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Hernando Today

Dog Park: Open This Summer?

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TONY MARRERO

Published: January 30, 2008

SPRING HILL - SPRING HILL - It truly would be a dog day this summer.

Dogowners and their furry friends have salivated for months now as the county's first canine-friendly park takes shape.

While an exact opening day for Centennial Park has yet to be set, officials with the Rotary Club of Spring Hill Central hope to have the dog area of the park ready by this summer.

It's tough to pin down a date because the club still has money to raise, said Rotary member Laurel Predmore, who is overseeing the project.

"We're working on a couple of fundraisers right now and we're trying to make the public more aware of what we're trying to do to get more donations," Predmore said.

It's been a year and a half since the groundbreaking for the 8-acre park at the corner of Landover Boulevard and Sandlor Street, just south of Northcliffe Boulevard.

It's a roughly community project by the Spring Hill Central chapter also made possible by cash and in-kind contributions from the county, several contractors, and corporate and individual donors.

Motorists cruising by can see the park is starting to look like one.

The land has been cleared and the fence is up.

The parking lot is paved.

The lights shine down at night.

The restrooms are nearly done.

And the three-acre portion of the park set aside for dogs is almost complete.

However, Rotary needs roughly $30,000 to finish the first phase. Most of that is to install turf in the dog area and to put the finishing touches on the restrooms.

Two-thirds of that money is expected in April, when Cemex/Rinker will provide its third $20,000 donation. Rinker Materials had pledged a total of $100,000 made in five annual installments.

Cemex, which bought out Rinker last year, reaffirmed that pledge after the buy-out, Predmore said.

In the meantime, the club hopes that the fundraisers and individual and corporate donors will come up with the remaining $10,000 or so, Predmore said.

Once the first phase is done, the club hopes to get a partial occupancy permit from the county to allow dogowners to use the dog park portion.

That "shouldn't be a problem," Hernando County Development Director Grant Tolbert said.

That will be crucial because completion of the second and final phase of the project is still more than a year away.

The phase includes playground equipment, two basketball courts, a sand volleyball court a large picnic pavilion. The cost for phase two is estimated at some $140,000, but Rotary so far has only the two remaining $20,000 installments from Rinker/Cemex to put toward that price, Predmore said.

"For the amount of money we have and the scope of the project, we've done OK," said Dennis Ferrara, president of Black Rock Construction Services of Florida, Inc., as he surveyed the park last week.

Black Rock, based in Spring Hill, is donating services that add up to about 20 percent of the total cost of the park.

The projected total cost of the project had been $400,000, but so far the project is on pace to come in well under that, Ferrara said.

The Spring Hill Central chapter took on the project after Rotary International encouraged its chapters to take on a larger-than-normal community project in honor of the organization's 100th anniversary in 2003.

For a smallish chapter, this project is "huge," Predmore told attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony in August, 2006, when the club had about 30 members.

The park is being built on county-owned land donated in the 1960s by the Deltona Corporation - the firm that built most of Spring Hill - specifically for public use. The county's Parks and Recreation Department chipped in $50,000 and will maintain the facility.

Other corporate and business donors include DAB Constructors and Flagstone Pavers.

Ferrara praised the cooperation of the county parks and recreation department and the work of county commissioners Diane Rowden and Rose Rocco to help move the project along.

"It's really been a combined effort on everybody's part," he said.

Inscribed pavers, to be placed in or along the park's sidewalk, are available for a $50 donation. Rotary is also considering offering memorial plaques for the nine smaller picnic pavilions spaced throughout the park.

For more information on the project, call Predmore at 796-0386.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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