City of Sunset Hills Applies for Dog Park Grant

In a recent special session of the Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen, a unanimous vote went to the dogs. A new proposed dog park for Sunset Hills could be under way as soon as this spring.

According to Alderman Dee Baebler, the dog park is something residents have shown great interest in by reaching out to the parks department and the board.

“Several people have visited the one in Arnold and we have the opportunity to use the land at Truman School,” Baebler said. “We want to do it up right—they have a lot of neat things like having it separated to big dog and little dog.”

Gerald Brown, director of parks and recreation, has applied for a park planning permit and said that they should hear if that request has been granted by the end of February. The municipal parks planning grant will allocate up to $5,000 for the city to hire a consultant to do more background work.

“(The consultant) can do some digging for us—how big it should be, water, amenities, what size fence it should field—recognizant work,” Brown said. “It will probably take them about 30-45 days depending on how much stuff we really need to find.”

If the city does decide to go forward with the park, it will apply for another grant for construction of the dog park in October.

“If we decide not to do that, we could raise funds—it depends on what we want to do,” Brown said. “Right now we have a lot of data to give to the consultant. We looked at Arnold because of the size of an already existing park. We don’t want to mirror it exactly; it’s all an idea.”