Trumbull County on track for leashless dog park at Mosquito

By Ed Runyan

The dog park will be the only one of its kind in the Mahoning Valley.

BAZETTA — Dog owners who had hoped the Trumbull County MetroParks board would provide them with a leashless dog park in Clarence Darrow Park in Champion are probably going to find what they’re looking for a little east of there later this year — in Mosquito Lake State Park.

A MetroParks plan to create such a place, where dogs could run free on the north side of Educational Highway near Kent State University Trumbull Campus in Champion, was put on hold last year when the state turned down the park board’s request for a $24,000 grant.

But Mike Wilson, board chairman, learned six weeks ago from Mike Grammer, manager of Mosquito Lake State Park, that park ranger Tim Cook had proposed a dog park for Mosquito Lake State Park a couple years ago.

The state park already had designed a dog park on three acres just west of the beach and the state Route 305 dam, but it lacked the money needed to install the 2,000 feet of fencing.

As Grammer and Wilson talked about their similar ideas, it became clear the two park systems wanted the same thing and that the MetroParks’ board had the money and people to get the project moving.

The board already had set aside $13,000 of the $35,000 cost of its dog park and was willing to use it to purchase the fencing, Wilson said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.