A long-term vision for Fort Williams park could bring a community amphitheater and restrooms to Cape Elizabeth’s historic destination spot.

Although it’s been determined the park is in need of repair, one big question remains: How will the town pay for improvements?

In January, the Fort Williams Advisory Commission met with the town council and the Fort Williams Charitable Fund, where they “hashed out ideas” about improvements to the park, according to Ellen Nadeau, vice chairwoman of the advisory commission. Since then, the commission has been working to prioritize those needs and presented a report on the proposed projects at a council meeting on July 16.

According to Public Works Director Bob Malley, determining the potential projects was only the first step toward making them happen. Now, he said, the commission is asking, “How are we going to fund the needs of the park?”

Nadeau said there are “some high ticket items” in the plan, including the revamping of the parade field bleachers, which is listed as the number one priority for major, long-term projects. In the report, the seating area is described as the “heart of the park,” an area that has “great potential for more than bleachers and a ball field.”

“The bleachers are the last large piece of infrastructure that hasn’t been worked on in a long time,” Malley said, listing improvements to the parking lots and through-ways as more recent projects. Malley said the bleachers were last repaired in 1992 through a masonry sealing process to prevent water from getting in, but that was “never meant to be a permanent fix.”

“The freeze-thaw cycles have taken their toll,” Malley said, and now it’s time for a full-scale renovation. The commission is looking at various options for the seating area, including the installation of pre-cast concrete slabs, which would cost more than $500,000. The charitable fund and bonding by the town are listed as possible sources of funding for the project, which the commission predicts, from fundraising through construction, would take two to three years to complete.

Throughout the report, the commission expressed a desire to enhance the park in order to greater reflect its historical and military significance. Projects that would help realize this vision include repairing the batteries and publicly presenting their histories at the park, restoring the Goddard Mansion and renovating the main entrance in order to better represent the character of the fort.

A more practical matter is the construction of restroom facilities, a project that was last studied in 1995, when the cost was estimated to be $100,000. Though there are some other concerns about having restrooms, including water safety and maintenance, the biggest hurdle for this project – the solution to a common complaint from the public – is the high cost, which is due to the absence of sewer lines in the park.

Among the less costly and more immediate projects are the lighting of the flag pole for night time display and the continued maintenance of stairwells, walkways and stonewalls. Topics listed in the report for future study include controlling vandalism, improving parking and providing more historic signs.

The next step for the commission, according to Nadeau, is to meet with consulting firms in order to come up with “numbers that are realistic” for the cost of the improvements and to make it a public issue in order to solicit money for the projects.

“Some things may be reasonable, and some things may not be,” said Nadeau. Though the list of projects is long and it may be a while before many of them can be completed, Nadeau said, “we’re determined to see the improvements happen.”