve been trying to do this since last April,” Perry told the council. “I’m afraid people are losing interest.”

The vote to donate the land that is part of the fire station property was unanimous.

“This is the big first step,” Perry said Tuesday.

Over $2,500 has already been donated for the park, said Pelletier who made the first donation last year in the name of a dog adoption program called Placing Paws. When Pelletier started Placing Paws 20 years ago one of the objectives was to have a dog park, she said.

“Even though Tiverton is rural there are not many places dogs can be off leash,” Pelletier said.

Years ago she had hoped to have land near the Park and Ride on Fish Road donated for a dog park but it was determined it was too swampy and too complicated to get sign-offs for it.

“I’m amazed,” Pelletier said of the council’s vote. “It’s in the works and that’s a good thing.”

A plan for the park now has to be formulated and reviewed by the Town Council, said Town Council President Patricia Hilton.

Maintenance of the park will not be up to the town, said Perry. “The Department of Public Works has enough on its plate,” he said.

Hilton said the intent is to have a volunteer committee maintain it.

Fencing for the park could cost between $12,000 and $15,000, Pelletier said, so more monetary donations will be needed, but many other aspects of the park construction, including labor and equipment, could be donated by businesses and residents.