Marco considers Cambier-type plan to redesign park

Naples landscape architect Ellin Goetz provided parents with options this week on how to refurbish the outdated community center, and turning the project over to Leathers and Associates heads the list.

The Ithaca, N.Y., firm specializes in unique community park projects that pull community members together to work in a Habitat for Humanity-type volunteer program.

Councilwoman Terri DiSciullo said Marco residents could have a wonderful new community park that could also bring the community together.

Marco Parks and Recreation Director Dana Souza spoke to Kiwanians on Friday morning, and they said they would love to be involved, DiSciullo said.

Hundreds of volunteers from schools and community groups got together for eight days in 1998 to build the Cambier playground.

The Mackle Park playground could be unique to Marco as Cambier is to Naples, Mothers of Marco President Michelle Hurtley said Friday.

Parents and kids want something more imaginative than just swinging and going down slides, Hurtley said.

Marco children are bored with the equipment that is already there, and it is not really all that safe either, Hurtley said.

"When you look at Cambier, and at the equipment, you see it blends in more naturally with the environment," DiSciullo said.

Goetz brought up some great ideas, she said.

"You can have almost a theme to the pathways and walkways, (such as) the Calusa Indians, and animal prints," DiSciullo said. "You can have a whole themed-type playground."

Labor plus material would have cost Naples $250,000, but only cost about $100,000 because all of the labor was volunteered, DiSciullo said.

"Our playground would be smaller, so it would cost less," she said. Mackle's playground is about 85 feet by 120 feet, or about the size of standard house lot, she said.

According to Goetz, who chaired the 1998 playground project, Naples city officials obtained a $30,000 grant from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program.

Mothers also would love to have a water play area like the one at Vineyards, the 1,375-acre community at I-75 and Pine Ridge Road, Hurtley said.

"It's not a big water park slide type of thing. There isn't a whole lot of standing water," Hurtley said. The Vineyards park has lots of sprinklers that kids can run through.

Mothers of Marco "go up there all summer long, every other week," Hurtley said.

Last July, Goetz & Stropes Landscape Architects, of Naples, won the $59,500 award to redesign the park. Ellin Goetz set about doing an inventory of Mackle, including topography, drainage, soil, vegetation, lighting, building and paving.

Souza said there's a need for Mackle to be rebuilt.

Mackle Park has 30 acres, but 15 of them are underwater, meaning that recreation facilities at the park are extremely congested, Souza said.

DiSciullo said she'd also like to see Mackle's building come down, and a new one go up.

"My ultimate goal is to knock down the existing building, and rebuild (it) to two stories," she said.

Residents could hold meetings and classes upstairs and, if city officials built a kitchen on the premises, they could offer cooking classes, DiSciullo said.

The ideas are all very tentative, Hurtley said. The Mackle Park planning group will meet again shortly after the new year, by which time Goetz should have some concrete plans, she said.

"Ellin hadn't gone as far as doing concept drawings," Hurtley said. "We hadn't gotten as far as that. We do not have a specific concept yet. All we were discussing was what we hated, and what we wanted to see."