Dog park plans discussed
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN — Rebecca Ginsberg, a member of the Recreation Advisory Board, laid out plans for a municipal dog park at the Township Committee’s Dec. 13 meeting.

Officials indicated there are 2,300 licensed dogs in Manalapan.

Ginsberg offered a pictorial presentation of ideas that included similar projects in Middletown and Monroe Town-ship, Middlesex County.

The proposed site for the Manalapan dog park is a tract of land off Route 522 (Freehold-Englishtown Road) that is a little over 5 acres in size and sits near Manalapan’s Department of Public Works facility, the senior center, the Tennent Post Office and the Bayshore Vinyl Company, a private firm.

The dog park under discussion would be a place where visitors could bring their dog and allow the dog to run off leash within a fenced-in area, Ginsberg said.

She outlined some of the issues surrounding the project and what would be needed to get the dog park up and running.

According to Ginsberg, there are two stream encroachments that will require input from the township engineer. The engineer has already been directed by the committee to develop a plan for the proposed dog park.

Ginsberg said the total cost of the project is estimated at $75,000. She said the dog park should include fencing, with provisions for additional single dog runs for dogs who “need to learn to be dog-friendly.”

The site would also require lighting and irrigation.

Ginsberg said that in an effort to underwrite the cost, township officials could seek corporate sponsorship as well as individuals who could purchase items such as benches.

Ginsberg asked, and the request was granted by the governing body, for information about the dog park to be placed on Manalapan’s municipal access cable television channel, and that input and suggestions from residents be solicited.

Mayor Drew Shapiro said he would like to see the township work out an arrangement with the owner of Bayshore Vinyl that would allow patrons of the dog park to drive into the park by using the company’s driveway as an access, with parking on the firm’s driveway to be prohibited.

An attorney who was present at the Dec. 13 meeting to represent Bayshore Vinyl in a matter unrelated to the dog park said she would convey the mayor’s proposal to the firm’s owner.

Shapiro said the firm’s owner has been amenable to previous requests and said he anticipated the firm would give the proposal for the use of the driveway fair consideration.

The township has already received a $7,500 donation for the dog park from residents Hal and Peggy Eisen.