Plans Progressing Slowly for Island’s City Park

Plans to re-landscape Mackinac Island’s city park into a Victorian-era design are slowly progressing.

After months without communication between city officials and Frank Pompa, who has been promoting the project, a city committee met with Mr. Pompa and historical landscape architect Jim Meyer of Detroit October 10 and hashed over general ideas for the project.

Before the city park can be re-landscaped, however, improvements to the public restroom facility and Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau’s information booth need to be made, said Mr. Pompa. The public restroom roof and siding need repair, for example, and the Tourism Bureau wants to build an addition on its small booth to give Executive Director Mary Slevin and her staff more room.

“There’s a lot of details we have to plan out first, but we made some good progress at this meeting,” said Mr. Pompa. “Everyone wants to do this. Mr. Meyer is in the process of taking all the concerns and ideas we have and now it’s a matter of finessing the plan.”

Some features in the newly designed park are antique brick paving, wrought-iron fencing to direct crowds, antique street lights, stone benches, and color arrangements of plants and flowers.

Mr. Pompa’s efforts to improve the city park, which includes the Veterans Memorial, is to provide more seating for visitors and establish an impressive area to show off the Island and memorial.

The City has not scheduled another meeting with Mr. Pompa and Mr. Meyer, but Mr. Pompa expects they will meet within the coming months.

Also attending the October 10 meeting were City Aldermen Armand “Smi” Horn and Dan Wightman, City Streets Administrator Dennis Dombroski, Trish Martin, and Tourism Bureau member Patti Ann Moskwa. City Alderman Jason St. Onge also attended, but is not a member of the city committee.