A new dog park will be coming soon to a dry location inside Burns Park, North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Director Terry Hartwick said.
The current dog park near the Arkansas River in Burns Park has closed because of the recent river flooding and a storm last week that downed trees there, also.
The dog park's location experiences flooding every time the river rises and even from prolonged rains, keeping the ground wet and muddy, requiring constant cleanup, Hartwick has said.
The Arkansas River reached a crest of 29.71 feet in the Little Rock area June 5. The dog park can flood at a river level of 18 feet, Hartwick said.
The latest flooding and storm prompted Hartwick to announce June 24 that he didn't plan to reopen the dog park, but to relocate it. He called cleanup of the dog park a "losing battle" because of how easily it floods.
"Right past the tennis center, and before you get to the softball complex, there's a big wooded area with shade trees that has a bathroom close by and there's ample parking," Hartwick said of the new site he's considering in Burns Park. "I can have one built and put in before we could ever get this [current] one cleaned up."
The dog park was among most areas of Burns Park that are south of Interstate 40 that flooded earlier this month and were closed for two weeks or longer. The proposed dog park site in Burns Park is north of the interstate, where fields and facilities remained dry and open.
Hartwick said he will ask for quotes from "three or four" different companies for estimates on fencing. The current dog park has fences that divide the park into three sections for small, medium and large dogs. The dog park opened in 2003.
Wanting a new site for the dog park has also prompted Hartwick to look at expanding to two other areas of North Little Rock, he said, instead of just being in Burns Park, which is off Interstate 40 on the west part of the city.
"There are three sites we're looking at, including the one we can do really fast at Burns Park," Hartwick said. "One will maybe be in the eastern city, then another one downtown. There are so many people who are living in apartments and condominiums downtown, living in all the new buildings downtown.
"So downtown, Burns Park and out on the east end of town," he said. "The one in Burns Park will be going in immediately."
NW News on 07/01/2019