Things may soon get a little bit better for Snyderville Basin dogs and their owners.
About 500 people use the Run-A-Muk dog park each day, according to Summit County, parking in the two dirt lots and sometimes on the street when it’s particularly busy. Thanks to a $130,000 grant from the Summit County Council, those lots are set to be paved as part of a project that also includes adding a third parking lot and two pit toilets.
The grant is part of an $8.8 million pot of money funded by the Recreation, Arts and Parks (RAP) sales tax. The council doled out the money on Monday for recreation projects across the county.
The largest single award went to Willow Creek Park, site of another popular dog park. That $1.36 million grant is earmarked to replace what the county says is old equipment with “all-abilities” fixtures.
Ben Liegert, Basin Recreation’s parks and facilities manager, said an all-abilities park is one where all or the majority of the park is accessible by wheelchair.
“And it's just a great place where people of all abilities can interact and it's a positive interaction,” Liegert said.
Liegert described wide ramps, smooth surfaces and other design features common in all-abilities parks. He said the park will be one of the first — if not the first — of its kind in the Wasatch Back.
That wasn’t the only sizable grant heading to Willow Creek Park. The council also approved $720,000 to fix issues with the pond at the dog park.
Basin Rec Director Dana Jones said the pond was initially used for irrigation, so it has steeper sides than it would if it had been built for swimming. That’s contributed to the pond’s liner ripping more frequently than officials would like.
The district asked for $1.3 million to fix the pond and was awarded about half of that. The committee that recommends grant dispersals earmarked the money to fix the pond liner and improve water circulation to help discourage algae growth.
The project will include draining the pond and moving the inflow and outflow areas to opposite sides to increase water circulation. Jones said the district doesn’t know for sure how the pond’s inflow and outflow mechanisms are oriented, but said the ports are believed to be right next to each other. She said the district will also likely make the banks of the pond less steep.
The committee declined to recommend funding for park beautification projects that Basin Rec requested. Jones said the district would still look to accomplish those projects with other funding sources. She said there are plans to add shade structures and another dock.
“The dogs like the dock,” Jones said.
