CHOCOWINITY — First item on the agenda at Chocowinity’s town council meeting Tuesday night went to the dogs, as board chair Stan Cohen filled the council in on the progress of the Chocowinity Community Dog Park.

Organizers needed $16,000 to construct the dog park. As of Tuesday, the dog park board had $14,504 in hand and was ready to receive bids from fence companies, Cohen said.

He said a pancake breakfast contributed nearly $1,000 to the cause; $3,000 has come from donations by individuals and the rest has flowed in from businesses whose logos will grace the fence surrounding the park.

“I’m going to go ahead and make up the difference depending on what we need,” Cohen said. “We’d like to get this thing going in July so people can see it happening.”

The dog park discussion moved into liability issues — whether the town needed an additional insurance rider to encompass the dog park since it’s being built at the town-owned recreational complex. Town attorney Keith Mason called attention to the need to determine legal status between the town and dog park board, and recommended the dog park board be established as a licensee, whose license could be revoked by the town if necessary.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the dog park has been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 7.

Chocowinity’s Public Works Director Kevin Brickhouse gave a bridge replacement update to the council: the finish date for the work being done on the Norfolk Southern railroad overpass on N.C. Highway 33 west of Chocowinity has been extended to Dec. 2, a little over a month past the original Oct. 31 finish date. Brickhouse said the combination of rain and an issue with natural gas lines has shut down the project for over two weeks. The bridge has been out of commission since February.

Chocowinity Police Chief Todd Alligood reported his department handled 43 calls for service, investigated two wrecks, wrote 22 citations and made three arrests since the last town council meeting.

Chocowinity’s next town council meeting will be held on Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.