BRIMFIELD TWP.: Police Sgt. David Knarr, squinting into Saturday morning sun, held a U.S. flag neatly folded into a triangle.
A Labradoodle a few feet away barked at a tiny white dog trying to hide while a lemon beagle happily sniffed the ground, apparently oblivious to the human happenings all around.
The flag, Knarr told a group of about 50 people and dogs gathered around him, was given to him as a memorial for his first K-9 partner, Ace, who died in 2008 of sudden kidney failure.
And now, Knarr said through a few tears, he wanted the flag to fly here, at the township’s new dog park created by Jonathan Dean Cramer as his Eagle Scout community project.
Cramer, a Twinsburg High School senior, hadn’t expected the gesture. He quickly set aside another flag that had been donated. And, with another scout, hoisted Ace’s memorial onto the flagpole on the opening day of the dog park he always planned to dedicate to Ace and all K-9 officers serving Brimfield Township and police across Northeast Ohio.
Sixteen months ago, the dog park was an unused swath of Cranberry Creek Park, a sea of waist-high grass and weeds off Lynn Road.
“When [Cramer] came to talk to us about a dog park, I thought he was crazy,” Township Trustee Mike Kostensky said.
Township officials had been involved with many other Eagle Scout projects. All were worthwhile, but modest undertakings, like building a public bench, he said.
But Cramer was dreaming big.
“I was always taught you shoot for the stars — and then you go bigger,” Cramer said.
After the township donated the land, Cramer measured the area, visited area dog parks and researched online. He designed his own park on paper. Then he began fundraising, organizing volunteers and building.
On Saturday, the park officially opened, although a couple of dog owners confessed they sneaked in a few days early just to play.
The 125-by-90-foot space is entirely fenced and broken into two parts — one for dogs under 30 pounds, one for dogs over 30 pounds.
“It’s quarter-inch galvanized steel, similar to what they use to fence cattle,” Cramer said, explaining his methodology. A cow leaning on the fence might get through, but not a dog.
Inside the fence, there’s an agility ramp and three sets of truck tires — sliced in half-rounds and painted red, white and blue — bolted to the ground to form an obstacle course.
For humans, Cramer put benches inside each section of the dog park and a picnic table just outside the fence. There’s also a dog cleanup station.
Cramer said he doesn’t know the true price tag of the project because many things — like the flagpole — were donated. But about 37 volunteers helped build the park with money and material provided by about 50 donors, many of whom chose to remain anonymous.
Cranberry Creek Park had nothing but a sledding hill before Cramer got involved.
Now, with the draw of the dog park, the township is considering adding mountain bike trails through 35 acres of the park, too, Kostensky said.
Cramer, 17, is taking a year off between high school and college to work and save money to study aeronautical engineering. He hopes to someday work on a Mars mission.
On Saturday, Kostensky gently teased the Boy Scout, saying he was destined to go into politics because he was so good at bringing people together for the dog park.
“But I never planned on being a politician,” Cramer told the trustee.
“No one ever does,” Kostensky said. “No one ever does.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.