{"id":8393,"date":"2026-01-27T08:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8393"},"modified":"2026-01-27T08:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:45:34","slug":"princeton-dog-park-is-up-and-ready-for-spring-2024-opening-shawlocal-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8393","title":{"rendered":"Princeton dog park is up and ready for spring 2024 opening – shawlocal.com"},"content":{"rendered":"


The groundwork has been laid for the opening of a new dog park in Princeton in spring 2024 at Zearing Park. <\/span>(Photo provided by Princeton Park District)
Soon Princeton\u2019s four-legged friends will have a park of their own.
The Princeton Park District Dog Park is expected to open in spring 2024. The turf has been put down and the fence has been erected, the park district said.
\u201cWe need to let the sod get restabilized, regenerated, established and ready for use,\u201d the park district said in a news release. \u201cThe turf must remain undisturbed to allow for healthy, initial growth process.\u201d
Park Superintendent Nathan Cook and his team jumped right into the project the Monday after Homestead Festival. There were water lines to run and much ground work to coordinate and complete. Princeton City Manager Theresa Wittenauer assisted the park district in its effort.
\u201cThis is community working together,\u201d said Tammy Lange, executive director of the park district.
Jeanne Hutchinson has been a lifelong lover of dogs. She believed the addition of a dog park would be a valuable asset for the community, Lange said. Hutchinson donated funds to the Princeton Park District to make this happen.
Lange said the park district was excited to receive Hutchinson\u2019s call about a year ago and set up the meetings to discuss this possibility. After several meetings and discussions with Hutchinson through her daughter and son-in-law, Mike and Jan English, a one acre park with an area for small and large dogs inside of the large fenced area has come to fruition.
The location will be on the far, east side at Zearing Park, near the prairie grass. This area will be away from residences and will be able to be accessed using the east end of the gravel parking lot or walking onto the path from the Thompson Street access.
The Princeton Park District Foundation has donated two trees and two benches for inside the dog park area. Prairie Nursery & Landscape (Josh Schnaiter) also has committed to the donation of two trees.
\u201cWe are thankful and blessed to have this wonderful addition coming to our park,\u201d Lange said. \u201cThe announcement of the name of the dog park will be revealed at a later date.\u201d
The Princeton Park District Board gave its blessing to move forward at the February board meeting. Future plans will include the opportunity for community members and businesses to sponsor added amenities.
\u201cWe want to see how the park is used and enhance that use,\u201d Lange said.
Information will be updated at Bureau County Metro Center Facebook page or at www.princetonparkdistrict.org<\/a>.
The location of Princeton’s new dog park will be on the far, east side at Zearing Park, near the prairie grass. <\/span>(BCR photo)
Shaw Local News Network provides local news throughout northern Illinois<\/p>\n

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The groundwork has been laid for the opening of a new dog park in Princeton in spring 2024 at Zearing Park. (Photo provided by Princeton Park District)Soon Princeton\u2019s four-legged friends will have a park of their own.The Princeton Park District Dog Park is expected to open in spring 2024. The turf has been put down and the fence has been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}