For those of you wondering, yes, there is an off-leash dog park in Menifee.

But it's not an "official" dog park, in that it was not set aside specifically for off-leash dogs. It used to be a baseball field that was abandoned for a larger baseball field nearby. Residents now take their dogs there to run around off-leash.

It's located in Aldergate Park, on the corner of Menifee Rd and Aldergate Rd. See the map below.


While the park is fenced, it's not a chain-link fence. It's a wrought iron fence. The fence still offers enough space in between the bars for small dogs to squeeze out. There's also enough room below the fence to squeeze out in some places. If you have small dogs, I don't advise taking them there.

Valley Wide Recreation appears to have jurisdiction over this park. Does anyone know what they plan to do with it? Will they designate it officially as a dog park, or do they have plans for something else? I put a call into them, but had to leave a message.

If Valley Wide Recreation will designate this officially as a dog park, and maintain it as such, I'd like to see some residents form a non-profit corporation as the "Friends of Menifee Dog Park", and raise funds to pay for a chain link fence, doggie poop bags, and a water faucet for filling up water bowls. I'm willing to kick in some funds for that.

A while back, Todd & Kim Jester, who also writes here on Menifee 24/7, mentioned wanting to build a private dog park. While I still welcome that idea, perhaps private funds could be better put to use by converting this piece of Aldergate Park into an official dog park.

UPDATE: A few hours after posting this, I got a call from Sam at Valley Wide, saying this is actually a flood-control basin, and water will flood this area during rains. But they put in a base-ball backstop just to let kids play ball. He knows that people have been taking their dogs there, and Valley Wide doesn't have an issue with it.

I mentioned to him that putting chain link fence around the area would help keep smaller dogs from squeezing out of the wrought iron fence. He thought that was a good idea. He put me in touch with Vince at their Menifee office. I called Vince, and he said he hadn't thought of that idea. He'll think about the idea, and call me back. I told him if cost was an issue, that I will be glad to donate some money.

Vince is also planning to put in a receptacle for doggie poop bags.

Labels: Aldergate-Park, Dog-Parks