We wanted to get as much trail as we could because legally you can’t take your dog into Melville off lease.”

Jane Regan, Portsmouth Dog Park Committee

New members welcome on Dog Park Committee

Jane Regan chairs the Portsmouth Dog Park Committee, even though she lives in Middletown.

“There’s no Middletown park,” she explained.

Regan, who served as principal at Thompson Middle School in Newport for 33 years, became involved after retiring and getting a therapy dog.

His name is Willoughby, a labradoodle who will turn 8 in September. Regan and Willoughby visit Newport Hospital every Tuesday, the R.I. Veterans Home in Bristol on Wednesdays, Forest Avenue School in Middletown on Thursdays, and other schools as their schedule permits.

Willoughby is a calming influence on students and adults who experience stress, and at Forest Avenue School struggling students read to him.

“He loves it, and he’s so good at his job,” Regan said. “We’ve been doing it for five years. We’re so much in demand, we have to say no to people.”

Willoughby also loves the Portsmouth Dog Park and is a frequent visitor along with his owner, who’s looking for more people to join her committee.

“We have 10 people on the committee, but we’re looking for more,” Regan said. “We really want people who use the dog park. It’s not a ceremonial committee; we get our hands dirty. It’s not a glamour job and it doesn’t pay, but a lot of people love this place for several reasons. Everyone’s a dog-owner and a dog-lover.”

If you’re interested, go to the town’s website (www.portsmouthri.gov) and fill out an application form, or e-mail Regan at info@portsmouthdogparkri.com.

— Jim McGaw

PORTSMOUTH — If you’re dog owner who has always wanted to take your pooch for an unleashed hike at the Melville Recreation Area, you’ll soon be in luck.

Works recently began clearing land outside the north and west sides of the Portsmouth Dog Park for a series of fenced-in, off-leash trails that will connect to the park sometime in June.

Workers have been at the park since April 19, but the project “has taken three years to get underway,” said Jane Regan, who chairs the Portsmouth Dog Park Committee. “We finally got a couple of bids that we could afford, and this is the bid that the town chose.”

The town hired Beausoleil Bros. to create the trail system. “It’s double the size of the park — an additional two acres,” she said. “We wanted to get as much trail as we could because legally you can’t take your dog into Melville off lease. What they’re doing right now is they’re cutting for where the fence goes.” 

“Neal Hingorany of Narragansett Engineering actually designed the original park, and they came on board with this. He worked it out to go around with a couple of loops, and it’s half a mile,” Regan said.

The trails will loop around the north side of the park and take a “dogleg” to reconnect on the west side. The trail system includes three entrances into the park, with a double gate on the west side to allow for trucks if needed.

As far as she knows, the local dog park will be the only one in Rhode Island with an off-lease trail system.

The trails will be “nothing fancy” — just natural ground with some mulch thrown down here and there. “They’re going to put in the fence first, and then they’re going to concentrate on the trail,” she said, noting the fencing will be black and five feet high. “The trail will be six feet wide and it will be handicap usable, but not accessible in the sense that I wouldn’t use a wheelchair unless someone is pushing it.”

Eventually, one section of the trail will feature a small memorial garden. “We are not going to bury dogs, but it’s a place where you can sit,” said Regan, noting that four benches will be installed along the paths.

A drainage area will be filled in with stones so that walkers can cross over safely. “Eventually, we’d like to find a Boy Scout who’d like to build a bridge,” Regan said.

Being in the woods, the trails will also feature ticks, poison ivy and poison oak, of which signage will remind visitors. “That’s what the woods are,” she said.

Streamlined plans

On Friday workers from Beausoleil Bros. were busying using heavy equipment to clear paths for the fencing that will soon go up. In certain areas they were also putting down straw wattle, which is used for erosion control, stabilizing slopes, or filtering stormwater runoff.

Regan said it may have kismet that Beausoleil Bros.’s bid was chosen by the town.

“We’ve worked with a couple of local universities on projects and one of them was the landscape design school at URI,” she explained. “The professor tasked his class in the fall to come out here and make some designs. Then we went over there (to URI) and they did a presentation.”

Right after the bids were opened at Town Hall, a young man came over to Regan to say hello. “You may not remember me, but I was in that class,” he said.

It was none other than Cameron Beausoleil, who was at the park working with his dad and brother, Sonny. Cameron, who graduates from URI this year, had the Friday off.

The Dog Park Committee actually had more ambitious plans for the park, but they proved to be too expensive to tackled at this time.

“There were a lot of things we had to cut out,” including lighting and an agility area for dogs. “It was more than double of what we could afford, and the van Beuren (Charitable) Foundation had already been so generous,” she said, referring to a major benefactor of the park.

Those improvements are still on the table for the future, however. Some of the agility equipment, as well as solar lights, will be installed as the committee can afford them, she said.

Grateful for help

Regan said the Dog Park Committee is grateful to several key people for their help with the project, including Director of Public Works Brian Woodhead. “The other person who’s been a big help is (Town Administrator) Rich Rainer. He got us cleared to use that extra land. He stuck with us to get us permission,” she said.

To raise funds for the rest of the expansion project, the Dog Park Committee has launched the Building Community Campaign to underwrite the addition of solar lighting, agility equipment, landscaping, a memorial garden, benches, signage and other amenities. For more information, visit www.portsmouthdogparkri.com or follow on Facebook (Portsmouth Loves Dogs).