‘Bark park' possible for Butte

By Tim Trainor of The Montana Standard - 01/04/2009

Tim Trainor

Dogs can't speak for themselves, so Debbi Hall thought she would do it for them.

Hall is helping spearhead this year's Leadership, Education and Development program group project, sponsored by the Butte Chamber of Commerce.

And the project the group plans to push: A park for dogs.

Hall hopes to have three free-run, fully enclosed "bark parks" up and running in Butte by 2010, and add a couple more in the next few years.

A "bark park" is a staple in many big American cities, as a place where apartment and small home dwellers can go to exercise their dogs and have social interaction.

Hall said Bozeman has three such parks, Missoula has two and Lincoln, just west of Helena, has even added one.

But in Butte, all city parks are off-limits to all canines.

That will be LEAD's first challenge.

"We need to redefine the word park," Hall said. "We still want to have places that are off-limits to pets, like sports or aquatic parks, but we need to be able to define something differently multi-use or dog parks." She said her group will go before Butte-Silver Bow County commissioners in February to try to make changes to the city- county ordinance that bans dogs from parks.

Hall said building dog parks is already in the city's master plan, and she wants to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

But first, they need to know what the public wants. To that end, the group will lead a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, in the Butte Plaza Mall, near the Radio Shack store.

At the meeting, the LEAD group will seek comment about possible locations for the parks and a rough count of how many citizens would be interested in using them.

Hall said early returns show citizens are pushing a site near the Chamber of Commerce and the KOA campground.

Show up the meeting and voice your ideas, or for information call 299-2349 Former superintendent takes job with state Pete Carparelli, a former school superintendent in both Butte and Billings, has taken a See DIGGINGS, Page D2 job with the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

He will earn $62,000 a year as director of high school initiatives under new state Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau. Carparelli had most previously worked as a high school specialist under the OPI's former administration.

— Reporter Tim Trainor may be reached via e-mail at tim.trainor@lee.net or call 496-5519.