Norwich mulls creation of town dog park

NORWICH — The town is considering a fenced-in dog park at Huntley Meadows in anticipation of a new animal control ordinance that would require dogs to be leashed at the popular recreation area.

At its Tuesday meeting, the town’s Recreation Council solicited feedback from community members on the tentative plan to cordon off a dog park at Huntley Meadows.

“We don’t want to say, ‘No, you can’t bring your dog here,’ without other options,” Brie Swenson, Norwich’s recreation director, said at the meeting.

Last month, about two dozen people attended a Selectboard meeting to voice their opposition to the proposed animal control ordinance, which would further restrict where dogs can roam free in town.

The proposal would require dogs to be leashed on at the Gile Mountain trail, Milton Frye Nature Area, part of the Blue Ribbon Connector Trail and the base of Ballard Trail, where the former town pool was located.

Most controversially, the ordinance would also require owners to leash their dogs at Huntley Meadows, where many bring their pets to run free, and completely ban dogs from Huntley’s marked playing fields when sports are in season.

The development of the ordinance was spurred by a number of incidents in recent years where dogs have created a nuisance at  Huntley Meadows and elsewhere.

Dogs have “violently knocke  d over” children, killed poultry and bitten several people, including one   as recently as this past weekend, Swenson said.

“I appreciate th e ordinance,” Jess Eakin, who lives next to Huntley Meadows, said at the meeting. “This seems like a nice compromise for use of these fields.”

Eakin had four chickens that were killed by a dog named Ruby in an infamous incident in 2021 that resulted in a police investigation.

The recreation department is proposing two size options for the dog park. The smaller of the two calls for 0.4-acre enclosure in the middle of Huntley Meadows. The larger option would be 1.3 acres, which could potentially grow to 2.8-acres if extended into the woods beyond the full soccer field. For comparison, the nearest dog park to Norwich, Watson Upper Valley Dog Park on Maple Street in White River Junction is roughly 2 acres, while the dog park at Elizabeth’s Park in Bradford is about a little less than half an acre.

Some dog owners voiced opposition to the concept of a dog park all together.

“A fenced-in dog park is not going to solve problems, it’s going to create more problems,” Marina Brennan said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I’m not sure why we would entertain the idea of a fenced-in dog park when it’s not good for dogs.”

Brennan said putting dogs into a fenced-in space leads to fights and disease transmission.

“Many people who regularly bring their dogs to fenced-in dog parks have dogs who can’t be trusted off-leash,” Brennan said.

Resident Andy Robinson was initially skeptical, but the size of the proposals persuaded him.

“This would just be gigantic, which I see as a good thing,” Robinson said.

Boy Scout Andy Feng, 14, has offered to build the park as his Eagle Scout project. 

“I met with Brie Swenson and she came up with a few projects and the dog park was the one I was interested in,” Feng, who lives in Hanover and has a Bernedoodle named Frankie, said in a Wednesday phone interview.

Because Feng and the rest of Troop 253 have volunteered to construct the park, the cost to the town would be minimal, town officials said. Once created, the recreation department would be responsible for the park’s upkeep.

When Town Manager Brennan Duffy asked the crowd whether they liked option one or two better, Recreation Council member Sohier Perry suggested that it would be premature to decide now.

“Before we decide there’s a need for a dog park and we jump on this, do we see what the ordinance does and then go from there?” Perry said.

No decisions about the dog park were made at the meeting.

If approved, Duffy said, he’d like to get the park completed over the summer.

The Selectboard is scheduled to meet next Wednesday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. in Tracy Hall and on Zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89116638939.

Although the agenda is not finalized, the board expects to discuss and possibly adopt a revised animal control ordinance at the meeting, board Chairwoman Mary Layton said.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.