JACKSON – Township Council Vice President Andrew Kern recently announced that Jackson dog owners would soon have a second facility where they could bring their pets.
Kern said he was proud to see the township adding to the parks system and addressing maintenance and landscaping issues during a recent council meeting.
“We are adding a second off leash dog park to the west side of the township,” Kern said. He noted that the new facility would feature spaces for large and small dogs and would be located near an existing playground.
“Jackson Forest on West Veterans Highway has been an under-utilized park since I was a small child. When I conducted my initial assessment of the township owned playgrounds the nicest playground we own was in that park,” Kern said. “It was the nicest because no one had been using it. The park had become overgrown and a bit scary to families with small children. The addition of a small and large dog off leash park to the area near the playground would increase the usage of the park.
“This park is ideally located – just a mile west of the Justice Complex so parents can be able to drop off their kids at baseball, softball, soccer or lacrosse practice and then take their dogs for some exercise without having to travel all the way across town and then rush back,” Kern added.
Traveling across town isn’t a problem for resident Ashley Hartman who lives five minutes away from the current dog park in Johnson Park. “I come here four to five times a week. It is very helpful and it makes such a difference.”
Hartman came to the park last weekend with her 10-month-old Bernedoodle (Bernese mountain dog and poodle) Max who she brought to the large dog portion of the dog park.
In the small dog area was Jerry Eitner with his dog Piper, a Pomeranian/husky. “It is a very friendly crowd of dog owners here. The dogs play with each other and it is good that they separate the big dogs from the small ones.
“I think it is great that they are adding another dog park. This one is great,” Colleen Meier said. Her dog Zoey was in costume for the morning wearing a skirt as a “party girl” in honor of Halloween.
During the council meeting, Council President Alex Sauickie said, “I want to send congratulations to Council Vice President Kern for the movement on the dog park. It is in a great location on the opposite side of town and long overdue.”
Sauickie added, “We’ve gotten a lot of positive response on the dog park over at Johnson Park and to add one to the other side of town where the residents of that side of town can use it will be a great thing.”
Kern thanked Councilman Steve Chisholm for assisting him with the ordinance.
“We are also addressing the condition of the landscaping around the township owned facilities, buildings and parks. When the Business Administrator (Terence Wall) and I walked out of police headquarters last week the condition of the once beautiful entrance was unacceptable. We are working hard to instill pride in our community and that begins with what you see every day,” Kern said.
“We cannot wait for small steps. The condition requires that we get everything up to par with other towns and other municipalities as soon as we can,” he said.
Kern said that once the township had the working model of a maintenance schedule “we can then transition these duties as we supplement DPW (Department of Public Works) staffing.”
He also stated that the township is able to support over a dozen local organizations that participated in the 2020 Jackson Clean Communities Road Cleanup at the end of September. “We are proud of their efforts to keep our town looking beautiful.”
