After 7 Years, Milford

Opens First Dog Park

Rotary, Village, Volunteers Make It Happen

The Milford Dog Park & Learning Center was dedicated this evening, and organizer Kimberly Winsor pointed out that couldn’t have happened without another kind of dedication: It took seven years’ effort, a grant from the Milford Rotary Club and volunteers to make the $3,500 project happen.  Among the attendees were, from left, Maximus; his master, Rotary President Alicen Sosnowski, Kimberly Winsor, Bruce Hodges, president, Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley Railroad, which provided the land; Ted Winsor, representing the Milford Macs, a major sponsor, and Village Mayor Brian Pokorny.  Inset, Sosnowski’s Maximus becomes the first dog to enter the park.  Traveling the world for two decades with her husband, retired Marine major Dan Atkinson, the younger Winsor, who emceed this evening’s ceremony, said “everywhere we lived, there was a dog park.”  It serves a practical purpose, but it’s also a place “for people who responsibly own and care for dogs.”  As a learning center, the idea is to teach youngsters how to train and care for their pets.  Plus, “it’s a hub for community fun,” Winsor said. A dog park has been long in the planning by the City of Oneonta, and Milford’s may be the first in Otsego County.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)