The Fond du Lac Advisory Park Board has postponed making a recommendation on a proposal to allow Winnebago Lutheran Academy to lease a portion of McDermott Park to construct three athletic fields and a parking lot. The board wanted to see if WLA would be willing to revise the proposed 50 year lease and also address concerns about the location of a parking lot. Sixteen people spoke against the proposal at Monday night’s meeting including Shirley Clements. Clements says she has already collected more than 160 petition signatures from people who are opposed to the idea. “I’ve been walking around our neighborhood and people are telling me what they use that space for. Its a nice, serene, quiet area that people are actively using in the winter, in summer, spring and the fall,” Clements said. Dave Schroeder is the principal at WLA. “We continue to love our partnership with the city and our neighbors too. I know there was a lot of passion here tonight but we love our neighbors, we want to hear what they have to say.” Park Board member Ted Eischeid says the city needs to listen to what the public has to say. “I think its really important that we do the best thing with our parks for the community,” Eischeid said. “To develop something for development sake does not seem logical or rational. There’s always going to be a need for places that have a low use. That’s one of the attractions to them.”
