TEA Gardens Lions Club’s brand new fenced off-leash area (FOLA) dog park is just about ready for its official grand opening, set for Sunday 21 June.
The new dog park will form the only area within the Hawks Nest township that dogs may be legally and legitimately allowed to run free from their leashes.
All other such locations are designated well away from the main beach, and from the high traffic town centres, despite regular flouting of such regulations.
“The official unlocking of the gate will be at 11.30am, and our local Councillor will be in attendance for the event,” Tea Gardens Lions President Amanda Sykes told NOTA.
“We are also holding a raffle with over a dozen prizes donated by local businesses, tickets on sale on the day or outside Coles and Iga supermarkets on Friday and Saturdays beforehand.”
The FOLA/dog park is located between Bennetts Beach and Reflections Hawks Nest caravan park, in a large sandy Council-maintained area that has never had a permanent use applied to it, now become a very large space, with a strong perimeter fence of 309 metres installed just last week, breaking the area up into zones for small dogs, and for larger and more energetic dogs.
There are even sets of agility equipment, built and installed by local Lions members, as well as sandpits dug and filled especially for the canine companions of the town.
Drinking bubblers have also been planned for the site, but are suffering a slight delay.
“Fencing this official off-leash area was included in MidCoast Council’s Open Spaces Strategy document, however with fire and flood damage to be funded, it was unlikely that the area would get fenced, let alone anything else, any time soon,” Ms Sykes said.
“Tea Gardens Lions approached Council and asked if they could take on the project to fence and kit out the area, and we were told ‘yes’.”
“You’d think it would be just a case of getting a few dollars and popping up a fence.”
“Not so – 309m of fencing is not a drop in the ocean, we applied for grants, Reflections Holidays offered financial assistance, so with Lions funds and their support we had a good start, so we asked the community to become part of the project,” Ms Sykes said.
Prices, of course, skyrocketed in the wake of global events, and even the two grants the local Lions were successful in sharing in were never going to meet any real costs.
As such, there are still several key parts of the dog park that are in need of funding, such as shading for the human seating areas.
“We will continue to fundraise and apply for grants (third time lucky maybe) to get the other things we need –
covered seating, entrance path and continual ground remediation,” Ms Sykes said.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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