By ANDREA LOPEZ
Features Editor

Dog owners are preparing for Warrensburg’s first dog park.

“We’re home of man’s best friend – we should have a dog park,” said Sue Kraus, Committee chair, Old Drum’s Best Friends Dog Park. “A lot of people, a lot of the students, have dogs in apartments. A lot of people have a residence where they really can’t run their dog (around).”

A committee met Monday night at the Warrensburg Parks and Recreation center to discuss fundraiser opportunities to complete the $30,000 project that has been two years in the making. When the two-year mark approached, the committee realized they were only 1/3 of the way to their fundraising goal. That’s when they turned to city council who granted the additional funding needed to complete the initial project.

“I had been working with Dodee Matthews here at the community center and approached her with the idea and so we went to the park board, and that’s when they had offered us Cave Hollow,” Kraus said. “Everybody in the community has been gracious. We have a lot of dog lovers here. People are clamoring to get in there. It’s up, it’s ready to go, and we’re going to have the opening on the 30th.”

However, Kraus said the dog park isn’t just for pets.

“It’s more about community, it’s about socialization for the dogs, as well as the people that go there because they have like interests and you will find that they will start to friend each other.”

People seem most excited to have a safe enclosed area for their dogs to freely play around.

“Just for them to have interesting things to play with or sniff around and discover and the open space,” said Dawn Schaeffer, Warrensburg resident.

For Dan Baldridge, committee member of Old Drum’s Best Friends Dog Park, it’s no different. Instead of walking his 12-year-old Shih Tzu, Gidget , around his neighborhood, the dog will have a new playground.

“Kathy, my wife, and I, are just dog lovers and we like to do stuff with the community – always hunting something out to make our city a little better,” he said. “We live in town, we don’t really have a place to let our dog off the leash so she can get out there and run around.”

Old Drum’s Best Friends Dog Park features a small dog section for dogs 40 lbs and under; and a large dog section for dogs weighing ore than 40 pounds.

“We’re still not done,” Kraus said. “We still need shelter and shade trees. We can expand the back fence line into the trees, if we can raise more money. And the parking lot has a problem. There’s a cave under there and it keeps dipping down, so we need to get the parking lot fixed. We’ve got a good start and we’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”

For those who don’t have a dog or who have lost a pet in the past, there will be an opportunity to buy an engraved brick that will be placed outside the dog park to a create a memorial wall in remembrance of those pets who have been lost, but not forgotten.

The grand opening of Old Drum’s Best Friends Dog Park is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at Cave Hollow, located at 1001 W. Gay St.