THE LAKE ANTOINE Park Partners won the votes to receive the roughly $16,000 raised at the Dickinson County 100-Plus Women Who Care fourth-quarter meeting. The money will go toward development of Phase II of the Sunset Beach project, which includes a pocket park with all-accessible play equipment. (Terri Castelaz/Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Lake Antoine Park Partners got the vote of the Dickinson County 100-Plus Women Who Care in support of Phase II of the Sunset Beach project.

The fourth-quarter funds of about $16,000 will assist with the development of the inclusive pocket park.

“It’s very exciting — this is our first time being selected,” LAPP Board President Allison Lucier said. “The all-accessible pocket park will be the first of its kind in Dickinson County.”

Lucier’s passion and persistence for the project paid off, after four times throwing their name in the hat, she finally had the chance to present the topic at a 100-Plus Women Who Care gathering.

“It’s amazing to have that kind of response for our tiny group,” said Lucier, who has been a member since 2017.

A lot of the group’s inspiration comes from her 9-year-old niece, Natalie Gasperich, who is a student at North Elementary in Iron Mountain, she said.

“We bring her to parks all over the place, and found nothing that is truly accessible — she is crawling through wood chips, over cement or gravel to get to the play equipment,” Lucier said. “I can see that we need that kind of accessibility.”

The estimated cost is $125,000 for the playground, which would be built on the south end of the beach house connected to the Sunset Beach project that Swanson Solutions of Niagara, Wis., completed in October.

An all-inclusive playground is designed to allow users of multiple ages and abilities to play side by side, LAPP Board Treasurer Ann Hruska said.

“We envision caregivers — parents, grandparents, etc. — enjoying the space, along with whomever they bring to the park,” said Hruska, adding that for this reason they have chosen free-standing equipment rather than a component system.

LAPP members are in the process of creating a catalog of play equipment from GameTime, a downstate Michigan company.

Some of those include pieces kids can climb on, in or over; sensory panel boards that can be individually played; drums; and chimes.

Since each piece requires a designated amount of safety space around it, the park may have only a handful of pieces, Hruska said.

“We hoped for a swing of some sort, but unfortunately with limited space we are unable to include it at this time,” Lucier said. “But maybe we can expand on it in the future.”

Hruska notes each selection will be carefully chosen to maximize the space and types of activities presented.

“They make some really cool equipment — I wish we had more space,” Lucier said.

After the catalog is complete, a company representative will then simulate how the pieces will look and fit into the park space.

“We are hoping with the 100-Plus Womens money we can purchase a piece or two of equipment,” Lucier said.

The majority of the 80-by-40-foot surface area will be rubberized, with the remaining being concrete.

LAPP selected rubber floor tiles because they can be replaced or repaired locally if needed.

They expect to have the finalized blueprint in March 2025.

Construction will begin at the end of the summer camping season at the lake and take about three to six weeks to finish.

Lucier noted Dickinson County at that time also will reposition the volleyball court by 90 degrees to be parallel to the lake.

LAPP received a kick start on its Phase II’s budget with a $50,000 grant from the Toro Greenspace Enhancement Program in partnership with BOSS Snowplow.

“We feel very fortunate and thankful to have received this grant,” Lucier said. “Those funds will cover the executing and landscaping portion — that’s huge.”

Receiving the 100-Plus Women funds brought the project to light in the community as well, Hruska said, and the positive response will help them leverage additional funds.

LAPP will seek more donors once the steering committee has identified the full list of play equipment.

“They are very expensive because they are accessible and can be modified however we need them to be,” Lucier said.

The donors will be honored with a plaque on the beach house wall.

The group will also contribute $9,000 toward the development of the project.

In addition, LAPP has submitted several grant applications to help meet its financial goal.

Lucier noted that after work is complete, they will add native shrubs and plants to help beautify the pocket park area. “We are hoping to get sponsorship for some additional trees for shade and benches as well,” she said.

This summer, the group plans to convert the old bocce courts into a cornhole station.

“We want to continue to enhance that side and extend it down,” Lucier said.

“We have a lot of ideas.”

Although Phase II work hasn’t started yet, she said they already have plans for Phase III.

“The parking to the accessible area isn’t very accessible,” she added. “We want to have more handicap spaces that are marked appropriately along with a smooth concrete sidewalk to connect both areas.”

“We’re really excited for Lake Antoine Park Partners to build their new pocket park, where people of all ages and abilities can play on free-standing equipment,” said Trisha Peterson, 100-Plus Women Committee. “Plus we are getting close to $1 million given back to our community.”

The Dickinson County 100-Plus Women Who Care group meets four times a year at Pine Grove Country Club and donates proceeds to one local non-profit. At each meeting, the names of non-profits are placed in a bucket and three are picked. Representatives of each non-profit then have five minutes to give a speech about their work and answer questions before members vote.

Members at the 100-Plus Women’s meeting can be teams of one, three or four people, with each team donating $100. Since the group was organized in December 2012, they have raised more than $765,000.

LAPP will continue to offer activities all four seasons.

The drive-through Lights at the Lake display will be on from dusk to about 10 p.m. in the park until after New Year’s Day.

Kites Over Awesome Lake Antoine is planned in January, weather permitting. Lucier noted they will need a minimum of 6 inches or more of ice for flyers to safely go out to do their displays.