The Sauble Beach Bannister Park baseball diamond is no longer a temporary dog park as of this week.
The Town of South Bruce Peninsula says since April 2021, the baseball diamond in Sauble Beach was used as a temporary dog park as the diamond was not being used for its intended purpose at the time due to pandemic restrictions.
Mayor Janice Jackson says, “we have always been considering a dog park at Sauble Beach, and the location we had chosen was in Bannister Park on the other side of the community centre. The ball diamond has been under utilized for quite a long time and then the pandemic pretty much shut it down for softball. So it seemed like the natural solution for a dog park was to put it into the ball diamond during the pandemic.”
The town adds as recreational activities are returning back to normal, minor baseball and the Sauble Beach women’s baseball team will be heading out to the field once again.
“It’s interesting coming out of the pandemic, we now have more teams than we ever expected wanting to play ball at the Sauble Beach diamond. I think we have almost 30 teams, plus a woman’s ball team,” says Jackson.
The diamond will no longer be used as a dog park on May 24 and once the baseball season ends, the town will then utilize it again as a temporary dog park.
The town says council will be discussing the need for a permanent dog park in Sauble Beach at an upcoming council meeting, which Jackson says they will have a path forward in the next two weeks.
Residents are encouraged to use the town’s other two dog parks, the Old Oliphant Ball Diamond and Tayja’s Doggy Park, until a permanent one is established in Sauble Beach.