CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Padre Island dog park could be threatened by the future expansion of the wastewater treatment plant that sits next to it along Whitecap Beach
The dog park is a privately managed facility that is on city-owned property.
Josh Kimak loves to bring his dogs Sammy and Lucky to the Riley P. Dog Park on the island. It sits right next door to the city wastewater treatment plant along Whitecap.
"It’s pretty, pretty, pretty hard to tell what we should do or shouldn’t do. We fought for this for a long, long time and now finally we got what we wanted. Now, they’re going to take it away. I don’t know what to say," he said.
Recently, Corpus Christi Parks & Recreation Director Robert Dodd said the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee that it may not be beneficial for the city to invest additional funds to assist the dog park when there is a possibility for future expansion, which is necessary for the operation of the wastewater treatment plant.
That could mean the privately managed dog park on city property goes away.
Corpus Christi Water officials said they don't believe there will need to be an expansion of the wastewater treatment facility anytime soon, but that can always change from year to year. So, the city says it drew up a contract with the park managers to reflect that.
"The dog park right now is on a year to year lease. They just agreed to a new lease and it will be a year to year," said Corpus Christi Director of Water System Infrastructure Director Wes Nebgen
We are told that currently, the wastewater treatment plant is at 50%. There are several multi-million dollar housing projects starting up on the island, but CCW said all of that construction won't be enough to push capacity close to the 75% mark, which is when design work would automatically start on an expansion project.
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni said that the city may be putting in a new dog park at one of the island parks.
"Right now as an example we are engaging the community for Commodores Park and doing a master planning process there. It could be that the community says hey we’d like a dog park there," he said.
If the city builds the dog park, it would certainly be a relief for Kimak and all the dog owners on the island who just want to have a place to socialize and let their dogs run free.
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