[thistleclub]

Work set to begin on Taro leash-free dog park
(Stoney Creek News, Sep 12 2013)

Eighteen years after it closed, the former Taro west quarry industrial dump is finally being put to a promised community use with the announcement that work is set to begin on converting the site into a passive park that will include a leash-free area for dogs.

Lorenzo Alfano, site manager for owner Newalta Corp., said the first phase of the project will take about six weeks and start with the creation of pathways at the 23-hectare grassy wasteland, located at the northwest corner ofMud Streetand First Road West.

Work will then turn to the two-hectare dog park, he told the Taro community liaison committee on Monday.

Alfano said if “the weather cooperates,” the entire park will be open by the spring.

The city will maintain both the park and leash-free area, which will be fenced and the biggest ofHamilton’s eight dog parks.

“The biggest thing is obviously the plantings. We want to make sure we don’t put plantings into the ground too late,” Alfano said, citing a bad experience at the neighbouring Heritage Green sports park.

“They (once) planted about 2,000 trees in November and pretty much they were twigs the next year. We do not want the same thing to happen.”