Poochie hates the leash. It chafes Poochie’s neck. Master can’t run fast. Poochie wants to run!
Poochie is not alone.
Dog owners in Marysville and elsewhere in Snohomish County have been hounding parks officials for a place where they could let their Fidos, Spots, Rovers and Poochies, run, sniff and frolic untethered.
Kevin Nortz / The Herald
Freedom is on the way.
In a year or two, residents in south Snohomish County are scheduled to get a 15-acre off-leash area in Willis Tucker Community Park. The off-leash area will be a part of a second-phase expansion of the recently opened park.
Depending on funding, the county could also open a more centrally located off-leash dog park by next year. All five acres of the proposed Fobes Hill Community Park, between Everett and Snohomish, would be available to unleashed dogs.
In Marysville, city officials are looking for 10 or 20 acres for an off-leash dog park, which they hope to open in the next few years.
The off-leash experience is growing in demand in this county, said Marc Krandel, Snohomish County’s planning supervisor of parks.
The two locations planned at Willis Tucker and Fobes Hill parks would be the first off-leash areas in the county parks system, he said.
An off-leash park would be a first for Marysville, too, said Jim Ballew, the city’s parks and recreation director.
Countywide, dog owners have only a handful of off-leash options, mostly in Everett.
Both Krandel and Ballew said residents have indicated in surveys that they want a place to let their dogs run free.
While it’s not the top priority in the survey results, “off-leash facilities are probably in the top 10,” Ballew said.
Marysville City Councilwoman Carmen Rasmussen, who is also a competitive dog-sled musher, described the appeal.
“I know from my own experience, my dogs are so much happier,” because of all the exercise they get training, Rasmussen said. “I see a tremendous value in just allowing the dogs to run, get out and socialize.”
So many new housing developments have small yards, she said. Many behavior problems with dogs stem from pent-up energy and boredom, she said.
Both the city and county parks directors are counting on community involvement to make the parks work.
Successful dog parks, such as Marymoor Park in King County, rely heavily on volunteers and park users for maintenance.
Instead of spending city or county employee salaries scooping dog poop, many parks provide plastic bags and trash cans, and Ballew and Krandel are planning similar ideas.
“Usually we are finding that those facilities are maintained pretty well,” if user groups are included early in the planning, Ballew said.
“A lot of (dog parks) are funded through sponsorships with pet stores, dog clubs,” Krandel said.
Marysville already has a jump on that. This year’s Strawberry Festival will include a new event: Poochapalooza, on June 18.
Proceeds from the event, which will charge $15 per dog, will help pay for the city’s dog park.
Poochapalooza’s organizer, Leslie Buell, said she’s already lined up almost 40 vendors and a variety of dog activities and sports.
Marysville has included a dog park in its six-year parks plan, which means the city is committed to finding funding for it within six years.
If a good site is located, though, the park could get moving sooner than that, Ballew said.
So far, 27 of 84 acres at the Willis Tucker park have been developed. The next phase will cost up to $4 million for soccer fields, playgrounds, parking and will include 15 acres set aside for the dogs, Krandel said. It could be ready by 2008 or 2009, he said.
The Fobes Hill park would cost $250,000, but it is tied to a proposal by County Executive Aaron Reardon to use $12.6 million in bonds for various parks and roads projects. The Snohomish County Council has yet to decide on the proposal.
Both Krandel and Ballew expect off-leash parks to draw people from more than just their immediate neighborhoods.
“We find that people travel for miles if there’s an off-leash park,” Krandel said.
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