Work on Hero Dog Park at Hamnett Memorial Park on Ohio Avenue has been completed, but the park is about one month away from its grand opening, according to Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski.
“We are really close,” Nerwinski told the Lawrence Township Council at its June 18 meeting. “We are trying to get the grass to mature in the pen areas. We think we are about a month away from having a grand opening for it.”
When it is opens, Hero Dog Park will be the second dog park in Lawrence Township. It will be the first one in the southern part of the township. There is a dog park at Village Park in the northern part of town.
The dog park will have two fenced-in areas – one for small dogs and one for large dogs. Each one will have shade structures, benches, waste disposal stations, dog-friendly water fountains and other dog park features.
Renovations to Hamnett Memorial Park include a new walking path along the park’s perimeter, as well as lighting, electrical service, water service and a patio seating area.
“We are very excited to be able to unveil these great new amenities at Hamnett Memorial Park and Hero Dog Park for our residents to enjoy,” Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer said.
The dog park will provide a safe, enclosed area for pets to run and play, while other upgrades create more opportunities for walking, relaxing and taking in nature, Farmer said.
About half of the $500,000 project budget was spent on the two dog park areas, township officials said. The rest of the money was spent on park amenities, such as the walking path and landscaping.
Lawrence Township anticipates receiving a $125,000 grant from the Mercer at Play program to offset some of the costs.
The name “Hero Dog Park” was suggested by Superintendent of Recreation Nancy Bergen. She made the suggestion after reading an article in The Lawrence Ledger written by the late James Hewitt in 1995.
Hewitt, who died in 2012, was a World War II veteran and was present at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed by Japan. After his military service, he joined the Lawrence Township Police Department and became its first detective.
Hewitt wrote that when he was stationed on a small island in the South Pacific, he befriended a captured German shepherd that had been trained as a war dog by the Japanese army. The dog was adopted by Hewitt and his U.S. Army unit, who named him Moose.
Hewitt wrote that he and Moose developed a bond that lasted until Hewitt was transferred to Hawaii for jungle training school. He had to leave the dog behind. Moose was later transferred to a U.S. Army base to attend K-9 training school. Moose “entered” the U.S. Army and served alongside American soldiers.
Hewitt kept track of Moose, hoping to be reunited with the dog after the war. But Moose was killed in June 1945 when he leaped on a hand grenade to protect his handler. The hand grenade was tossed toward Moose and his handler by one of the two Japanese soldiers they had discovered hiding in the grass.
Hewitt received a letter from the Central Pacific Base Command that explained how Moose died. The dog knew the hand grenade was a weapon and he jumped on it as it exploded. The dog saved his handler’s life, the letter said.
“Somewhere on the Pacific island of Okinawa where Moose died, there is a grave marked ‘Moose, U.S. Army K-9 Corps, Army Serial Number OX-79. Killed in action against the enemy, June 20, 1945,'” Hewitt wrote in the newspaper article.
