Home sought for 'Marco Man'

He stands eight feet tall and has all the personality of the welded steel sculpture he is.

He is Marco Man.

And now that he's Marco Island city property, he needs a permanent place to stand for truth, justice and just out of the way so he doesn't distract motorists.

The Marco Island City Council approved spending $5,400 this week to help make Marco Man the city's own. A private donor gave the city another $5,000.

Albany, N.Y., artist Jack Howard-Potter took second place for Marco Man during an islandwide ArtQuest 2006 sculpture exhibition sponsored by the Marco Island Foundation for the Arts. The sculpture was a community favorite during the contest.

Marco Man has a bright blue electrostatic powder coat finish that will provide durability in the area's corrosive, subtropical climate. And just like the man of steel he is, Marco Man is supposed to be able to withstand hurricane force winds of as much as 130 mph, a city report states.

The Marco Island Arts Advisory Committee, the city's newest volunteer committee, voted 5-0 on June 13 to recommend the city purchase Marco Man and place him in the median of South Collier Boulevard at Winterberry Drive.

Submitted photo

Marco Island officials are looking for a permanent home for Marco Man, an eight-foot tall sculpture purchased this week by the City Council. The sculpture, created by New York artist Jack Howard-Potter, is made of welded steel and designed to withstand winds up to 130 miles per hour. The work now rests in the shopping center at the corner of North Collier Boulevard and Bald Eagle Drive across from the Sun Trust Bank building.

The City Council agreed this week to buy the statue, but said Marco Man would probably distract motorists traveling at the often busy intersection of Collier and Winterberry.

"I love the statue," Council Chairwoman Terri DiSciullo said. "I'm not sure that's the best place for it — a huge blue statue in the middle of Collier Boulevard."

The council voted to let the public decide where Marco Man should stand. Residents will get the chance to give suggestions on that subject during public hearings at the city's Beautification Committee meeting at 3 p.m. July 5, and at the Arts Advisory Committee meeting at 8 a.m. July 11. Both meetings will be in the first floor conference room at City Hall.

"We'd like the city engineer to take a look at this statue to make sure it can withstand hurricane-force winds," arts committee Chairwoman Coral Aiken-Miller said Friday.

"We want to study how much the maintenance costs will be," she said. "If it has to be moved if a hurricane comes, we have to decide where the city can store it and find out what it would take to get it moved. We definitely want input from the beautification committee on where it should be displayed."

Asked if she liked Marco Man, Aiken-Miller chuckled and carefully said, "Well, this is the piece the committee recommended the city purchase."

Marco Man should be placed where there's a lot of concrete and/or a lot of activity, she added.

"It's not exactly a warm, fuzzy piece," she quipped. "It needs to be in a busy place. Maybe not in the median of a busy road, but where there's a lot of foot traffic."

Marco Man currently resides in the parking lot of the CVS shopping center at the corner of North Collier Boulevard and Bald Eagle Drive, south of the SunTrust Bank building.