Paws in the dirt: Lebanon city officials break ground on new dog park project

Despite the wind and rains, community and political leaders came out to Coleman Memorial Park April 7 for the groundbreaking of Lebanon County’s first dog park.

The estimated $267,000 project will be built on the site of the former Gingrich Memorial Pool and will feature two areas, one for large dogs and one for smaller dogs. Officials are hoping to have construction completed by the end of June at the earliest, but some said it could take till the end of summer 2025.

Lebanon City Mayor Sherry Capello said officials put out surveys to residents about what they wanted to see incorporated into the city, and the overwhelming response was a dog park.

“You need to have an area that has a lot of open area to the sun, because you don’t want it to get muddy from all the dogs running back and forth if it’s in a totally shaded space,” she said. “So based on that, and the amount of room that we needed so that we could have large dogs and small dogs, and have a nice area for them to run, this was the location where it needed to go.”

The project received a $102,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and more than $175,000 in American Rescue Plan funding, according to Capello. City officials are also using capital reserve funds budgeted for the site.

Designed by YSM Landscape Architects, who are based out of York, the park will include shade trees and benches for residents who visit. Access to the entrance will include the original steps in Coleman Memorial Park, along with a new ramp from the road.

“It will be fully fenced, (and) there will be controlled gates to get in and out,” Ann Yost, president of YSM Landscape Architects, said. “So you go into a little gated area, take the dog off the leash, open the next gate and your dog enters the dog park. They can spend a lot of time there.”

Construction for the park will include wiring for electricity and WIFI for an access control device and lighting, handicap accessibility for residents and plumbing to create areas where dogs can get water. The park will also have a rock buffer to keep out weeds, along with containers and bags for waste.

The bid packaged did not include the cost of an access control device for the new park, according to Capello. The city is hosting a capital fundraising campaign for the cost of the access control device and possible additional play structures.

“Eventually we’d like to try and get some money built up that we can put some structures in there for the dogs to play with,” she said. “We don’t have those proposed in the park immediately, but we would like to add those in another phase of the park.”

The bicycle playground and the former community pool site in Coleman Memorial Park are owned by the city. Capello said officials are looking to cover general maintenance through the city’s general fund budget.

“We’re also looking to charge a minimal fee, more of an administrative fee, because we want to verify that the dogs have their vaccines,” she said. “We will be charging a small administrative fee just to kind of cover the cost of someone handling that paperwork and checking those records.”

Capello added officials have not finalized what the fee will be, but it would be approved by city council before it could be implemented. Mount Joy, which Lebanon City officials used as a template for their proposed dog park, charges a $50 per year for one dog to be registered to use their dog park, with a $25 fee per year for each individual dog.

Residents looking to contribute to the capital reserve fund for the dog park can contact Janelle Groh at jgroh@lebanonpa.org for more information.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.

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