Darla Fraser has been appointed as Chief Librarian, effective August 30 The concept of a leashfree dog park in Orangeville has been welcomed for the most part, but finding an appropriate location for it has proven to be a headache as neighbouring residents have protested proposed places.

There might, however, be some relief coming with the town talking to a developer about the possibility of a temporary dog park on Hansen Blvd. behind the Orangeville Mall.

Parks and Recreation director Sonja Pritchard said a stipulation for Orangeville Highlands Ltd. is that the company provide some parkland before construction can proceed.

Orangeville Highlands will be responsible for grading and seeding the property, said Ms. Pritchard, while providing the necessary fencing will be the responsibility of the Leash Free Dog Park Committee.

She said the funds necessary for this could be partially raised by the committee, with the remaining coming from the community matching program, which provides matching funds up to $5,000.

What makes the Hansen site particularly ideal is that, because construction has yet to commence, there won’t be any nearby residents for, in Ms. Pritchard’s estimation, a couple of years.

Since the committee began its campaign for the dog park in February, six potential sites have been mentioned.

Those six were narrowed down to two, Erindale Park and Brown’s Farm Park, which the committee deemed to be the most ideal.

The committee’s enthusiasm was not shared by the parks’ neighbours, who argued about potential noise, dog feces and the parks being potentially damaged to the point children would be unable to use them.

Such concerns have been expressed before.

In 2007, an Orangeville resident approached Mono council with the idea of locating a leash-free dog park in Monora Park. The idea was dismissed.

Then-Councillor Ken McGhee, (since appointed deputy mayor), said council had to look at the community as a whole, because houses were destined to be backing on to that area.

As well, he didn’t think Mono as a municipality could afford to have a leash-free zone because of potential liability issues. “I like the idea, but a lot of people are afraid of dogs and some dog owners aren’t responsible for their dogs,” he said.

Mayor Lorie Haddock agreed, saying she didn’t think Monora Park was the right place for a leashfree zone.