MANSFIELD, Ohio – Ontario’s Maize Memorial Dog Park officially is open for play.
The first phase of the project, which included installing a 6-foot tall industrial fence around the space, wrapped up in the last week.
Maize Memorial Dog Park Chair Demrie Alonzo, who spearheaded the project, said the opening of the park has been two years in the making.
“It’s surreal right now. I keep going out there and can’t believe it’s there,” she said. “This is just step one; but having the fence put up was obviously huge, and now it’s usable.”
Located inside Ontario Marshall Park, the plot of land that makes up the park spans 2 1/2 acres and is Richland County’s only official park for dogs.
“We’re really excited to have it here, said Ontario resident Susi Maiyer, who brought her border collie Maggie to play at the park Thursday evening.
“We’ve been going down to Columbus to Alum Creek where they have a dog park, and it’s pretty nice, but I don’t think it’s even as big as this one, and the fencing is not nearly as nice. So I think when this is all finished, it’s going to be a lot nicer.”
She said it’s “really nice” to have a park near home to bring Maggie to get exercise and to play.
“We have a big back yard and she loves to go out there and play, but she likes somebody to play with,” Maiyer said. “So it’s nice when you can come up here and she can run with the other dogs.”
Alonzo said Ontario City Councilman Eddie Gallo was the biggest supporter of the Maize Memorial Dog Park, which is a registered nonprofit group.
“He was the one who told us what we needed to do to present it to council, how to do it, and he walked us through the process,” Alonzo said. “If it wasn’t for Eddie, this would not have happened.”
Gallo said he and Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson wanted to see the dog park come to Ontario.
“To be able to provide something like this for (people) in a public setting that can be jointly used by everybody in the region and in the countywide area and beyond is really exciting for us,” he said.
“We’re thrilled that it’s here and that people are already starting to utilize it, but we’re even more excited for what it’s going to eventually become in the spring and beyond.”
Having the park is another way to show people that Ontario is “not just” a retail and business center, Gallo also said.
“We want it to be known as a place where there are families. Ontario is only as strong as the families that support it.”
A part of many of those families are their pets, he added.
“The family pet – be it a dog or a cat or whatever it is – is part of the family, part of the American family makeup,” he said. “I have a dog – I’ve always had dogs – and our dog is a part of our family.”
THE ORIGIN: The name “Maize” is a tribute to a golden retriever that passed away in 2010. He belonged to Alonzo’s son’s grandparents, who lived in Ohio.
“That was my son’s best friend,” Alonzo said.
On the organization’s website, she wrote a brief story explaining the relationship between her son and Maize.
“Maize wasn’t even our dog but belonged to my son’s grandparents who lived in Ohio. At the time, we lived in Wisconsin. Whenever we came down to visit, Samuel and Maize were inseparable. Even in his aging years, Maize would go up and down the stairs to keep up with an active 5-year-old, the story reads.
“The last time Sam saw Maize was when he went down for a visit in May of 2010. At that time his grandparents said Maize was hardly walking and just lying on the cement floor, panting. The second Samuel walked in the door, Maize stood up and, for Sam’s entire week-long visit, Maize was his old self again. He collapsed just a few days after we went back to Wisconsin and died soon after. My son is 10 now, but he still tears up when talking about Maize.”
PHASES: Putting up the fence cost $16,000, according to Alonzo, who added that the organization used Eldridge and Company to install the fence instead of volunteers.
“We wanted it to be something that would last,” she said.
A double gate also was installed, which is usable but will be part of a future divider fence for small and large dogs.
Likewise, waste dispensers will be added soon.
While it is available for use, Maize Memorial Dog Park won’t have its official grand opening until next spring.
According to Alonzo a second phase will begin in the spring.
That phase will entail installing the divider fence, a transition pen for owners who aren’t sure how their dogs will behave with others; a gravel area; a walkway; and water fountains.
“We also have a lot of people who sponsored fence sections for $150,” she said. “It’s a 10-foot section that gets sponsored, and there’s a bone plaque that goes up that they can put the name of their dog or business or their name on the plaque.”
Those will be put up in the spring as part of the grand opening, along with a sign to recognize financial donors, she said.
Gallo said 149 10-foot sections and about 60 have been claimed.
“There are still plenty of those available,” he said. “They’re going to be doing benches – there are many sponsorship opportunities for everybody.”
A third phase is earmarked for the following year, with plans to bring in shelters, benches, additional water fountains, and fountain pads that squirt water for dogs to run through.
FINDING A HOME IN ONTARIO: Richland County was the only place Alonzo said she has lived that didn’t have a designated dog park.
“I’ve lived in several different states, and everywhere I’ve been there has been dog parks,” she said. “When I came here, I was shocked Richland County didn’t have one.”
With the land in the area, Alonzo said she thought it would be a “piece of cake.”
“I talked to other people who had tried getting a dog parking started in Mansfield and Lexington, and they said, ‘Nope, they’re just not open to it,’” Alonzo said.
After attempting to launch the park in Lexington and Mansfield herself, she went to Ontario.
“They were very open to the idea, so we kind of went around on what land was available,” she said. “The most logical place in Marshall Park, which has a lot of land and has a lot of people who walk there dog in it.”
The official dog park operation agreement, which gave the nonprofit group rights to use the plot of land, was signed Nov. 21, 2014, by Alonzo, Hutchinson, Gallo, and Ontario Local Schools Superintendent Lisa Carmichael.
The land is owned by the city and the school district.
MAIZE PLAY DATES: Alonzo works at Linda’s Mobile Grooming Palace, which has an office in Shelby. Linda Carr, owner of the grooming business, serves as Maize Memorial Dog Park’s co-chair.
The dog park is open from dawn till dusk every day of the week and has a Facebook page, where people can get info about upcoming events and a Facebook group where owners can schedule play dates for their K-9 companions.
“It’s called Maize Play Dates, and it’s a place people can go and kind of set up with other people play dates with their dogs,” she said. “We just started that.”
More information on the park and upcoming events can be found at maizememorialdogpark.com.
