Los Banos is opening its first dog park, after years in the works

Furry friends in Los Banos will finally have a place to roam around freely.

The city is scheduled to open its first off-the-leash dog park at 9 a.m. Monday. The $259,000 for the 1-acre project, on Los Banos’ to-do list since the mid-2000s, came from the city’s park development fund.

“I’m just very excited, I think it’s going to be a really popular destination,” said Joe Heim, Los Banos parks and recreation operations manager. “I think people are going to have a lot of fun and its one more thing for people to do in town.”

Located at the AG Sports Complex at 700 N. Mercey Springs Road., the park has a section for dogs of different sizes and a small dog section for those under 30 pounds.

There’s also drinking fountains for dogs and their owners, plus 50 trees for shade, waste bags, a large parking lot and a playground.

The park can be accessed through by Highway 165 or through the St. Francis neighborhood.

It will be open during park hours daily from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Rules for use of the park will be posted on site and are also available to review on the city’s parks and recreation website.

“It’s been an on-going conversation and I’m really happy that we were able to finally get it constructed and thankful the council approved it and people supported it, we got a lot of support, we had a couple of public meetings for it,” Heim said.

Council member Deborah Lewis shared similar thoughts.

“(Monday) is a great day for our furry family members, to have a place where they can safely engage in exercising and playing,” Lewis said in a news release. “Thank you Los Banos for making this dog park possible.”

Heim said when Los Banos moves into a post-pandemic world, the city will host a ribbon cutting and grand-opening this fall to celebrate the project with the community.