KEARNY –
Workers from Reivax Contracting Corp. of Newark continued to assemble components of Kearny’s first-ever off-leash dog park in Riverbank Park last week, including a new sidewalk.
Last Tuesday, the town’s consulting engineer Michael Neglia projected the facility could open by late April.
A New York City contractor was called in last week to remove what Mayor Alberto Santos described days earlier, as a large “diseased tree” which, an arborist advised, “won’t survive — so it’s coming down.”
DPW Director Gerry Kerr said residents in the adjacent Community Garden reported seeing groundhogs having made their home inside the tree.
Two other large trees on the site, however, will remain standing, Santos said.
The $300,000 project, partly financed by a $175,000 county Open Space grant, got under way in mid-December 2015.
The property is designed to accommodate two, separate dog runs: One 10,200 square-foot parcel will be designated for pooches 35 pounds and heavier while a neighboring 6,500 square-foot space will be available for dogs under 35 pounds.
Owners will guide their dogs through a sort of gateway access point before releasing them into the appropriate fenced-in run space.
There will be water “fountains” for dogs of all sizes as well as “poop” collection bag stations.
Local canine advocates have been clamoring for years to get the town in action to provide such a facility, which, they said, is desperately needed by pooches yearning to run free in the outdoors.
– Ron Leir
