A group of Fond du Lac business leaders officially unveiled their vision for Lakeside Park. It was a packed Lakeside Park Pavilion Monday night for the public information meeting to explain the plan and answer questions. The ambitious plan that would transform Lakeside Park includes an amphitheater, seasonal ice rink and expanded parking lot on Oven Island and a restaurant and history museum on the lighthouse peninsula. Principal architect at Excel Engineering, Tom Schermerhorn, told WFDL news a group representing 20 local businesses have been meeting weekly for the last couple of months developing the plan based on recommendations from the Lakeside Park Exploratory committee. He says so far seven companies have committed between $3.8 to $4.6 million toward an overall project cost estimated at between $8 to $10 million. “We understand the city can’t do all of it at one time so the hope of this group of people was that we could accelerate that by doing a public-private partnership,” Schermerhorn told WFDL news. The new plan comes after the group asked the council last fall to put a hold on plans to replace the existing Lakeside Park pavilion at a cost of $3.2 million. The group’s plan calls for renovating the existing pavilion. The advisory park board will consider the plan at their meeting next Monday. The city council will take up the matter at their February 12 meeting.
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