Top left shows a temporary memorial to the boys that was placed near the scene of their deaths.
Almost two and a half years after 11-year-old Mark Iskander and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander were struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing the street in a crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road, the Westlake Village City Council is deciding how to remember and honor the boys.
A memorial in the form of a treehouse play structure will be placed in Three Springs Park, where the boys used to play. At issue is the cost.
As designed, the play area will cost between $225,000 and $250,000. The City Council budgeted $50,000 for the project for the current fiscal year.
All City Council members commented during a March 8 meeting that the project was over budget.
“The original intent was that would be the city’s contribution, and then we would support that with additional funding in other ways,” City Manager Rob de Geus said.
“We’re looking at those options and what they might be,” he said.
City landscape architect Lacey Withers said the cost was preliminary at this point.
SOMBER SITES—A play structure is being considered for Three Springs Park, the Westlake Village neighborhood park used by the Iskander family, to honor their two sons who were killed in 2020. Acorn file photos
The play structure will be separate from the rest of the playground, in a small area between the basketball court and the existing play area.
One small tree will have to be removed, Withers said.
The city team and the Iskander family brainstormed ideas for the play structure. The family said they wanted a treehouse or nature play equipment rather than a typical structure.
The company that provided the favored equipment, RecWest, is the same company that made the playground equipment now in use at Three Springs Park, Withers said. According to her, nature play equipment is expensive because of how it’s constructed.
In addition to nature play equipment, the Iskander family wanted monkey bars; Withers added a horizontal ladder. The family also requested shade for the area, such as a tree planting.
Councilmember Brad Halpern worried about the project’s cost.
“Talking about Mark and Jacob in the same sentence as money doesn’t feel right,” Halpern said, “and anything said is fraught with being misinterpreted, but sitting in this seat, as hard as it is, there are things that have to be said.”
He said the council originally discussed a modest memorial for Mark and Jacob, and that the city would put $35,000 to $50,000 toward a larger community fundraising effort. Halpern said the money budgeted for the project was taxpayer money, for which the council bore responsibility.
“It seems wrong to me on a couple of levels, and I simply suggest and request that we bring this back to committee and see what else we can do to better alliance with all the appropriate touch points that we’re trying to reach here,” Halpern said.
Councilmember Kelly Honig also expressed concern about the cost, and suggested the excess expense be raised through the Westlake Village Foundation, a nonprofit community group.
The council wants the project to be sent back to a committee with the suggestion that the design be reworked.