To give Brewster, a bluetick coonhound/beagle mix some exercise, Severna Park resident Lindsay Moran drives him to the Broadneck Dog Park across from Broadneck High School.

There are also community parks in Bell Branch and Maryland City.

Moran would like a dog park a little closer to home, so she has nominated Severna Park in the petsafe.net contest "Bark for Your Park" where communities can win $100,000 by voting for their town to build a dog park.

The two county regional parks that currently have areas set aside for off-leash activities for dogs are Downs Park in Pasadena with a dog beach and Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis with a dog park only. The Quiet Waters dog beach is currently closed due to erosion.

When looking at a potential dog park to locate at Kinder Farm Park, there are quite a few considerations, including parking accessibility and the noise, said Bill Offutt, park superintendent for Kinder Farm Park.

He estimated that a dog park would cost about $75,000 to construct and that there may be better sites than Kinder Farm Park in the Severna Park/Millersville/Pasadena area for a dog park.

According to Offutt, the standard for construction of a new dog park must meet the following criteria which he outlined in an email to Moran:

• The fenced in area must be a minimum of two acres in size.

• The dog park must be far enough away from homes so that it is not a nuisance.

• There must be adequate parking. We have other design criteria that must be met as well (water connection, fence height, mow strips, etc.).The cost of a new dog park is around $75,000 (2006 pricing) depending on the site.

Would you like to see a dog park closer to Severna Park? Vote in our poll.