When the Hamilton County Parks and Recreation Department opened a dog park inside Enterprise South Nature Park last month, Hixson resident Craig Ruff had mixed feelings.
The new dog park's water features, benches and dog wash station were some of the amenities he and a handful of others wanted to add to the dog park at Hixson's Greenway Farms, a Chattanooga city park for which the city received a $25,000 grant for dog park improvements from the Boyd Foundation in July 2022.
More than a year later, tree removal and benches are the only improvements made to the dog park at Greenway Farms.
Paid for with $22,000 from the county parks budget and built by park maintenance staff, the dog park at Enterprise South seemed to Ruff to highlight the operational differences between the city and county parks departments.
"One government parted with taxpayers' money to build from scratch a wonderful dog park, and another, getting all necessary funds from private sources, added nothing to an existing park," he said in an email.
Ruff filled out the application for the competitive, statewide grant from the Boyd Foundation, which requires a letter of support from city officials. He approached the city of Chattanooga's Parks and Outdoors Department's development director, who initially told him it was a bad time to apply for the grant since the city was undergoing a strategic planning process for its parks, Ruff said in a phone interview.
City officials later agreed to submit the application, he said, and the Hixson group was able to garner enough support on social media that Chattanooga was awarded the grant for improvements to the Greenway Farms dog park in 2022.
The Hixson group conducted a survey of the dog park's users to determine which amenities group members wanted to see at the park, and clover ground cover, a dog wash facility, a splash pad and more benches were the most requested improvements. They attempted to share the results with city officials and continued to email the department's deputy administrator every couple of weeks when they received no response.
"I guess we became what you would call a public pest," Ruff said.
Eventually, two city officials came to speak with the group earlier this year, Ruff said.
The group filled them in on the history of the project and the survey results and discussed potential improvements. One official emphasized to the group that the city maintains a lot of parks in addition to Greenway Farms, Ruff said.
"We appreciate that," Ruff said of the department's myriad responsibilities. "But we'd like to start seeing some of the amenities that $25,000 could purchase."
Since that meeting in March, he said the only change city officials made at the park was the removal of 14 trees.
"That's because they were getting dangerously old or they were dying, and it was a good thing for the city to do," Ruff said, adding that removing the trees will also give the clover ground cover – one of the items on the group's wish list – enough sunlight to have a fighting chance at survival.
The city removed Bradford Pear trees from the park to make room for the clover ground cover, the seeds of which will be planted when the weather cools, said Brian Smith, communications and marketing director for the city's Parks and Outdoors Department, Benches were added as well, he said in an email.
Grant funds were used to cover the cost of some of those improvements, and the remaining grant funds are being reserved for other improvements at the park, Smith said.
"The biggest hurdle is the group's desire for a misting tunnel water feature and a dog washing station," Smith said. "While the group presented ideas, the correction of the slope and plumbing would exceed the grant."
The water feature would need to be made of costly commercial-grade material to sustain a large amount of public use, and the group rejected other lower-cost water options presented by the city, he said.
Group members offered to raise additional funds to cover the improvement costs, but they were told the city does not accept privately raised funds, Ruff said.
"We do want to honor their wishes and the grant," Smith said. "We have been working with companies to find the best and most cost effective solution for the amenities, the plumbing and erosion prevention."
City officials ordered the water features and dog wash station last week, he said.
"Some fabrication is needed to work with the property," Smith said, adding he hopes fabrication will be complete within a few weeks and installation will begin shortly after. "We have been in contact with the group several times with updates. Unfortunately, we are not as far along as we all would desire, and some of that is due to other nonrelated unforeseen circumstances."
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.