West Stockbridge — Although the town’s Dog Park Committee has long maintained that its Stanton Foundation grant would pay for maintaining the 21 State Line Road facility’s first three years of operation, that financial source may have now fallen through.
The committee’s co-chairs, Michael Bolognino and Jana Sax, addressed the town’s Select Board in a Zoom-only special morning meeting on January 8, informing the dais that the Stanton Foundation’s promise of maintenance fees—in the amount of three percent of the park’s construction costs annually for the first three years of its operation—has been canceled.
A grant from the Foundation for up to $275,000 to fund most of the park’s design and all of its construction remains in place. A $25,000 grant from the West Stockbridge Community Preservation Act will go toward the remaining design costs as required by the Stanton Foundation, with that measure approved by citizens at the May 6 Town Meeting.
During the approval process, residents voiced concern over using tax dollars to either fund the 1.15-acre dog park or maintain it. Select Board Chair Andrew Potter reiterated that the town would not fund the project’s operating fees that are projected to amount to $10,000 to $12,000 annually.
According to Bolognino, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Friends of the West Stockbridge Dog Park, has been formally established to fund the park’s maintenance costs such as waste pickup and removal as well as mowing. Sax commented that the group intends to roll out fundraising events towards that goal, including an emergency fund for incidents not covered by insurance.
Select Board Chair Andrew Potter reiterated the understanding between the town and the committee that “the 501(c)(3) [nonprofit] is going to provide for upkeep and maintenance and the town is not going to be part of that.”
However, Sax questioned why the town wouldn’t be responsible for maintaining the dog park as it is for Card Pond and argued that both parks are similarly owned by the municipality. Additionally, she pointed out that town officials came to committee members to create a dog park after its Parks and Recreation Department survey showed that residents were interested in such a use for a municipality-owned tract. Bolognino said the department declined to pursue creating a dog park, leaving it in the hands of committee members who stepped up to the task of researching the project’s feasibility. “I guess I’m confused about why any kind of mowing or shoveling or maintenance of the park is still under our financial responsibility rather than [the West Stockbridge Department of] Public Works,” Sax said.
Potter responded that it was the group of citizens who were motivated to make a local dog park work. He differentiated Card Pond as being a town-owned facility managed by the Parks and Recreation Department and likened the dog park to the town’s Historical Society that has a nonprofit managing the group’s building “with the understanding that they would not come back to the town for more money to continue to maintain that facility.”
Bolognino said he believes that a dog park is “a really beneficial thing for the town” and, once built, will get significant use as a gathering place for citizens. “We are not asking the town for any new funding—our original commitment to fund the maintenance via funds raised by the Friends of the West Stockbridge Dog Park 501(c)(3) [nonprofit] still stands,” Bolognino stated in an email response to The Berkshire Edge asking for clarification. “The thing that has changed is that the Stanton Foundation won’t be offering capital grants for maintenance for the first three years after opening, as we had anticipated they would, because 2025 is the final year they are offering the dog park grant. This does not affect our design or construction grants.”
The Dog Park Committee must send its final design plan to the Stanton Foundation by February 1 for its approval. Once greenlighted, the project can be put out to the public for construction bids, which should happen by May.
The current site plan for the dog park can be found here.
Following an update on the progress of the dog park—that includes separate locked areas for small and large dogs, frost-resistant water fountains, and paths compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)—Bolognino, Sax, and Select Board members agreed to draft a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties detailing the responsibilities of the town and the committee, or its nonprofit organization, with an eye toward voting on the document at an upcoming meeting.
