By Kris Leonhardt

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The city of Wisconsin Parks & Recreation Commission is currently considering a new city dog park.

“We gave them four locations, and then we talked about another potential one up off of Spring Street,” said Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Shane Blaser.

During their October meeting, the Parks & Recreation Commission discussed several areas, including property off of Sampson Street, 25th Avenue, and Norton Street, and Poplar Springs Park.

“A couple of them are probably off of the list, because they are too involved. One is not in the city, so it would take agreements with two municipalities, which isn’t probably going to make sense; then, the other one, I really like the location off of Norton Street – the Norton Pond area – but there is a lot of work that needs to be done there. There is a lot of tree work, and I see that being more difficult there,” Blaser added.

While the possibility of a city dog park is still in discussion phases, Blaser said that more information on the current considerations and an additional property will be brought back to the Parks & Recreation Commission.

“We’ll get the square footage for the potential location. There is a sledding hill there also, so we will have to see how well that all fits together,” he stated.

“My hope was to send them potential locations ahead of time, so they could visit them if they wanted to and get some thoughts, but it really hasn’t gone anywhere yet.

“We are just taking time to get the right spot

The mayor added that the Park & Recreation Department will have heavy input in determining the location, and a public input process will be provided if the project moves forward.

The city’s “Tails ‘n’ Trails Dog Park” operated at the corner of County Highway F and Bonow Avenue from 2009 to 2019. Advanced Disposal, the company that owned and maintained the land, leased it to the city for public outdoor dog recreation. In August 2019, the company decided not to renew the lease with the city.