Yelm city officials and staff celebrated the beginning of construction for the new off-leash dog park in a “ground-breaking” ceremony on Sept. 25 at the park’s location on Rhoton Road.
Construction of the off-leash dog park is expected to begin this week, and employees will have 90 working days to complete the park once they’ve started.
Mayor Joe DePinto, who was on-hand for the ground-breaking ceremony, said the City of Yelm is excited to get the park’s construction underway.
“We’re ready to get this project started, and it’s been a long time coming,” DePinto said. “We’re all funded now, and we just broke ground today, obviously. We’re looking forward to getting started and having (the dog park) open for our people.
“I do want to highlight there’s a lot of people who live in apartments in Yelm and don’t have space for their dogs,” he continued. “This park is going to help out a lot for them. It might not help residents with acreage in Yelm, but for most people that have a small yard or no yard at all, this will be a huge benefit for them.”
The off-leash dog park’s construction contract is valued at $693,529.20. During a Yelm City Council meeting on Sept. 12, Cody Colt, Yelm Public Works director, said the City has $575,000 of grant money dedicated to the off-leash dog park, and the city will pay the $118,000 difference. He added that if the city didn’t use the grant money for this project, the money would go away.
