'We're a very animal-friendly community': Fayetteville unveils 2 new dog parks

Calling all pups (and their owners).

There are two new dog parks in west and southwest Cumberland County.

Westover Dog Park opened at 267 Bonanza Drive near the recreation center last Saturday. This Saturday, the Bailey Lake Dog Park is scheduled to open at 6701 Bailey Lake Road next to Fire Station No. 17 in the Jack Britt school district.

The recreation department also operates Riverside Dog Park, which had been its only dog park, on Eastern Boulevard downtown.

“It gives people in the community another added qualify of life,” said Michael Gibson, director of Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation. “We’re a very animal-friendly community and having those dog parks in those areas gives people an opportunity to not have to travel to the other one we had.”

Lauryn Arriola, her daughter, Elloywn, 3, and their golden retriever, Honey, were enjoying the Westover Dog Park around noon on Tuesday. The sun was bright on a pleasant, cool day.

Arriola said she was at the dog park for the first time. She and her family live nearby — she has a son in kindergarten at Ponderosa Elementary School down the street from the park.

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She said she was impressed by how big it was and how it gave dogs space to roam. She said Honey — who was sprinting back and forth between mother and daughter — was having a good time.

“She loves it,” Arriola said of Honey, who was especially taken with a bright red fire hydrant.

Elloywn meanwhile was climbing in a tube, one of the park’s other features.

“You can see my daughter does, too,” Arriola said with a laugh. She said her daughter thought it was a kids’ park. “I love the amenities.”

Parking for the dog park is a gravel lot next to Westover Recreation Center. A path to the park stretches between the recreation center and ball fields. The rec department did not have many obvious options for parking since the dog park land abuts a retail shopping center to its east.

Arriola said the park was “hidden” and it was a bit of a walk to the park from the lot, but she did not mind too much.

But Honey, she said laughing, “was pulling me to death” to get to the park.

‘Let the dogs play’

Gibson said he had received a couple of calls from people critical of the long walk. He said it was part of an attitude

“You’re going to the park to walk and let the dogs play,” he said. “It’s just an attitude in this community they ought to be able to park right in front of where they want to be.”

The new dog parks are funded through the city of Fayetteville’s Greenspace Fund and General Fund, according to a news release earlier in 2021.

Gibson said each park is more than 2 acres, similar in size to Riverside Park. Construction took around six to seven months, a process that was drastically slowed by supply chain issues, Gibson said.

“We couldn’t get the material,” he said. “The fencing, anything that’s metal or steel, it took us an extra three to four months just because the supply chain was so bad.”

But in his view, the final results speak for themselves.

“It’s a great thing that the council agreed to add two more,” he said. “Just another quality of life.”

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville unveils 2 new dog parks: Westover and Bailey Lake