The small dog park at Loch Lomond Park has been rebuilt and is now open.
Richard Echols, superintendent of lakes, parks and fisheries for the Bella Vista POA, explained why the park was rebuilt.
"The area is prone to flooding, and the stream rerouted itself from a flood, and half of what would have been the dog park is now a stream, so it was relocated on the other side of the large dog park," he said.
He said the park is about twice the size of the previous small dog park, almost as big as the large dog park. The reason is that from time to time, the POA needs to give one of the parks a break because of too much traffic, and the park needed to be big enough to accommodate all the dogs. The new small dog park is 13,102 square feet, and the previous one was 6,397 square feet, he said.
The park has a water hydrant and some benches. Echols said the POA has future plans for more shade trees. When the area was cleared for the park, more trees were removed than he planned, he said.
The small dog park is for dogs 30 pounds and under.
Echols said the POA had some end-of-year savings last year, and it was decided in December to rebuild the small dog park. He said the reason it has not opened sooner is because it has taken this long for the turf to be established.