By Allison Perrine
HOLMDEL – Holmdel is an 18-square-mile township with seven parks and about 900 registered dogs, but no dog parks.
That won’t be the case for long after officials broke ground Saturday on a state-of-the-art dog park at the 135-acre Bayonet Farm, 41 Middletown Road, to be named in honor of late township resident Alexander Ching.
“Every aspect of this park design is going to be very deliberate, very thoughtful,” said Lisa Ching, Alexander’s mother. “We want it to mesh and compliment with the rustic charm of Bayonet; we want it to really feel like it’s part of the landscape there.”
The idea for the Alexander Ching Memorial Dog Park came as the family brainstormed a way to honor their son’s memory. Alexander was 24 years old when he died Christmas morning 2018 after a 17-year battle with cancer. He was a highly accomplished young man with a big personality, a joy of life and a love for dogs, especially corgis.
“Dogs have always held a special place in Alex’s heart, from our black lab, Tally, to the therapy dogs that comforted him in the hospital, to the furry friends he made at off-leash parks,” the family wrote on a flyer about the park. “Alex always talked of someday getting a corgi; he even had a name picked out – Kip.”
The family was open to the township’s ideas for the park’s location and details, Ching said, but felt it was important to have it away from a residential neighborhood and that the park include a water source and parking access. After working with a general contractor, Twin Resources of Eatontown, the plans have only “grown and blossomed” from there.
The 1-acre park will be surrounded by a 6-foot black chain-link fence that will be dug one foot into the ground to ensure security and safety. It will have a “small paws” and “big paws” section to separate smaller and larger breeds. “That way the dogs can still see each other and interact and have a fence separating them,” said Ching.
The park will have a water source just outside the gated area to give pets access to fresh water while preventing the inside area from getting muddy and messy, Ching said. Visitors can bring their own water bowls for their pets to use to avoid the spread of germs and to keep the park clean. It will also include shade structures and will be made up mostly of grass but will also include 9-inch-deep decomposed granite surfaces in its “agility area” to provide an absorbent, soft, nice feel for the dogs while they play that does not get hot in summer weather.
“It will help with any extra weeds; it will help take care of any extra muddy areas… it should help preserve the look,” said Ching. “And it comes in different colors too, so you can really compliment – it doesn’t have to be this stark white cement-looking idea.”
The agility area will be a unique feature at the park and will include natural equipment such as natural boulders, “sort of like The Lion King,” for dogs to run around and jump on, Ching said. It will also include logs lined on the ground made by Atlantic Tree for the dogs to run around as an obstacle course or jump on.
“There’s going to be a lot of neat features, I think, at the park that you really don’t find at a lot of parks,” said Ching.
Benches will line the outside of the fencing to allow visitors to sit and observe the playtime at the park and be a spectator before they go inside, Ching said. For safety reasons, there will also be an age limit to prevent very young children from entering the fenced-in area, but they will be allowed to sit on the benches with their guardians and/or caretakers so they can still enjoy the park. That age limit has not yet been determined, Ching said.
The goal is to have the park open and ready for playtime by the spring.
“I think having a dog park really fills a void. It’s like a special place for furry friends,” said Ching. “It is nice and we’re happy that Holmdel feels that way. We’ve had nothing but support throughout.”
The Ching family is hoping the park will not only be a place to bring pets for some outdoor time, but that it will represent something much bigger. It should promote community pride, involvement and educational opportunities, Ching said. That could mean hosting dog-related events throughout the year such as therapy dog meet-and-greets, police K-9 demonstrations, art exhibits and more.
Ching said she is grateful to all those involved in the creation of this park and the process behind it, especially Twin Resources. Its owners read about the Ching’s goal to bring a dog park to town and called the family directly to offer their help. They were touched by the story, which was reported in The Two River Times, and have been “instrumental” in the process since.
“They like kind of have adopted our family. They’re the most talented team that I think we could be working with, they simplified the process for us, they’re incredibly generous with their time and donations for the park,” said Ching. “They just seem to be genuinely touched by our story and our family, and we were so lucky.”
And Alexander would love the new site coming to Holmdel thanks to a push from his family – his mother, Lisa; father, Mike; and siblings, Maddie and Ethan.
“He just adored dogs and (they) gave him so much comfort and we learned so much about them too,” Ching said. “Of course, it’s extremely exciting for our family; it’s also emotional, too.”
“It goes back and forth because he would have loved doing a project like this. You think ‘Wow, we could have thought of this a couple years earlier’ and this would have been such a neat thing. But it’s great the way that it’s evolving now.”
The article originally appeared in the December 10 – 16, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
