Glencoe receives $20K grant for new dog park

Dog owners in Glencoe will soon have a place for people and their pets to enjoy outdoor activities.

The city recently announced that it had received a $20,000 Smalltown USA grant to construct a dog park. The target date for completion, weather permitting, is June 1, according to council member Jeff Little.

It will be initially located on a couple of city-owned acres just across the bridge from Wilson Park, where there are youth baseball and softball fields, a youth soccer field, lighted basketball and tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, a splash pad, pavilions for party rental and playground equipment.

However, Little said plans are already being formulated for a potential expansion.

Little said the city made the decision a few years ago to, for the first time as far as he knows, hire a grant writer, Lana Bellew.

“We're trying to bring new stuff to Glencoe and Lana has been wonderful in helping us get a lot of grants,” he said.

Little said Mayor Chris Hare had designated him to serve as the liaison with Bellew on grants, and that she'd contacted him late last year about the opportunity for the dog park.

He described himself as a “big dog lover,” and noted that if people try to walk their dogs on the city's walking track, it can potentially cause situations with the dogs wanting to lick children who pass by.

“I told Lana, 'That sounds awesome, let's do it,'” Little said. “I ran it by the mayor and the rest of the council and they were positive on it.”

So the grant application was submitted; Bellew later notified him that Glencoe had made the cut and then that it had gotten the money.

Little described the location chosen for the park as “beautiful,” and said work there has already started.

“We've got the first part of it cleared out,” he said. “Now, we've got to go in and identify which trees we want to keep and which ones we want to have cut down and the stumps removed. The (recent) rain has not been our friend, though.”

As for what the park will offer once done, Little said he and Bellew are looking at different ideas, with an eye on more potential grant money.

“We're looking at other dog parks throughout Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, to see what they have that works,” he said. “There's no need to reinvent the wheel.”

Preliminary plans include benches, an obstacle course for dogs, watering and shade stations and, of course, cleanup bags for poop.

The park will also be enclosed by a 6-foot fence to discourage any canine jumpers.

Little said the city is now looking at clearing more land to expand the park past Phase 1. He said local residents have shared ideas, such as separate areas for small and large dogs.

He said it's also just “one piece of the puzzle” in trying to upgrade the city's parks as a whole, noting that Bellew and council member Cody Rampey, who supervises parks and recreation, are collaborating on grants for potential new park equipment, including handicap accessible equipment which he said “is needed.”

The goal, Little said, is to make Glencoe “a viable location.”

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: New dog park planned to open this summer in Glencoe