On May 3, 2019, Phil Spiller shared a presentation he had made the evening before at the City Council Meeting on the Westbrook Dog Park Expansion project. Phil calls it “one nice cohesive plan.”
The dog park is currently small and often muddy due to poor drainage that causes flooding when it rains. The area also features poor and uninviting trail entrances, poor and ineffective signage and a skate park that is looking tired. There has been a monument at the site since it was dedicated on July 4, 1976, explaining the name Bicentennial Park.
In 2003, the park was really just an open, unimproved field when Hannaford moved in and pledged $75K to improve the site. In 2006, the Westbrook Skate Park was built, but the Hannaford pledge remained largely unspent. 2014 brought a Portland Trails connection. 2016/2017 brought the small dog park based on results of DDW visioning sessions and with help from the City and Idexx, but with no expansion planned. By 2018, citizens had started a petition to simply enlarge the dog park.
Someone who recently moved to Westbrook asked why the park was so small and “crappy” and started a petition to increase the size. Phil got involved to try to take a more holistic approach to making improvements at this somewhat “hidden gem”. Phil has engaged multiple partners that include Discover Downtown Westbrook, Bike Maine, Idexx, Portland Trails, National Guard and the Westbrook Safety Mobility Access Committee. With these stakeholders, a landscape architect was brought in to develop a design to address the whole site.
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Dog parks are an up and coming amenity in many communities. The landscape architect was asked to incorporate concepts like good drainage, better lighting, ADA compliance - a sustainable “natural” dog park without using tax dollars. Other suggested amenities include a seating area, separate spaces for small and large dogs, and water fountains for humans and animals. The plan also includes objectives to rehab and expand trails and refurbish the skate park.Phil hopes to bring more groups into the project and turn a simple idea to expand the dog park into a more holistic vision by improving connectivity, expanding the user base and making Bicentennial park a modern attractive destination. To that end, he continues to make presentations to groups and businesses in an effort to gain consensus, and raise funds.
