ROGER LALONDE / Staff

Board members of the Island Parks and Recreation Foundation, a not-for-profit organization developed to help Marco fund city Island Parks and Recreation Department programs and facilities, stand where the future community center is planned. The foundation will raise funds to help with the cost of the community center. Looking up to the board members is future user, Sydney Koszo, 2.

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An aroused community has advanced another step in trying to assure expansion of programs and facilities on Marco Island.

The Island Parks and Recreation Foundation has been formed to assist the city in building a community center at Mackle Park and building sports fields, primarily aimed at Tract K.

The board members are Adam Koszo, president; Greg West, vice president; Terri DiSciullo, treasurer; Lyndsi Koszo, secretary and Carrie Canfield. An account has been opened at Orion Bank.

DiSciullo is a former City Council member who pushed a community center while in office. The center did get on a master plan for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, but not until Phase 8. The city is barely on Phase 2. If there were no hitches, Phase 8 is at least five years away, DiSciullo said.

The Foundation was formed amid discussions on needs for more sports programs and places to play. In a short Foundation statement, its members describe themselves as, “Local citizens, local residents, folks who care about our community, just like you. We want to make our community even better by providing the extras that would otherwise be delayed, or not occur due to lack of funding in the city’s budget limitations.”

The mission statement says, “Our mission is to provide affordable parks and recreation, opportunities, facilities, programs and services that will enhance the economic vitality of the city; that will foster community and neighborhood pride; that will encourage personal growth, health and fitness; and that will enhance the quality of life.”

DiSciullo got on the foundation when she learned that the first goal was not sports fields, but the community center.

In its goals statement, the foundation members said, “Our ultimate goal is to help our city fund the new community center at Mackle Park. We want to see a community that Marco Island needs and deserves. Our second goal is to develop Tract K for Marco Island, Marco Shores and Isles of Capri communities, as was the original intention of the Mackle Brothers when the land was donated to the (Collier County) school board. Citizens in our community plan to work with our city and the school board to build a sports facility, including, but not limited to, baseball fields, a football field and a soccer field for all members of our community to enjoy. We established this foundation to be sure that our children and our community have the tools and recreation facilities they need and deserve.”

Marco Island City Council Chairman Bill Trotter was pleased to learn of the foundation’s goals.

“In general that (foundation) aligns with what we are trying to do to encourage private citizens to get involved,” he said. “This goes along with what I have proposed to the council to have private organizations involved with related activities. On Sept. 2, we (council) will have that kind of meeting to help encourage private groups.”

Trotter said the city would pay for part of the programs and private donations would help supplement a gamut of programs, from fireworks to other community activities that have logical extensions, including facilities.

“I certainly support any effort that could get the community involved in times of budget constraints that the city is facing and going forward,” Trotter said.

DiSciullo said she knew of the formation of the Foundation before her council term was completed.

“I met Adam and Lyndsi six months before the end of my term,” she said. “I felt it would be a conflict of interest, but once I was off the council they voted to put me on the board as treasurer.”

DiSciullo and Adam Koszo know of people who want to donate, but first they needed to set up the Foundation and get its not-for-profit 501-c3 certification. That certification is imminent.

Koszo expects the designation will be made by the time the board meets at noon on Tuesday at Porky’s Last Stand Restaurant.

“I am excited about the community center and that I can focus on one issue instead of multiple issues when serving on the City Council,” DiSciullo said. “I am getting back to the main issue why I ran for City Council, parks and recreation. What I learned while being on council is that people wanted a place to gather, wanted things that improve quality of life and that is what community parks and recreation is about.”

Dana Souza, Parks and Recreation director, informed the City Council during the FY08 budget workshop last year that this foundation was forming and its primary goal was to raise funds to support physical improvements to city parks.

“There are foundations that support the Police and Fire Departments on Marco Island and I am very excited about the formation of the Island Parks and Recreation Foundation. I believe the people on the Foundation board are committed to raising funds to supplement City funding that is used to improve physical conditions of our parks. Our parks receive heavy use by our residents and visitors and financial support is needed in order to fund a new and larger community center at Mackle Park, as well as improvements to athletic fields.”

Souza thinks the community center is vital to the services provided the community.

“Our current center is too small, as determined during the development of the Mackle Park Master Plan,” he said. “A new facility allows us to better manage and support city recreation programs, groups who meet at and use the community center, will provide for a larger teen center, a concession stand/café, indoor play areas, storage areas and much needed office space. As you may know, we have one trailer for my office and park operations, another trailer for storage and a third trailer, soon arriving, for the teen center.”

He said that programs may expand and existing programs are better supported in a new community center.

“It is true that other park improvements need to happen first before the community center can be built; otherwise we will not have the land space to construct the new facility. But, with the Foundation willing to focus on raising funds for the community center, it allows the city to make other improvements to the park.”

DiSciullo said the Foundation bought into the idea of a community center after it saw the renderings. She also cited the Blue Ribbon Panel on Teen Affairs which said a teen center was needed back in 2001.

The Optimist Club of Marco Island, a new organization supporting local sports, pushed for the use of Tract K for football and soccer fields at the City Council meeting on Aug. 4. West, president of the Optimist Club, spoke to the council on the need for more sports fields.

The stickler to the suggestion is that the Collier County School Board owns the property. It was given the property by the Deltona Corp. in the early development of Marco Island.

However, the city has the right to determine what gets developed on the property.

“The question is can we come up with a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Trotter said. “With input from residents and the immediate neighborhood around Tract K, we may come up with a community use and zoning that works for the city and the school board. The county is not interested in a land swap and I am not interested in a solar park on the land (that the county has proposed). If we can’t come up with a community-use solution going forward I personally support leaving it undeveloped, or rezoning it as a park and use for a passive park.”