Dog Park to finally Break Ground after Years of Hurdles Share

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After five years of dream­ing, plan­ning, and mul­ti­ple dead-ends, the shov­els will final­ly hit the ground for Marion’s first dog park – Wig­gly Field.

The City is receiv­ing the gen­er­ous gift, thanks to the ini­tia­tive and per­se­ver­ance of long­time local busi­ness­man and Rotar­i­an, Dwight Ott. ​“I had vis­it­ed a dog park in Utah in 2018, and saw how it brought peo­ple togeth­er and pro­vid­ed some out­door fun for own­ers and their dogs. I drove by Bal­lard Field one day, and thought how beau­ti­ful a place it could be.” Ott approached his Rotary, and it fit their mission. 

“The ini­tial plan was to improve the entire 20 acres and cre­ate anoth­er park with camp­ing,” Ott explained. How­ev­er, the project faced hur­dles the club nev­er imag­ined. Numer­ous agen­cies need­ed to review the project. Coor­di­nat­ing agen­cies includ­ed the City of Mar­i­on, Parks & Recre­ation Depart­ment, Park Board, Rotary Dog Park Com­mit­tee, DNR, FEMA, Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Grant Coun­ty, Land Water & Con­ser­va­tion Fund, and the State His­toric Preser­va­tion Office. Fund­ing was a chal­lenge. Ott recalled, ​“The grant I applied for was denied, but I applied the next year and was award­ed a match­ing grant from the LWCF. The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion also approved match­ing funds. 

​“So, we were off and run­ning. Then, COVID hit, and every­thing stopped. When things opened back up, infla­tion had tripled. We then rewrote the plans for just the 3‑acre dog park. Then, there were many issues with con­trac­tors and the bid process. All in all, there were four bid cycles over three more years. All the way through this process, it is need­less to say that the City of Mar­i­on and Parks Depart­ment have bent over back­wards to help me see this through,” Ott said.

The dog park is being made pos­si­ble from $250,900 from the Mar­i­on Rotary Club; $214,930 from LWCF; and $81,970 from the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion, for a total of $547,800. The com­mit­tee is cur­rent­ly fundrais­ing for agili­ty fea­tures for the park esti­mat­ed at $30,000. Spon­sor­ships are offered which will pro­vide a name and/​or busi­ness name on a dog sil­hou­ette on the park fence for five years. Lev­els are $2,500 & $1,500.

Ott said, ​“We want to cre­ate rea­sons for peo­ple to live in Mar­i­on and not just work here and live some­where else. This adds one more qual­i­ty-of-life attrac­tion to our com­mu­ni­ty, and will hope­ful­ly spawn oth­ers to take on a project as well.”

May­or Ronald Mor­rell, Jr. aims to enhance the over­all gate­way area. ​“Wig­gly Field will rep­re­sent the inau­gur­al phase in the revi­tal­iza­tion of Bal­lard Field. This $600,000 invest­ment marks the begin­ning of our broad­er vision to trans­form the 20-acre site into a vibrant des­ti­na­tion for the entire com­mu­ni­ty. It reflects our ongo­ing com­mit­ment to the belief that ​‘Mar­i­on Deserves Nice Things,’ and we are excit­ed to con­tin­ue build­ing upon this momentum.”

Con­struc­tion will com­mence with a ground­break­ing cer­e­mo­ny at Bal­lard Field at 11am on April 8^th, and will con­tin­ue until com­plet­ed in July, weath­er per­mit­ting. Wig­gly Field will have sep­a­rate areas for large and small dogs with a shared agili­ty area. Bal­lard Field and the soc­cer com­plex will remain, and the entire park encom­pass­ing both Bal­lard Field and Wig­gly Field will have a new name — Rotary Park.

Overview Ren­der­ing:

Entrance Ren­der­ing: