DON'T FORGET TO VOTE on your preferences for our dog park! The survey will close tomorrow, 15 January 2010.

Dog owners on Capitol Hill are getting a present just in time for the holidays!  The construction contract for Kingsman Dog Park was officially bid last week and December 17^th was the pre-bid conference.  The pre-bid conference, held at the future site of the park, gave contractors an opportunity to meet with officials from DPR, see the site for themselves, and ask technical questions.  Eight contractors attended the conference and DPR expects five or six bids to come in.

By law, the bid has to remain open for thirty days, in this case until January 11, 2010. The DC Office of Contracting and Procurement typically schedules a formal bid opening within a few days of the closing date. Sherry Frear, our contact person from DPR’s Office of Planning and Capital Projects, expects that construction will begin in mid-March 2010. 

            Since the park is getting nearer to becoming a reality, members of the Hill Hounds community may want to attend the Annual Meeting of Hill Hounds on January 21, 2010 at SOVA coffeehouse, located at 1359 H St. NE.  The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm.  The meeting will focus on finalizing design elements of the park and establishing fundraising goals for the next year. 

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Go to http://igive.com/hillhounds to sign up.

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Although the development and construction of Kingsman Field Dog Park has moved slower than we'd hoped, we understand from DPR that the project is on track, and that they are shooting for construction to begin in early 2010 with completion by spring or early summer. We are in the final stages of deciding on specifics in the design of the park. We'd like to get some feedback from future users about some of the design elements that will be incorporated into the park and what you think are the most important materials, furnishings and amenities to include in the completed park.

With that in mind, we've developed a short survey. Please take the time to answer the Kingsman Field Dog Park Survey, which can be found at http://hillhounds.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=123

If you haven't done so already, you will need to register as a member of our website and log in to take the survey. We set it up this way so that we'd know all of the feedback was coming from the folks who are expected to use the park most- dog owners on the Hill. If you're not registered on the website yet, you can do so at http://hillhounds.com/content/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=registers

Before you answer the survey, please read the context at the top of the page:

Park Layout (questions 1-4): The park will be split up between a Small Dog Area to be used by small/shy/old dogs who do better when separated from bigger or rougher dogs, as well as a larger Main Area. Small dogs will be welcome in the Main Area. The total square footage of the dog park is set by DPR. These questions are designed to solicit feedback as to how we can best allocate that total square footage.

Ground Surface (questions 5-7): Because of the high volume of foot/paw traffic expected at the park, the ground surface cannot be grass because the park would have to be shut down on a regular basis for reseeding. Therefore, we want your feedback on these practical dog park surface options. More information about these surface options is available at the bottom of this page.

Amenities (questions 8-12): The Department of Parks and Recreation will provide a hose spigot, trash cans, a dog waste bag dispenser, shrubbery and a community bulletin board. Our first priorities for additional amenities will be installing 3 or 4 benches and trees for shading. Beyond that, we would like to know what other amenities you would like.

If you're a member of Facebook, there's a new way to help Kingsman Field Dog Park! The park now has an official "Cause" page on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/390922 in addition to our "Fan Page" at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/Hill-Hounds/53568602452

And if your birthday is coming up in the next 30 days, you can ask your friends to donate to the park as your birthday wish.  After you join the cause at the above link, go to http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/new?cause_id=390922 to set up your birthday wish.