Dogs and their owners will run and romp in one of the nation’s only four $500,000 Dream Dog Parks later this fall.
Half a million — for a dog park?
That is right.
Why?
Because a Prescott dog owner, Linda Nichols, entered and won the 2013 Beneful Dream Dog Park contest. Her 250-word winning essay and two-minute video were selected this past December.
Nichols credits her dog Callie, a Queensland-Shepherd mix, with motivating her to enter the competition.
The newest address in the Prescott Park System will be located near the current Jim McCasland Willow Creek Park, 3181 Willow Creek Drive, on the north side of Prescott.
Nichol’s entry, “Sirens and Hydrants,” was among more than 1,000 entrants. Of those, only 14 from 13 states were selected as finalists.
The judges who picked Nichols as winner are three nationally known and certified authorities: Jason Cameron, who often appears on television about home and community improvement, Arden Moore, an animal behavior consultant and the host of TV’s “Oh Behave” and Nate Berkus, a well-known design expert.
Nichols’s entry, complete with a conceptual sketch of the elite dog park, proposed that it contain “…a shiny red fire truck playground as a focal point for exercise and agility experiences for dogs.”
Nichols’s concept will provide inspiration to the professional park designers.
The sketch was rendered by Deb Spirito, a friend of Nichols.
Complimenting the fire truck is a “… fire truck water hose leading to a sparkling clear doggy swimming pool.”
Beyond that are brightly colored fire hydrants, which may provide additional water features for canines to play in.
Nichols’s entry emphasized that any water features would use recycled but clean water.
And the dog park design does not stop with a fire truck and hydrants.
Near the entrance, a sculpture of a Dalmatian – the traditional pet at fire stations – will greet the real dogs as they enter. Canines and owners then can wander around the property, where shade trees are surrounded by benches.
Nichols joked, “The benches are to keep the dogs from doing their business there so they’ll instead head toward the fire hydrants.”
On a more serious note, Nichols said she was motivated to enter the contest last year because her sense was that a dedicated dog park with a firefighting theme would be a symbolic means by which to commemorate the loss of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots. They died tragically June 30, 2013 in a wildfire that swept over the ridge going into Yarnell in southern Yavapai County.
A groundbreaking ceremony will signal the beginning of the project shortly after Aug. 1, according to Lorie Westhoff, Nestle Purina PetCare’s senior account executive for marketing and public relations.
Westhoff and her colleague, Moronke Tyler, Beneful marketing associate, were in Prescott June 24 to accept the City Council’s unanimous vote to enter the donation agreement with Purina.
In acknowledging the vote, Westhoff said, “You soon will see a lot of dogs smiling.”
Before Beneful, a dog food manufacturer owned by Nestle Purina PetCare Company in St. Louis, Mo., could begin construction, the property first had to belong to the city so the city could enter into a donation agreement.
Westhoff said of her visit, “Prescott really lives up to its ‘Everybody’s Hometown’ claim. It truly is a wonderful community that abounds with charm and hospitality. It didn’t take Moronke and me long to understand why residents love Prescott, and why visitors like us look forward to coming back.”
She continued, “We hope the Beneful Dream Dog Park will add to the already long list of things to love about Prescott and the area.”
Complicated Property Acquisition and Project Approval Took Months
The process leading to final acceptance of the $500,000 Beneful contest required some major legal negotiation and action from Prescott.
First, the existing dog park – the one to be renovated as the Dream Dog Park – is located on 2.3 acres of land owned by Arizona Public Service that had been leased for $1 a year to the city.
Because Beneful requires that any dog park it builds be on property owned by the community, Prescott officials had to request that APS donate the land. APS deeded the land to the city in May.
Prescott also had to agree that the Purina-Beneful donation will include design work, building supplies and materials, construction, project administration, necessary permitting and other aspects for renovation of the dog park.
Officials speculate it will take three months to complete the renovation.
Purina-Beneful mandates that the general public can use the dog park at no cost, and that it be an off-leash facility.
City of Prescott Parks and Recreation Director Joe Baynes told the City Council he estimates annual maintenance costs for the Dream Dog Park are likely to be in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.
Baynes has been involved in negotiations with Purina and with APS on an almost weekly basis ever since the announcement was made that the greater Prescott area was being considered as the fourth site for a Beneful Dream Dog Park.
Only three other communities had been selected earlier as recipients of Dream Dog Parks renovations: Newtown Park in Johns, Creek, Ga. in 2011; Alabaster, Ala. and Lancaster, Pa.,in 2013.
Community Supportive of the ‘Bark Park’
Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall complimented Nichols for her winning entry and praised Purina following the unanimous City Council vote to accept the donation.
“This is just one more reason we can be proud of the image our community projects to the rest of the country,” he said.
Kuykendall’s sentiments were echoed by Baynes. “The City of Prescott is excited to be the recipient of this great upgrade to an existing dog park from an internationally known partner, Purina, that understands our dog loving community. This park will be enjoyed by all for years to come.”
Contest winner Nichols said that during the past few months, she has been contacted personally by dozens of people who thanked her for having entered the contest.
“One family even posted a primitive hand-lettered sign on the chain link fence at the current dog park that said, ‘Linda and Callie: Thank you for bringing a dog park to our city.’ It was signed by a couple of girls I later met. One was 12, the other 14.”
But the truly touching moment may have occurred after the mayor and council accepted the formal donation.
Nichols and the Purina executives had stepped out of City Council chambers and were chatting. Nichols, Westhoff and Tyler were approached timidly by a diminutive woman who whispered, “Can I interrupt you?”
“I just want you to know how much my dog and I appreciate what you are doing for us,” said Mary Catherine Tennant, a Prescott Valley resident who recently became the owner of a rescue dog. “We’re just jumping up and down, we’re so grateful.” QCBN
By Ray Newton
Quad Cities Business News
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