ANSONIA – City officials are considering adding a dog park to Abe Stone Park at Colony Pond, along with a slate of other improvements.
During an Aug. 18 meeting of the parks and recreation commission, commission president Pat Sheridan said a dog park was among the improvements being looked at.
“Abe Stone, the basketball court will be resurfaced. We’re getting prices on the concrete and the asphalt. Soccer fields will be done up for soccer. There’s going to be a dog park, a playscape and trail, and one pickleball court,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan said he was waiting to hear about pricing estimates from DeCarlo & Doll, a consulting engineer firm that often works with the city.
The work could be done by FieldTurf – the same firm which oversaw the renovation of Nolan Field – because the company offered to improve Abe Stone Park in its bid documents.
According to the company’s original bid, they said they would throw in grass field improvements at Abe Stone Park, Nelligan Park and the Ansonia Nature Center for a lump sum of $575,000.
However, the project would need to go out to bid first, according to Nancy Marini, who serves on the commission.
Karen Reynolds, a city resident who serves on the city’s economic development commission, spoke in the meeting to say that adding a dog park could create legal problems for the city.
“There’s a lot of liability associated with a dog park. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re creating bigger problems than you really want to have,” Reynolds said.
Abe Stone Park was last renovated in 2019, when a volleyball court and boat dock were added, according to the New Haven Register. The improvements at the time also included new picnic grounds and trails, as well as repairs to the basketball court and playground.
In 2023, voters approved $10.2 million in city borrowing to fund improvement at parks and fields around town. Most of that money – about $8 million – went to the Nolan Field renovation, with the rest still able to be used for the city’s other fields.
Javier Varas, chief of staff for Mayor Frank Tyszka, said city officials are currently looking at whether they can ask the department of public works to make the improvements, which would save the city from having to go back out to bid.
Sheridan said some work on the park, including on the soccer field, could take place throughout the fall.
Technically, Ansonia has a dog park – but it’s on Coon Hollow Road in Derby. Ansonia chipped in $2,000 to help open that dog park in 2013. Derby used a $10,000 grant and Eagle Scout Anthony Bartholomew.