AMHERST – The Amherst Dog Park Task Force met on Oct. 26 to go over the status of the construction of the new park. The charge by this task force for the new Dog Park has been to shepherd the process of establishing one or more dog parks in Amherst. It involved studying possible locations, determine the physical aspects of the park, determine the funding needs and sources for the construction and go to the town manager for approval.

Now the new park is under construction on 1.5 acres of town-owned property along the southwest side of Old Belchertown Road, off Route 9. According to David Ziomek, director of Conservation and Development on the project and assistant town manager, hopes are to have construction wrap up by the end of November with an actual opening of the park not coming until next spring.

“A lot of progress has been made after not very much,” Ziomek said on his most recent visit to the site. “Our town engineer Jason Skeels has been fantastic. We are trying to get everything done before winter with the exception of growing grass.”

While great work has been done to accelerate the completion of this project, there was an initial challenge of building the park above a landfill cap. Capping of a landfill involves placing a cover over contaminated material such as landfill waste or contaminated soil. The point is to isolate these contaminates and keep them in place to avoid contamination of any sort. Ziomek went to greater detail on what they were dealing with.

“Six weeks ago, the site was not draining well. All the rain caused water to pool underground and would not let the fill dry out. You can’t put concrete on fill that hasn’t settled or dried out,” Ziomek said.

In order to build above a landfill cap, the town needed Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection approval which they received. The cap also impacted another part of construction, as it stretches out further than anticipated toward the road next to the dog park.

“The cap goes way further out to the road than we thought. Because it goes that far out, you can’t pierce it with fencing,” Ziomek said to his fellow task force members. “Those two things threw a monkey wrench in our plans this summer.”

But now at this point, fencing is in, irrigation is in, and concrete is expected to go in fairly quickly following the flooding issues.

Still, the park will most likely be looking at an official spring opening as with winter coming, they cannot grow grass for the park yet and still need to decide on the installation of kiosks and signs for the park. According to chair of the task force, Jim Pistrang, they are currently preparing an order for a new eight-panel kiosk that will provide community notices, information on the founders of Amherst Dog Park, sponsorship information, and a history of the space section and possible background on the landfill below the park.

Park construction will cost an estimated $347,000 and two-thirds of this expense had already been secured thanks to generous grants from the Stanton Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the development of enclosed dog parks in Massachusetts.

On the Amherst Dog Park website, they are promoting a Amherst Dog Park Founders Campaign to raise the remaining costs of the park. This money has already gone toward parts of the project such as benches and other structures of the small and large dog portions of the park, but they are still seeking donations to help cover a large shade structure, fountains, and more benches as well as any other touch ups for the completion of the park.

You can find all the ways to donate on their site.