Updated: Dog Park Supporters Hope Patience Delivers More Space

Dog park supporters got what they came for at Wednesday's selectmen's meeting.

But they may end up with more land than they had expected for their dogs to play and exercise.

Selectmen approved a motion for the  group to locate a place for dogs at Phillips Park behind the .

This was why they came to the meeting; it's an approval that serves as a fall-back or placeholder.

The other part of the board's approved motion provides SPOT a place — if it is found to be suitable — within a four-lot parcel behind the town pumping station that the town proposes to buy from the Bertram House.

The proposed purchase of the landlocked 135,000 square feet parcel is an item on the town meeting warrant.

The article asks the town to appropriate $50,000 for the land so that the new police station will have an exit to Sculpin Way.

The article was placed on the warrant as a means to extend the boundary on town-owned land by 200 feet in order to accomodate an exit for police, the acting town administrator said.

Acting Town Administrator Dave Castellarin told SPOT representatives Andrea Diamant, Jennifer Dorsey and Lynn Zabar that, if the sale is approved at town meeting, the town would survey the land, some of which is wet, to deem its appropriateness for a dog park.

What sold the SPOT representatives on the idea was the chance that they might end up with a larger area for dogs that would allow them to segregate dogs according to size or if they do not get along.

"I'm willing to wait if there is a possibility it could be bigger," Jennifer Dorsey said.

Selectman Jill Sullivan told the SPOT people that the board is committed to finding the group a spot for their dogs.

The SPOT group has been seeking a park for more than a year. They have raised anout $30,000 for the project.