Year 9 student Estella Lister and year 10 students Layla Manning, Maddie Webb and Sienna McGinity will build a “toy box” for sticks, a ramp, obstacles and will set up weaving poles as extra attractions at the dog park.
The students will use their Opuke Time at school to work on the project for the community and have gauged feedback from dog walkers, searched online to look at similar projects in Rolleston and Leeston and have come up with designs.
Speaking at the Methven Community Board meeting on Monday, Layla Manning said the dog park was currently little more than an empty field and it needed to be enhanced and made more appealing.
Feedback through a survey had shown dog owners were in favour of some of the ideas suggested, such as jumps and obstacles.
She said the new equipment would be painted in blue and yellow, colours that colour-blind dogs could recognise.
Estella Lister said the group had begun accumulating wood, paint, tyres and other items and would work on the project in an area at the Methven Trucking Company.
Permission had been sought and obtained from the dog park owner, Ashburton District Council, and staff there had praised the initiative and offered future input.
Initial designs would now be tweaked and work would get under way soon, she said.
The four college students will talk about their project at a school function later in the year, explaining the concept and process from start to finish.
The dog park is on a triangular section of land between Dolma Street and Line Road and was opened in August 2019.
Methven Community Board member Kelvin Holmes said the dog park was bare and needed trees and he praised the students for their initiative with the new project.
Similar sentiments were echoed by fellow board members Ron Smith and Richie Owen.
