Dog parks grant heads to Knox commission

The Knox County Commission this month is expected to approve a contract with the Boyd Family Foundation that will lead to five new county dog parks.

The effort is part of a grant program initiated and funded by Randy and Jenny Boyd’s commitment to enhancing Knoxville, their hometown. The couple established the Boyd Foundation in 2018. Randy Boyd, who is the president of the University of Tennessee, founded PetSafe and has helped the city and county build a number of dog parks over the years. His wife, Jenny Boyd, is a local business owner and philanthropist who is passionate about animal welfare.

The Knox County Parks and Recreation Department, which will receive $250,000 under the grant program, plans to build new dog parks at Beverly Park, New Harvest Park, the SportsPark, Powell Station Park and Clayton Park during the next two years.

In other Parks and Rec news:

Our crews continue to work on the Concord Park boat dock. The flooring is complete but there’s still more work, including the rails. Once they’re done, crews will move across the Cove to work on the dock at Cherokee Park.

A crew also has spent a couple days at Mascot Park, removing the giant dead tree near the pavilion.

“That thing is huge,” said Director of Parks Chuck James, laughing when asked why they couldn’t just chop it down.

James added that he’s “got all the crews trimming trees and overseeing greenway work.

“In the wintertime, we don’t do anything fancy,” he said. “This is the time to catch up and do the stuff we can’t during mowing season.”

Speaking of docks and dog parks . . .

I forgot to mention that one crew did fix the dock at Maloney Road Park. It had some issues. And, as of right now, the dog park at Plumb Creek Park is closed. We have a contractor out there putting in utility lines. The weather hasn’t been great and they had to do some blasting, so it’s taking a little while. We hope to have it back open some time next week.

As always, here a snapshot of some work the folks over in Engineering and Public Works have accomplished this week.