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Tuesday, October 4, 2016
The dog days of summer may be behind us, but the demolition days of fall are in full swing — and today’s teardown may actually help usher in a new kind of “dog day” in Raleigh come February 2017.
That’s right: permits were issued last week for the demolition of a comfort station (government lingo for bathroom) and a picnic table at Jaycee Park in order to make way for a brand-new “dog run” area.
Jaycee Park
Well, technically, the demolition only covers the area designated as “small dog” run — the “big dog” area appears to be in an undeveloped section of the park. But either way.
We first reported on plans for this project back in April; in June, City Council approved the schematic design for both the Jaycee Park dog run and a full-fledged dog park at Buffaloe Road Park.
According to the permits issued on September 27, the City of Raleigh will be handling the $6,000 destruction of the 800 square-foot comfort station in-house, likely due to the small size of the project. The entire project cost for the dog park will come in at around $24,400, although that cost also includes a replacement comfort station & picnic area, as well as a new playground.
Downtown dog owners today have few options when it comes to places to play outdoors with their pets, and both Mayor Nancy McFarlane and several members of City Council, most notably Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin, have been pushing for dog parks for quite some time.
Of course, Jaycee Park, located at 2405 Wade Avenue, isn’t exactly downtown, but it’s close enough to Cameron Village and Hillsborough Street that it kinda, sorta counts.
The City currently estimates the Jaycee Park project — known officially as a “double run” because of the separate areas for large and small dogs — will be completed sometime around February of next year. We heard* a rumor that the initial plan was to build just a single run at Jaycee, but after Mayor McFarlane and Councilor Baldwin “double-dog dared” City staff to accommodate dogs of all sizes in a safe environment, the double run was born.
A path from the parking lot will lead to the two dog run areas, each of which will be enclosed by a gate. Not surprisingly, the big dog run area will be a bit larger than the small dog run area.
If, like us, you’re curious what the difference between a “dog run” and a “dog park” is, here’s the two best definitions we could find:
Dog Run (via WiseGeek): A dog run is either a private or public fenced off area in which a dog can be kept confined and get exercise.
Dog Park (via Wikipedia): A dog park is a park for dogs to exercise and play off-leash in a controlled environment under the supervision of their owners.
So really, it sounds like the only difference between a dog park and a dog run is size, but we’re probably wrong. Fortunately, we have several readers who enjoy correcting my many mistakes, so hopefully they’ll let us know in the comments if I’ve got that right or not.
Regardless, we’re excited that the City has made such rapid progress on this project, and we hope the park is completed in time to accommodate a meet-cute for some lonely-hearts forced to spend Valentine’s Day at the Jaycee Park dog run.
Visitors to Jaycee Park will no longer have to break their dogs’ hearts by leaving them home
*made up
