Valley Stream dog park: cooperation at its finest

Valley Stream’s new dog park opened on May 5 to mostly rave reviews from community members who came out on that rainy Saturday.

The new facility, the first of its kind in Valley Stream, was more than a year in the making. It took a lot of discussion, a lot of planning and a lot of hard work, all of which paid off in the creation of a great park.

No single person or group can take all the credit. This was a true community effort, and all of those involved should be proud. Valley Stream’s dogs now have a new place to run, play and socialize with other four-legged residents.

Community activist group Envision Valley Stream had been pushing for a dog park for about two years, and planted the seed for the idea in the minds of others. When Mayor Ed Fare took the reins of the village in April 2011, he said that the creation of the park would be part of his administration’s goal to expand recreational opportunities for residents. The promise of a dog run led to the establishment of Friends of the Valley Stream Dog Park, a small but dedicated group of residents who provided input on the park’s design and organized the opening-day celebration.

The village invested nearly $40,000 in creating the park. Much of the cost was for the 650 feet of fencing and gates that needed to be installed. Village workers also installed running water, laid down the pebble surface and erected many of the signs.

But most of the unique features of the park were added by local Boy Scouts. Five Scouts from Troop 369 — Jack and Charlie Clifford, Peter Marin, Shaun Powers and Ricky Wiener — completed their Eagle Scout community service projects there.

Thanks to the thoughtful planning of the Scouts and the hard work of their volunteers, the park has a gazebo, benches, obstacles for the dogs, a storage shed, information kiosks and murals. For years to come, the Scouts will be able to return to the park and see what they’ve done. Their contributions turned what would have been an ordinary dog park into something truly special.

The Friends group met on a monthly basis — and weekly leading up to the opening — to plan a very successful opening event. They contacted vendors, recruited sponsors, drafted park rules and kept in constant communication with village officials to ensure that the facility would be a place dogs and humans would want to gather. This group — Richard Infield, Denise Accardi, Sal Marin, John Peritore, John Duffy, Michael Powers and Envision Valley Stream President David Sabatino — should take great pride in their work.

There was much debate along the way, and even a disagreement from time to time. But in the end, everyone from all of these respective groups came together and got the job done. This wasn’t just a case where a local government took over, did what it wanted and told people to like it or else. The creation of the dog park was a model of government and citizens working together to make the community a better place. We hope there will be a lot more of this in the future.