Conway Plans to Turn Roundabouts Into Dog Parks

The city of Conway is exploring turning the city’s many roundabout intersections in to public dog parks. The city is currently a finalist in a national dog park contest offering communities $100,000 to build a public dog park.

The City Council is meeting this week to review the rules of the contest. Sources within the city tell us the official topic of discussion on the rules are “to confirm park must be in a single contiguous plot of land and not scattered in small circular parks throughout the city’s intersections.” The same source tells us there is a high level of interest in utilizing the green space in the middle of multiple roundabouts instead of the original proposal to convert an existing softball field.

The roundabouts have been installed throughout the city over the past 10 years as a way to ease many of the congestion issues caused by rapid expansion. Roundabouts operate under the two simple rules of “yield to the left and exit to the right”. Many residents, most of whom were educated at UCA, failed to understand the concepts leading to a number of early auto accidents in the intersections.

Residents of Conway initially had a number of complaints about the roundabouts. The Conway Chamber partnered with NASCAR to brand the roundabouts as “mini NASCAR tracks”, increasing use from local residents by over 800% and leading to a very generous increase in city revenue through speeding tickets.

“We think utilizing the existing areas will bring even more life to the roundabouts and help at the same time to reduce the overpopulation of dogs,” our source within the city tells us. The dog parks, built on existing green space in the middle of the roundabouts, are rumored to be branded as the “Conway Infield Dog Park”. The dog park plans call for RV themed dog houses and beer keg watering stations.

Conway is currently #2 in voting to win the dog park contest. Voting ends on July 26th. Conway Chamber representatives tell us that they will likely still install the dog parks on a smaller scale if they do not win the contest. For those interested in voting you can do so on the Pet Safe, Bark for your Park page.