Dog park approval hinges on fundraising

Creston’s Park and Recreation board received an update on Lexi’s Puppy Patch Tuesday. The proposed dog park would be established in memory of Lexi Rounds, the late daughter of SICOG regional planner Jeremy Rounds and Angie Wegschied, who died in a car accident. Rounds has been asking for donations and will be holding a live auction June 4 at The Eagles.

“This is a general fundraiser thing we’ve been putting around town the last two months,” Rounds said. Many of the donations he has asked for and received have come from local businesses.

“We’ve also had a lot of private individuals come forward and say, ‘I have this, I can donate to the auction,’” he said.

Aside from small-dollar donations, Rounds told the board he’s applied for the national Bark for Your Park grant, which is due at the end of June.

“That grant is, I think, $25,000,” he said. “It’s kind of a lottery, so it’s just close your eyes, throw it at the dart board and hope it hits.”

Rounds admits getting the Bark for Your Park grant will likely be unsuccessful given the lottery system, but submitted it anyway. Rounds estimated he’s raised about $8,000 from donors.

“Now I do understand that before you guys make final approval on anything, we know we have to have a budget in place, we know we can build the thing, which we’re not there yet obviously, which is why we’re having a fundraiser,” Rounds said.

Lexi’s Puppy Patch will be in the former tractor pull area of McKinley Park pending approval. The blueprint of the dog park Rounds provided to the board showed a five-foot tall gate that’s 324-feet long that includes a 120-foot partition between big dog and small dog sections. The measurements of the tractor pull area itself were estimated to be 630-feet wide. The quote for the fence provided by Central Iowa Fencing estimated an install price of $31,223.

Rounds sent a letter of support to the board and the city which contained verbiage that caused some dispute.

“The main gist of it is the park board has agreed, at least in principle at least to the site,” Rounds said of the letter. “The purpose of that letter is so that the reviewers of the grant don’t think this is on a whim.”

Rounds said he, his wife and some volunteers could cover the majority of upkeep, but still asked the board for assistance.

“Other than mowing, I think we can,” Rounds said of his family’s capacity to maintain the dog park

Park and Recreation board chairman John Kawa said the board isn’t capable of complete maintenance of the park due to being short on labor, which led to Kawa suggesting Rounds revise the letter to specify maintenance would be a joint effort.

“I’d say, ‘shared maintenance,’” Kawa said. “We’ll mow, but we don’t have no people.”

Kawa added that the board’s capabilities have been stretched too thin due to budget cuts from the city.

“All we can do is maintain,” he said, “we cannot advance.”