Beiseker’s first off-leash dog park was originally supposed to open last fall, but the lack of a signed lease agreement has pushed the amenity’s unveiling to a future date.
The small community of just over 800 people was looking forward to a much-needed dog park that had initially been slated to open in late October 2022. Half a year later, however, the facility is still unavailable to local dog-owners.
Village of Beiseker Coun. Les Spurgeon explained that Alberta Trail Net regulates the land where the dog park will ultimately be located. The Village was required to wait until they secured a lease before they could move forward with the project.
“We had to actually wait for Alberta Trail Net to provide that to us, which they didn’t provide until the end of February,” Spurgeon said.
The Village also needed time to organize themselves to move ahead with the lease agreement, he added.
“Between Beiseker Parks and Trails and the dog park, we were trying to get ourselves organized as a society so that the dog park had an avenue to move forward as far as getting a lease done,” Spurgeon said.
“We’re trying to get the lease and the schedules that work with it done so that we can get it up and open.”
Although the lease agreement is yet to be finalized and signed, the Village is cleaning the area and did some needed repairs.
“We can only do repairs and minor upgrades,” Spurgeon said. “We’ve done major clean-up and most of the fence repairs have been done with double-gated entrances.”
Spurgeon feels the demand for a local off-leash park is reflected in Beiseker’s demographics. With 130 registered dogs in Beiseker and no off-leash park currently in the community, council grasped the opportunity to designate the land for pups once it became available.
“It’s on the site of where the old train museum was going to go and it was a fence lot for the rail cars,” Spurgeon said. “The rail museum kind of fell apart [and] somebody on council pushed to get it designated as a dog park.”
Spurgeon said he took control of the process after it was initially brought up in a council meeting.
“I took the bull by the horns,” he said.
Once a lease is signed, the off-leash dog park will be located at Ninth Street and First Avenue. Spurgeon noted the intent is to unveil the amenity later this spring – ideally by the end of May.
The Rocky View Weekly reached out to Alberta Trail Net, who confirmed that a lease agreement is yet to be signed. They are also asking the community not to use the land until a lease agreement has been reached.
Those who are looking for more information or are interested in volunteering with the group orchestrating Beiseker’s first off-leash can contact Les Spurgeon or visit their Facebook page.
