The Friends of Billings Dog Parks committee is holding a public meeting tonight to kick off fundraising efforts for the construction of as many as three dog parks around town.

Sue Bressler, the committee's chairwoman, said the city has said it thinks dog parks are a good idea, but that there is no money available to the build them. As a result, the committee hopes to raise $400,000 to create three parks - at High Sierra Park in the Heights, Riverfront Park south of Billings and an undetermined location on the West End - where dogs would be allowed to roam off-leash in large fenced-in areas.

Tonight's meeting is the committee's first chance to fill the public in on what they want to do.

"We're hoping to gather a group of people that are very interested in helping," Bressler said. "We know we can't do it all alone. We need the community to get behind us and make this happen."

The committee was formed in late 2007. Its seven members have been meeting regularly since and working with Mark Jarvis, a city park planner, to clear the plans with the city and inform the public.

After clearing its last hurdle - getting the City Council to approve the inclusion of a dog park in the High Sierra Park master plan - earlier this fall, the group is now ready to start a public fundraising campaign and, when that is finished, break ground on at least two of the parks.

"The biggest challenge is fundraising," Bressler said. "Once we have the funds in place, we have a small cadre of volunteers ready to go, but we could always use more."

The committee hopes to break ground for the parks next spring, and construction would last 45 to 60 days, Jarvis said.

The parks at High Sierra and Riverfront would be about 8 acres each, include walking paths, completely fenced in, provide water for dogs and their owners and use double gates to keep dogs in, Jarvis said.

A recent citywide parks and recreation needs assessment survey showed that 80 percent of Billings' households own at least one dog and almost 60 percent of the people who returned the survey said they felt a dog park was important.

Fundraising options include everything from straight-up cash, labor or material donations to purchasing a brick with your name on it for $100 to naming one of the parks for $40,000, according to a brochure the committee is handing out.

"It's something that we've needed, but we've just been a little slow on the uptake with this one," Bressler said.