Ball Still Rolling On Franklin's First Dog Park

FRANKLIN, WI —The city's first dog park took a step closer to becoming a reality earlier this week, when the city hired an environmental consultant to study the feasibility of the park's proposed site, the Journal Sentinel reported.

According to reports, Franklin's Common Council voted unanimously at its March 2 meeting to enter into an agreement with Sigma Group. The consultancy will report back to the city regarding the condition of the 11-acre parcel, a onetime disposal site immediately west of 6855 South 27th Street and next to the former Gander Mountain property. The agreement is not to exceed $6,600, funding for which will come from the general fund contingency or the capital improvement contingency.

The idea for a dog park at that site was originally raised by resident Shelley Tessmer this past September. Tessmer provided a detailed proposal to the council making a case for the park in which she used dog parks from other cities as examples of how Franklin's park might look and function. Tessmer also made the case that the proposed site has been dormant for some time, and turning it into a park would not remove any tax base from the city.

"The site is a solution to finding an area with little opposition to increased traffic and barking dogs, which has continued to block a dog park from becoming a reality in Franklin," Tessmer wrote according to the Journal Sentinel.

However, city staff and members of the council raised concerns about the site. The location known as the former superfund drum disposal site, or Fadrowski Drum Site, once had been contaminated, according to city documents. Although the site was listed as ready for redevelopment in 2008.

Now, Sigma Group will study the site and documents about the site, and offer its findings and recommendations about the site's viability.

Read more at JSonline.com.

Read more about the proposed dog park from the City of Franklin Parks Commission's September 14, 2020 meeting.