Marco Island Historical Society groundbreaking

Photo: LESLIE WILLIAMS / Staff

"If I had written the script for today, I would have given you all shovels, and we would have had the land cleared before it was all said and done," Collier County Commissioner Donna Fiala joked with the crowd. She paid homage to the Marco Island Historical Society, which she said he has been a huge fan of since the day several members walked into her office requesting just $25,000 toward the museum's construction. Instead, they got a $3.4 million piece of land from the county on which to build the facility.