EDISON — Four-legged residents in the Edison and Metuchen area will soon have a place where they can socialize and get some exercise — and their owners will be able to do the same.
That’s because at the Nov. 9 Township Council meeting, Edison approved the creation of a dog park on Whitman Avenue on the Edison-Metuchen border.
The site, which is about 4.3 acres, will be a shared resource between Edison and Metuchen, Anthony Russomanno, the township’s constituent relations administrator, explained after the meeting. Metuchen already approved the project, he said.
Middlesex County Freeholder Charles Tomaro spoke about the park at the Nov. 9 meeting. He said there would be two park areas, one for smaller dogs and one for their larger counterparts.
The park will likely evolve over time.
“It’s going to be bare bones at the beginning,” Tomaro said. “But at least it will be a start.”
Russomanno said the project originated with the Metuchen Girl Scout Troop and made its way to Metuchen Council President Ron Grayzel. However, there wasn’t a suitable site in Metuchen for the project, and Grayzel, Russomanno said, reached out to Tomaro and him to explore additional possibilities in Edison.
The site selected encompasses what is known as the Chemical Insecticide Corporation site, a remediated Superfund site.
“It was cleaned up to residential standards a long time ago,” Russomanno said. “It’s a good, clean site.”
Russomanno said he hopes work will begin on the park next month; not much will be required to convert the site into a dog park. Fencing is the primary need, and Edison and Metuchen will work with the county to procure it, although there will be areas for dogs to walk and play outside the fenced area.
Russomanno said officials are also discussing with Middlesex Water on how water could be piped in for the dogs.
He said Metuchen and Edison will share maintenance responsibilities, which include lawn maintenance and garbage pickup. The municipalities will alternate months and split the costs for lawn cutting, which he estimates will cost about $400 a month.
He said PetSmart and other businesses will be doing some fundraising for the project as well.
One cost neither the township nor the county will have to incur, however, is staffing, as the park will not have any personnel stationed there, Russomanno said.
Since little work is needed to get the park ready, Russomanno said he anticipates the park will be dog-ready by spring.
The only open issue, he said, is a name for the park, which he said he may hold a contest to decide—although Tomaro joked at the Nov. 9 meeting that it could be named for him.