Photos at Gardner Dog Park taken Friday, July 29, 2022 show persistent drainage and water puddling issues.
Puddling Water Persistent Problem at Gardner MA Pulaski Dog Park
For a couple years now, puddles of water, sometimes muddy, have been problematic at the Gardner Dog Park. Owners have consistently complained to the DPW, but nothing has been done. Recently, park visitors were hopeful as new mulch was spread in the agility area. However, as is now apparent, no drainage work was done ahead of time, so the rainstorm of July 28, 2022 created a stream across the section and the pond of water is back. Gardner Magazine has reached out to Mayor Nicholson, seeking comment.
In the other section of the large dog area near the water station, pooling water has continued to be a problem and has never been addressed, despite dog owners reporting calls to DPW. We have attempted to reach out to the DPW Director for over a year now and have yet to receive a return call. Dog owners report high vet bills due to Guardia transmitted by bacteria in the standing water, and some have openly stated they have avoided coming to the Gardner Dog Park as a result of the unresolved issue.
In an interview on August 3, 2022, Mayor Nicholson responded to our questions regarding these issues. The text of the Dog Park portion is below. Complete Interview, CLICK HERE.
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Poegel: Mayor Nicholson, as you are aware, citizens have raised concerns about continued water pooling issues at the Dog Park. Did it rattle your Nicholson that you were not fully informed about continued challenges of water issues at the Gardner Dog Park? Nicholson: You know it is something that we are going to continue looking at. I think it was just an oversight that was done on the construction work there. We do have some money that’s left over in the grant that we can certainly put towards addressing those drainage issues that are there. We did receive more from the Stanton Foundation than the cost came in under for those Shade Pavilions that you have there. So we’ll certainly be taking a look at it, and, be sure to make sure that those issues get fully addressed that’s over there. Poegel: So aside from grant funding in these types of situations, does the City have its own funds to, for example, buy crushed stone for drainage, repair a fence at one of the other parks… Nicholson: Yep. Poegel: Or could the City for example, ask Heywood Hospital, can we have some of that crushed stone from all that stuff you blew up and can we use it at the Dog Park? Nicholson: I mean, all the above. We always accept donations from different people, especially if there is you know, surplus items, like we just talked about with Heywood Hospital. Whenever we go out and we repair a road, we dig up something up or something like that, we save all of that over at the City’s gravel mine that we have. So all of that we have in house too, on hand, and if we need to pay for a fix, we certainly can use money in our own budget, but if we can get someone else to pay for a project that we have going on, …that’s always certainly the best option. But we won’t have to wait and rely on that for something like this.
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