Erlanger celebrated the grand opening of the new Amber Run Dog Park Thursday afternoon. The dog park represents the first significant opening of the city’s Eons Adventure Park, a massive park project spanning over 1,000 acres of urban woodland.
“Today is the first symbolic opening of Eon’s Adventure Park proper,” said City Administrator Mark Collier. “There’s a lot of different amenities that are going to be incorporated, but we started with the dog park.”
The event was attended by Erlanger elected officials, as well as Rabbit Hash’s Mayor Boone (no last name given), who seemingly confused the event for a public legislative meeting, as indicated by his repeated affirmative calls to the attendees.
“We heard this was opening up and have been really looking forward to it,” said Erlanger resident Luke Tobergte, who attended the opening with his dog Tybee. Tobergte said he often takes his dog to the dog park at England Idlewild Park in Boone County, but with the opening of Amber Run, he now has a closer option.
“This is just over a mile from our house, so this is awesome,” Tobergte said.
The park is split into two paddocks of roughly equal size, one for large dogs and one for smaller dogs. Fencing encloses both paddocks, and a large wall with a mural painted by local students flanks the rear of the park.
The dog park ended up costing about $500,000 from the city’s tax-funded park fund. About 12% of all Erlanger property tax revenue contributes to the fund. Residents can also purchase so-called Puppies of Love banners, which are displayed on posts surrounding the park, to contribute the fund. Banners are changed out every two years, and all of the spots for this year are already filled. Residents can still sign up for next year’s waiting list.
“It’s the culmination of seven years of hard work, vision, planning, executing on it,” said Mayor Jessica Fette, emphasizing the efforts of the Public Works Department in bringing the park to fruition.
“Everything was so intentional and thought out,” Fette also said.
The $500,000 price tag, Fette said, was significantly lower than original cost projections, which were in the millions. Collier attributed the reduction in cost to community partnerships, such as the students who contributed the artwork.
“We still want it to look great,” Collier said. “How do we do it? It just takes a few connections.”
The next stage of the Eons Park is a bike track in the space above the dog park, the ribbon cutting for which is expected later this summer.
The Amber Run Dog Park is located on 4200 Houston Road in Erlanger. It closes every day at dusk. Learn more about the Eons park project at eonsadventurepark.com.