Fort Myers leaders discuss Dunbar Park renovation plans

City leaders want to breathe new life into a community park, which many say has been neglected and forgotten, Dunbar Park.

On Tuesday night, Fort Myers leaders met to discuss its future.

Neighbors got the chance to see two different options for the future layout of the park.

They had a lot of thoughts and comments, most centered around adequate shading and lighting. Things the city along said they’re happy to go back to the drawing board with and make some changes.

For many in Fort Myers, Dunbar Park isn’t the first or even second choice of park parents want their kids to play in.

“It’s just years of neglect, I would say,” said Elgin Hicks, Fort Myers Director of Parks and Recreation.

The vision of Fort Myers city leaders is to take this park from drab to fab.

“Is there going to be a significant change to the way the blueprint or layout of the playground is at this time? I need to hear a little more detail about what is planned for this playground facility,” said one Dunbar resident.

On Tuesday, the city and Gametime held the first of many public input meetings with the community to talk with neighbors living in Ward 2 about their hope for the park and its future.

Two different options for layouts of the playground were presented.

“What the different amenities would look like for option 2. Remember, nothing is set in stone here. This is to kind of give an idea of what it could be, what you all would like to see, what we can move forward with,” said Fort Myers resident Abraham.

“This is just another effort for us to go out in the community, find out what they want in that area, and hopefully pick this park up for another 20, 30, years, so we can put it into the future and really provide for that community,” said Hicks. “I want to go by there and see kids and families enjoying the park. I just want to see the quality of life come up.”

This meeting just focused on the playground component of the park, but the park has several different sections that neighbors said they want to see changes with, too.

That’s all a part of the master plan and will be discussed at a later date.