Local dog park to reopen Monday morning after repairs made to underground drain

The Lemoore Public Works Department announced Friday that the Lemoore Dog Park, located at the 19th Avenue Kings Lions Park, will reopen for use on Monday, July 18, at sunrise. The park will be open seven days a week, from sunrise to sunset.

The dog park has been shut down for about four weeks while a local contractor replaced an underground drainage pipe that broke through the surface and closed half the dog park for months.

The city’s engineering firm, Quad-Knopf, paid for the repairs to the park, and hired contractor Floyd Johnson to do the work.

Somehow a change in the design and construction of an underground drainage pipe in the park, located at Highway 198 and 19th Avenue was at the crux of the unsightly three-to-four-foot drainage pipe emerging from the ground.

The pipe was built originally when the park was renovated following the construction of the 19th Avenue overpass. The park was completely remodeled and now hosts a parking lot, bathrooms, two ball fields and two dog parks, separate spaces for large and small dogs.

The exposed pipe, clearly visible above the grassy area, was located in the middle of the small-dog park, and it had been closed for several months while city officials and Quad Knopf’s engineers decided what to do to fix it.

According to Olson, the pipe was originally meant to be constructed out of concrete, but somewhere along the line somebody, whether the city or Quad Knopf, may have changed it to plastic.

Olson said the pipe is a drain line that removes water from the park and expels the water via an outlet in the parking lot, another issue that Olson says Quad Knopf will remedy. It’s been 8 or 9 months since it came up he said.