Kin Club looking to open dog park in Delhi

Plans are underway to open a dog park in Delhi.

The Kin Club of Delhi, in co-operation with Norfolk County, is planning to open a dog park on Norfolk County property located directly south of the Delhi Arena between the arena and Big Creek.

“It’s going to be an amazing spot for accessibility,” Kin Club president Brent Stefan said at a recent council-in-committee meeting. “There’s the walking trail that will come right next to it, there’s ample parking up top at the arena already so people could walk down the trail as well.”

The area is named the Delhi Kinsmen Sports Park and Stefan said it would be a great honor for the new Kin Club to progress with that property and adding to the park.

The dog park will cost $28,000 and the Kin Club is splitting the cost with the county.

Stefan said the club would like to see the dog park named the Delhi Kin Dog Park.

The Kin Club wants to work in partnership with the county for the betterment of the community, Stefan said.

“It’s vital for Delhi to have a service club like ours working side by side with Norfolk,” Stefan said. “We have many, many other ideas that are going to be coming down the pipeline so we thought this might be a real nice one to start off with.”

Stefan brought to the meeting a check worth $7,000 as a first installation on the club’s contribution to the project to demonstrate its commitment to the dog park. The remaining $7,000 will be paid next September.

“We’re very serious about this and like I said earlier, we’ve had some very successful fundraising events and now it’s time we spent some money,” Stefan said.

The county had earmarked $45,000 for a dog park in Delhi for 2027 but preliminary pricing by county staff has found that putting up fence will cost about $28,000.

Councilors were also told there is a resident who lives beside the proposed location who needs to be notified of the plan.

Coun. Mike Columbus said he’s had many residents ask him when Delhi would get a dog park.

“When I said 2027 they thought it should come a lot earlier so when Brent (Stefan) came to me I said if someone could raise 50 per cent of the money that’s a good deal,” Columbus said.

Councilors accepted Stefan’s presentation and directed staff to prepare a report on the proposal.

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