Nicole Barucci has always enjoyed living in Guilford. And now, she loves it more than ever. That’s because there is a new dog park in town where she takes her lab mix, Drunk Otis, to run and cavort with the other happy dogs at play.

“It’s been great for him, it’s been great for us,” she said on a recent Tuesday evening in the park. “He runs around. He’s calmer, so we’re calmer, and everyone is happy. It’s great dog watching. It’s great people watching. And it’s been nice meeting my neighbors. It truly has improved our quality of life.”

“We feel like we’ve hit the lottery,” says Tim Ratta, sitting next to Barucci.

Those sentiments were echoed by others visiting Connecticut’s newest dog park, which opened earlier this spring after almost seven years after the first inquiry was made about the possibility of such a park, and about two years of solid, intensive work by a group of about two dozen volunteers, and many more who supported them. The park came together after the town identified a suitable piece of town property at Nut Plains Park in Guilford, off of Nut Plains Road, shortly after it branches off from Goose Lane. The park was built by volunteers after the town agreed to the location and cleared any legal concerns with the town attorney, and after the requisite approvals by town boards and commissions. A whirlwind of yappy hour fundraisers, parades, and other events that followed raised more than $42,000 to build the park at no expense to town taxpayers.

Jo-Anne Basile first saw the need for such a park in 2009, when she was the owner of Paws on the Green, a pet store near the Guilford town green.

“I saw that people needed a place to run their dogs off leash. And leash laws don’t allow for that to happen,” she says.

She also knew, from the many years she spent living in the Washington, D.C. area, which has lots of dog parks, that they provide additional benefits.

Great for Dogs, Great for the Community

“I came from an area that had a lot of dog parks. It’s not just great for the dogs, it’s great for the community. It’s a very social experience for people, and it’s a chance for people to share information,” Basile says. “It allows people to get to know their neighbors. So it has all of these positive benefits.”

Still, it wasn’t the right time for Guilford in 2009 and the town could not settle on the right place, so the idea fell by the wayside. Basile closed up her store and eventually took another job with a group that advocates in the state legislature for laws that support animals, a job that was a perfect fit, given all of her lobbying experience in Washington, D.C. and her love for animals. While the idea had been back-burnered by town officials, it wasn’t forgotten.

Rick Maynard, Guilford’s director of Parks & Recreation, was walking through Nut Plains Park a few years ago.

“I walked in there one day, there was a nice little knoll and I thought, ‘What about there?’ I brought it to the Parks & Rec Commission. They liked it, too,” he says.

From there, he says, the Parks & Recreation Commission and Department worked hand in hand with Basile and Catherine Kiernan, the other lead volunteer on the project, and the team of volunteers they assembled. They worked with a consultant, Marilynn R. Glasser, the author of Dog Park Design, Development and Operation, to come up with an ideal design for the park, and to develop rules, which were reviewed by the town attorney. Local ordinances were changed to accommodate off-leash dogs at the new park.

Initial concerns about liability were alleviated when it was determined that any problems, such as dog bites, were 100 percent the responsibility of the dog owner, not Parks & Rec and not the town, Maynard says.

All Volunteer Work, Money

And from there, Maynard says, it was all volunteer work and volunteer money. Basile and Kiernan visited other dog parks, including the Clinton dog park; spoke with town officials in towns that had dog parks; and continued to plan.

They created a group, posted it on Facebook, called a meeting, and “suddenly we had 25 people who came to our first meeting. We started to delegate and that created the volunteer framework for the Guilford dog park,” Basile says.

“Catherine did an incredible job fundraising for the park; in a little over two months through various events, over $40,000 was raised for the park, which is in itself amazing and a testament to how much the town supported the idea of the park,” Basile says. “Now on to Phase Two, which will include a paved pathway around the perimeter of the park to make it easier for the seniors and people with disabilities to get around the entire park if they want to; we also plan to add some obstacle equipment for the dogs. Catherine’s already got some fundraising ideas underway.”

Anyone interested in helping out can buy engraved bricks by going to the www.guilforddogpark.com or the park’s Facebook page or by contacting Guilford Parks & Recreation. Additional volunteers who played key roles include Cindy Levine, Matt Callan, and Mike Guerrera of Guerrera Landscaping. Guilford resident Veronica Soeil, who helped develop the Hamden Dog Park, also was a supporter of the park and a resource, Basile says.

The next meeting of the Guilford Dog Park committee will be Thursday, June 16. Anyone interested in helping with the dog park, from Guilford or other towns, is welcome. For more information about the meeting or how to donate money or much-needed wood chips, contact Jo-Anne Basile at jbasile@comcast.net.