Dog Park

[florida girl]

By the way, did you know that the new Dog Park is sitting on top of the old landfill? And with the poopoo station right next to it, I suppose that's the most undesirable piece of land in the entire south Walton area. Somebody was shrewd.

 

[Smiling JOe]

By the way, did you know that the new Dog Park is sitting on top of the old landfill? And with the poopoo station right next to it, I suppose that's the most undesirable piece of land in the entire south Walton area. Somebody was shrewd.

What do you mean by the word, "shrewd" and who is the somebody? Where exactly was the landfill? Is our County Courthouse annex and Chamber of Commerce also on the landfill? What about the Boys and Girls Club play area behind the Library? All of that is part of the same County owned parcel.

 

[florida girl]

Where the dog park is now, is where we used to take our trash back in the 80's and 90's until the penny tax was initiated that covered county wide trash pick up. Who, would be the county commissioners, like selling swamp land in Florida! I don't remember it going all the way to the highway, it's at least a half of a mile across.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Wow. I wonder if the soon to be built branch of Okaloosa Walton Community College will be built on that landfill. It is much closer to the dog park site. Do you have any old aerial pics of that landfill?

It is my understanding that the County still owns that land which the dog park is on. Bark Park raised enough funds to build the fence and other material things, and I think the County provided the land and maybe the gravel for the parking area. So I don't think anyone got hosed on this deal. I thought you might know something else about it that we don't know. This is interesting though.

 

[chrisv]

It might be like the old landfill off of Bay Grove and 331 south of Freeport. Years ago, it was a bring-your-own dump site, until the county got the money (feds?) to move it to the sites off of Hwy 20. Everything got moved, and recently homes were built in the area. Maybe that's what happened down there.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Chrisv, you may be right. Most of that land near the Dog Park is rather low elevation and much of it looks like wetlands. I find it difficult to believe that the normal, dig it out and fill it in type of landfill could be under the dog park.

FLgirl, do you remember if the garbage was just piled up on top of the land, or was it a big hole that the garbage filled?

 

[ShallowsNole]

I'm not familiar with a dump having been on JD Miller Road, but the old landfill on Hwy 83 (Blue Mountain Beach) is/was being considered for the new middle school.

But I do very well remember the dump just off of East Point Washington Road!

 

[Panhandler]

I had my suspicions...
There is a big mound of dirt just behind the park's property line...
I hear the Freeport landfill has only been operating since the late 80s - so there must be quite a few "clandestine" landfills around the county...
Anybody remember any more?

 

[ShallowsNole]

Nothing clandestine about it; we have only had residential garbage pickup for about 25 years, more or less. Therefore, small landfills - or dumps, as we called them - were all over the place. Like I mentioned earlier, ours was on the south side of East Point Washington Road and (just guessing) it closed more than 30 years ago.

As far as people building houses on former landfills...this is why you should always read your title search. :roll: And it certainly can't be any worse than a small recently approved subdivision near my home, in which there was a close call with a SINKHOLE about fifty years ago.

 

[florida girl]

They used to dig a large hole and fill it with garbage, then cover it with dirt. I don't think it went all the way to the school site, or the library. The Mosquito Control had jurisdiction over the landfills here, I have a lot of old minutes, if anyone wants to go through them. There should be records at the SW Mosquito Control office.