A group of dog lovers met Wednesday to hash out a possible place for their pooches to play.

The Charleston Area Dog Club had a meeting discussing a dog park in Charleston and Mattoon’s future.

Betty Hargis, a dog trainer for the club, said a dog park is important, not just for the dog and the dog owner, but also for the community itself.

“We really wish to promote dog ownership and responsibility for the whole community – make it better for dog owners, the dogs and our neighbors,” Hargis said.

Ellen Johnson, also a dog trainer for the club, said the benefits of having a dog park are greater than the disadvantages.

Dogs can get adequate exercise and socialize with other animals and in turn, dogs are less destructive when they are at home and are better behaved, Johnson said.

Larry Sullivan, of Mattoon, said he drove to Champaign once a week for three years to take his two dogs, Buddy and Lady, to the dog park.

“It allowed the dogs to exercise, and it allowed us to exercise,” Sullivan said. “We needed to find an outlet to do that.”

Sullivan said his family and his dogs benefitted from the dog park in Champaign.

“They got the exercise and socialization, and we got to talk to the people in the park,” Sullivan said. “It was well worth the time and money we spent.”

The club and Brian Jones, the director of the Charleston Parks and Recreation Department, looked at Urbana and Champaign’s dog parks for guidance.

Johnson said Charleston currently has 9,000 adult dogs while Urbana has 12,000 dogs.

Urbana and Champaign both have one dog park.

Johnson said she talked with Judy Miller, the environmental program manager in Urbana, Ill., about their dog park, and Miller explained that a dog park must have at least five acres of useable space.

Miller told Johnson in the nine years Urbana’s dog park has been open, few problems have occurred.

Johnson said in seven years, the Urbana dog park had one severe confrontation between dogs, and in nine years, there had been 10 dogs banned out of the 300 to 400 dogs that frequent the park.

Johnson said she expects a Charleston dog park to have 100 to 150 dogs in and out of the park every day, so she thinks the number should be equal or less to Urbana’s numbers.

The club is planning to have a 6-foot-tall chain-link fence surrounding the dog park so the dogs could be off-leash.

However, Johnson said the biggest problems they have right now are trying to find a location and fundraising the money.

Johnson said the community helped raise money for the dog park in Urbana.

To open a dog park in Urbana, the community fundraised more than $80,000. Dog owners have to pay a $38 yearly fee per dog to go into the dog park.

Like Urbana, the club members and the Charleston Parks and Recreation Department believe the cost of a dog park in Charleston would cost about $80,000 to 100,000.

Johnson said taxes will not go up to pay for the dog park – the fundraising and membership fees should pay for the dog park.

Jones said finding a suitable location will be the first step in creating a dog park for the community.

“It’s awfully hard to get people to give you money when you don’t have property,” Jones said.

However, members of the club and the dog owners at the meeting tried to stay positive.

Johnson said there are dog parks out there, and that proves the community managed to do it.

“It doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” Johnson said. “It was done in all those other communities.”

Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].