MacArthur Park is about to go to the dogs.
Starting Saturday, a more than 2-acre dog park on the southeast corner of MacArthur Park will open its gates to dogs and their owners.
The canine park has been in the works for almost a year. It was made possible through $65,000 in city funding and about $40,000 in donations from residents.
“As more and more people are living downtown, there’s a need for a dog park,” said Sharon Priest, president of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership. “We just felt … particularly with a high-rise, the more of those there are and the more people there are, the greater the need is for park space, green space … and dog parks.”
The MacArthur Unleashed Dog Park is the second full-sized, fenced-in, off-leash dog park in Little Rock’s public parks system. The other dog park is in Murray Park, off Rebsamen Park Road.
The MacArthur Park Work Group, which has been developing a larger master plan for the park, began pe-titioning early last year for the city to set aside money from the infrastructure portion of the citywide sales tax increase approved by voters in 2011. That three-eighths of a percent portion of the tax will expire in 2021, and MacArthur Park as a whole is to get about $500,000 from the tax revenue for renovations and improvements.
The park group conducted surveys and held meetings to prioritize features for the dog park. While the group was able to pay for a lot of things on its wish list through donations and fundraising efforts, Priest said there’s still more to come.
Now included are painted hydrants, a splash pad, water fountains, LED lighting for after-work visits, a paved walkway for muddy or rainy conditions, and a separate area for smaller dogs. Some of the water features may not be installed by Saturday, Priest said, but they will be finished by the time warmer weather rolls around.
The group is also still raising money to install an emergency-call phone and a shade structure.
“The western side of the park has all of these wonderful older trees,” said volunteer and MacArthur Park Work Group member Keith Canfield. “The eastern side is pretty open. We figured especially for those really hot summer days, it would be a good idea to have a shade structure for people and for dogs. So hopefully that will be next.”
Canfield lived in the River Market District when he first started helping with the plans for the dog park. Earlier this year, he moved with his family - including their two dogs, a Dachshund named Milo and a Weimaraner named Katie - to an area a few blocks from MacArthur Park.
“The way the park was designed is really great,” he said. “Someone told me that Leland Couch [a park designer and planner for the city of Little Rock] wanted the park to look like a dog with a ball in its mouth if you were to see it from above on Google Earth. I think that’s really neat. And in an abstract kind of way, it really does look like that.”
“And, there’s going to be a spray pad; How can you not be exited by that?” he added.
Canfield said there are other green-space areas in his neighborhood, but none has a spot dedicated to dogs or the kinds of protections that an off-leash dog park can provide. The group plans to continue fundraising, including holding a crawfish boil in early April, to help pay for additional features and maintenance costs.
The park will have posted rules, and on the first day, volunteers will stand guard to ensure that all dogs have licenses and rabies vaccinations. The park will also require owners to have leashes handy at all times.
Volunteers are expecting a large first-day turnout. The park group partnered with Angel’s Care Animal Rescue to hold its annual doggie Easter egg hunt that day, too.
The animal rescue group normally holds the event at Reservoir Park because the craggy, forested terrain there helps in hiding more than 5,000 eggs stuffed with dog treats and tickets for small prizes for four-legged friends. But Reservoir Park suffered too much damage from the Christmas Day winter storm to hold the hunt there this year, said Angel’s Care President Pamela Galloway.
This year, the group will be scattering the eggs at MacArthur Park and hoping for sunshine Saturday. If it does not rain, the group will be out bright and early, registering dogs from noon until about 1 p.m., when the hunt is scheduled to start.
The group invites pet owners to dress their dogs in their Easter best and suggests a $10 donation to cover the cost of a dog-treat bag and the prizes. Galloway said the group welcomes children to watch, but the eggs will contain only treats for dogs.
If it rains Saturday, Galloway said, the group will hold the hunt on April 13 during the same time frame.
Organizers for the dog park opening said that as of Thursday, the dedication and opening will go on as planned Saturday regardless of the weather. A small dedication ceremony will be held about 12:40 p.m. Saturday, and the gates will swing open shortly after.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/29/2013