By Anastasia Marchese

Randolph has many fine parks, from Randolph Park with its beach and swimming amenities to the 232 acre Brundage Park Recreation Complex, complete with tennis and basketball courts, playing fields, a skate park, playgrounds, fishing pond and miles of paved trails.

Randolph’s 15 parks provide many opportunities for outdoor recreation and exercise. Even the town’s canine population has a park where they can play off a leash while being active out of doors. The town’s dog park is located behind town hall and is equipped with agility obstacles to keep man’s best friend keen and fit.

In recent years however, some of the park’s obstacles had fallen into disrepair and were in need to a rebuild. Local Boy Scout Scott Beckman, who is a member of Troop 50, saw this as an opportunity for service. Beckman, who is 15 years of age, was closing in on the final stretch of his journey towards being an Eagle Scout and was considering the options for his Eagle Scout service project. The dilapidated obstacles were an opportunity for him to improve the community while continuing a tradition of service.

“It was apparently an Eagle Scout project before,” said Beckman.

There was a lot of prep work that went into getting ready for the work days, so that volunteers could come and work effectively. Beckmann did the planning before at his house. He also cut the parts for the obstacles so that the obstacles could just be assembled and painted onsite. He was very positive about how things came together.

“Everything was planned out to a tee, it came out really good,” he said.

Beckman’s project coach who helped with the planning and pre-build was his father, Richard Beckman. Together with the volunteers they “rebuilt the majority of the obstacles and built two new ones; the teeter totter and the slalom.” The slalom is a “board with pegs that the dog can weave through.”

Beckman organized two work days and commented, “The majority of the helpers are or used to be in Troop 50, but a few people outside of the troop helped as well. All of the volunteers worked extremely hard. Amongst the volunteers several Eagle Scouts came to help with the project.”

Troop fathers, friends and family members also came out to help make the workdays efficient and effective.

Beckman, who is going into his sophomore year at Randolph High School, is now completing the written work that he needs to finish up to be an Eagle Scout. Most Scout merit badges involve physical work but one of the required badges to become an Eagle Scout is on personal financial management and planning. Instead of being outside using a hammer or compass this badge requires time behind a desk, and completing it is one of Beckman’s summer goals.

Beckman enjoys outdoor activities like fishing, hiking and camping. Along with all of his volunteer helpers and the troop fathers, Beckman would also like to thank Kuiken Lumber for donating the wood and screws, and Home Depot for tinting the paint free of charge.

To find out about the dog park rules for use, go to www.randolphnj.org/services/dog_park.