18 April 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Dog lovers who want to see more dog parks added around Wichita will have to wait until the City of Wichita fixes some problems at one of its busiest dog parks.
K-9 Rooster Dog Park is one of five City dog parks. It is the only one west of the river.
On Tuesday, Tim Kellams, with Wichita Public Works and Utilities, told the Wichita City Council nearby residents heavily use the dog park.
“If you’ve had a chance to meet some of them as I have, they are very passionate about that dog park,” he said.
But he said there are problems at the park.
“Currently, the dog park lacks shade and contains areas where water collects,” Kellams said. “It can make it very muddy and challenging to use the dog park at times.”
He said the City’s capital improvement program (CIP) has $300,000 in 2023 and $300,000 in 2024 for dog park improvements. Kellams asked the Council to approve $300,000 to improve K-9 Rooster Dog Park.
But Celeste Racette, who is running for mayor, spoke against the idea.
“I do think there’s other parks or other neighborhoods that have asked for dog parks,” she said. “Instead of spending this money to improve what we already have, a dog park there, that we go to the other neighborhoods that have asked for dog parks and spend the money to broaden the dog parks in the city. I that would be a better use of these funds.”
City Council Member Maggie Ballard, District Six, said the City has talked about adding additional dog parks, perhaps one in Country Acres in west Wichita. But she noted K-9 Rooster Dog Park is one of the last City dog parks that has not been renovated.
“While I’m supportive of adding dog parks … really anywhere else in the city, it was important to me to make sure that we’re focusing and taking care of what we have before we add additional parks,” Ballard said. “I’ve learned a lot about dog parks since we started these conversations, but the Meridian dog park does get a lot of traffic.”
She commented that there are a lot of apartments near the park. Apartment residents do not have yards, so they take their dogs to K-9 Rooster Dog Park sometimes several times a day.
Council Member Bryan Frye represents District Five in west Wichita.
“Fortunately, Country Acres dog park is in the CIP for a future dog park, and it will be the first one west of Wichita, so I’m looking forward to that, but I think it’s a priority to take care of what we have first before we start expanding,” he said.
He said he was on the park board when K-9 Rooster Dog Park came online.
“It’s always had a challenge of shade and water pooling,” he said. “So, if I think back to our community investment plan, where it really drives our capital decisions, where we’re supposed to take better care of our existing infrastructure first, this is a perfect example of being able to improve a park facility before we start adding more.”
District Three Council Member Mike Hoheisel asked Kellams about the long-term ramifications if the City waited to address the flooding at the dog park.
“That park, specifically, is on top of a former dump, so there is some concerns about erosion and control in that, for that dog park specifically, so using funds to address that is a high concern for us as well as KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) to help make sure we improve that dog park before anything long-term does happen,” Kellams said.
Hoheisel asked if there is any risk to the dogs because of the buried dump. Kellams said no because there is a cap over the landfill.
“Usually, the trash is separated by quite a bit from a cap from that landfill, so we don’t have any concerns about that at this time,” he said. “But … long-term effects could start to erode some of that area, so we hope to address those issues with these improvements.”
Kellams said the landfill has to be considered because of the trees the City wants to plant and the shade structures that will be built at the park.
“There’s some nitty gritty things that we need to get into to help make sure that it does work, but we are in conversation with KDHE and have a plan to work with them as we continue these improvements,” he said.
Before the Council voted, Mayor Brandon Whipple added his support.
“The idea that we have flooding issues and that we know this is being underutilized because it doesn’t have shade, we can improve it,” he said. “We can make it better. We can expand really our mission of quality of life, and I think that investing in the repairs and maintenance of what we already had … is a responsible approach before creating something new.”
He ended by saying the City Council looks forward to adding new dog parks in the future.