Park gets cleaned up, ready for trails

POLSON - The piles of scrap metal and glass shards on the banks of the Flathead River seemed endless to the Boy Scouts and Scout leaders of Troop 1947 during a cleanup Saturday of the Travis Dolphin Dog Park.

The Scouts do at least one cleanup of the riverbank every year at the dog park. They took buckets of broken glass and rusty metal to the landfill for recycling.

"Every so often, erosion and big waves bring new trash, metal and pieces of glass to the river bank," Scout Master Doug Crosby said. "The cleaning process seems endless."

Crosby said a city dump used to occupy the space that has since been turned into a dog park.

Over two years ago, Crosby's son Jonathan passed a construction plan of the dog park through the parks and recreation department and city council as part of the boy's Eagle Scout project.

Every year since then, the scouts have done at least one major project involving the dog park, usually as part of a troop member's Eagle Scout project.

The year following the grand opening of the dog park, which happened in May 2008, Stefan McCrumb built the dock at the dog park and Sam Boyle built the park's sign.

"It is nice to see it all coming together," Crosby said of the new additions last year. "It is really getting established."

Crosby said that this year's project will be by Clay Frissell, and will include a trail that runs from the entry gate of the park down to the riverbank.

The idea surfaced that the new trail should be handicap accessible.

Frissell began his research on how to build a trail that meets the American Disabilities Act, Crosby said.

"He has already surveyed the land where the trail would be and he has a presentation coming up in front of the parks and recreation department and the city council to get the project passed," Doug said.

Crosby predicts that if the Polson Parks and Recreation Department and city council approve the plan, the trail will be completed by June and the community will be able to use it this summer.