More than a year and a half after the project was approved, Macon County pet owners and their dogs are finally using the new dog park on Phillips Street.
The Macon County Board of Commissioners approved funding for the construction of the 2-acre dog park during their meeting of April 2019. At the time, county parks and recreation director Seth Adams said that costs for developing the park could run as high as $111,457.
The commissioners approved funding by a margin of 3-2, with Karl Gillespie and Paul Higdon voting against, with the majority citing the difficulties the current park by the Little Tennessee River Greenway experiences with flooding.
Since then, the park has experienced a large number of delays and roadblocks on the way to completion. Groundbreaking happened in August 2019 and construction came together fairly quickly, but a year later, Adams said that they were still waiting on the grass to grow in.
Inconsistent rain meant that several attempts to get the grass to take root failed, and officials didn’t want dogs tearing it up and turning it into a muddy mess within days of the park opening.
County workers took the chains off the gates on Friday, Nov. 5 to put up some signs, not intending to open the park officially. When they came back a couple of hours later to lock it again, there were dogs and people using it already. So the park is now officially open.
It is located on Phillips Street in Franklin directly across the street from Drake Enterprises.