Dog Wash Proposed for City Bark Park

Corrine Zartler, basset hound owner and frequent visitor to the dog park, believes there are few things worse than a dirty dog.

That is why she wants to build a dog wash at the bark park at Arlington Drive and Newport Boulevard.

Like any devoted dog owner, Zartler loves to spoil her three canines, Rose, Sophie and George, by taking them to the town dog park to let them run free of their leashes. But getting them home has always been a problem.

Reflecting on her first trip to the park, Zartler said that both pets and owner enjoyed the day until they began to head toward the car.

“I thought to myself: ‘What a disaster!’ ” Zartler said, realizing the three muddy, grassy hounds were going to dirty both her car and house.

Since then, she resolved to take the dogs to the park only when her car was already filthy.

She even began dousing them with bottled water and toweling them dry after a hard day’s play in the park.

Eventually, however, Zartler came to believe the solution to her dilemma would come only if she were able to give her hounds a proper bathing after their wading paw-deep in mud in the park.

Now she hopes officials will agree with her.

“It’s a pretty interesting idea,” said Keith Van Holt, city director of community services.

Van Holt was contacted by Zartler earlier this year about putting a dog wash in the popular park. He told her about an abandoned building on the property that could be rented, if rehabilitated, to house a dog wash and a waiting area for pet owners.

If approved by the Parks Commission at its meeting tonight, the proposal will be forwarded to the Planning Commission by July.