News --- Dogs granted 3 acres to run in Hines Park

By Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News

Dogs granted 3 acres to run in Hines Park
Facility opened Saturday, October 23

Shelly Andrews, with Sheyenne, helped organize the dog park.

The dog park at Hines Park had a grand opening Saturday, October 23, 2004. The park is set to be inside the 3-acre Hawthorne Ridge area of the park in Westland.

WESTLAND - The long-awaited dog park at Hines Park is set to open Saturday, making it the first such facility in Wayne County.

The park is designed to be a place where dogs can run off their leash and play with other dogs. It is set to be in the 3-acre Hawthorne Ridge area of Hines Park in Westland. A dog group had originally planned the site for the Wallaceville area in Dearborn Heights.

"There's a demand for it in this area," said Bethelyn Mabry, spokeswoman for Wayne County Parks. "We have a lot of people who are dog owners. It's a nice amenity to have. People who work can't always take a dog for a walk. It's more effective than a walk because they burn a lot of energy."

At the 3-acre park, there will be an area for larger dogs and an area for small and timid dogs. About 50 people have registered their dogs for the park, officials said.

After paying a $5 fee, park users will be issued a key to enter. There will be no admittance charge. The Dog Owners Group, a local nonprofit group promoting dog ownership, will host cleanup days to maintain the park.

The Dog Owners Group (D.O.G.) raised more than $10,000 to pay for additional fencing and other materials needed to construct the dog park. By July, the group had raised $11,000. Additional funding is needed to build some benches and a rain shelter for dog owners, officials said.

The Dog Owners Group originally had planned to put the park in the Dearborn Heights portion of Hines Park. Wayne County parks officials had approved the plan for the dog area on the park's east portion, known as Wallaceville.

Mixed-breed Sheyenne, 4, can run and frolick with other dogs. It's a great alternative, says owner Shelly Andrews, to playing only in the back yard.

The plan called for a fenced-in area on a 1-acre parcel at the park.

But a sewer construction project on Hines Drive halted the plan. The project was unexpectedly extended into the area that was planned for the park.

That sent the group back to the drawing board to find a facility. Eventually, they settled on the location that is set to open this weekend.

Shelly Andrews, 41, says the new park will help cut down the gas and mileage it takes to get to one of the other parks in Metro Detroit. About six communities have dog parks, including Mount Clemens, which opened the first facility in 2000.

The facility will be a good alternative for her dog, Sheyenne.

"It's a great thing for dog owners and people who have been looking forward to this for a couple of years now," Andrews said. "I have a couple of other parks that I can take my dog to, and my back yard, but that's it. It's going to be great for them, to take them out and let them socialize, which is very important to dogs. It will be a good place to take dogs and make valid use of park space."

Kim Thomas of the D.O.G. organization says Saturday's opening is the culmination of three years of work. Thomas, along with several of her Dearborn Heights neighbors, developed the dog park idea while taking their dogs to a baseball field.

"My main reason for trying to get it started is to try and keep dogs out of shelters," Thomas said. "This way, they don't have behavior problems. It's a place for people to take their dog to run around and get more exercise than in a back yard. It's also to socialize the dog so it can get along better with people and other situations."

About 25 percent of all U.S. households have dogs. That demand has caused several communities in the Metro Detroit area to have dog parks. The communities are: Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, Mount Clemens, Warren, Lake Orion, South Lyon and Ann Arbor.

In all, there are about 600 dog parks in the United States.

Birmingham spent $9,000 turning the 100-by-325-foot space into a dog park. It will be open to all dogs, as long as they are not aggressive and don't constantly bark, dog park planners have said.

The park opened this summer after an Oakland County judge rejected an injunction blocking the facility. Residents in the Bloomfield Estates subdivision sought to keep the park near Springdale Park Golf Course closed because the only access to the dog park is through that neighborhood. Residents believed the park would draw more traffic than the golf course because it will be open to everyone and operate year-round.

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