There were a lot of people at the meeting supporting both sides of the issue. I was asked by members of the Historical Society to refrain from discussing Hanover Youth Ball’s involvement with the ball field renovation project and I honored that request during the Citizen’s Forum period of the City Council meeting on Tuesday night. I was hoping the Chairman of the Planning Commission who also serves as the President of the Hanover Athletic Association would have been there to answer my single question. Unfortunately, he was absent from one of the most important City Council meetings in recent history. So, I posed my question to Councilor Hammerseng, since he’s the council liaison to the Planning Commission. The question I asked was, “This ball field renovation is not included in the either the Comprehensive Plan or Capital Improvement Plan updates from 2011. You’re talking about major renovations to Settler’s Park, and it appears that the entire planning process established by your own codes, is being ignored. So, my question is, why hasn’t this ball field renovation been addressed by the Planning Commission? “ The answer provided to me was absolute silence. Not one word uttered. None of the city council members offered an explanation. I was stunned. After a brief moment, I went on to explain how the renovation will destroy a part of Settler’s Park past and forever affect its future. I asked the 2 council members to once again vote against accepting the donation. I don’t claim to know much about Comprehensive and Capital Improvement Plans but I do know what a plan is and I know why plans exist. Access to the 2008 Comprehensive Plan and the 2011 updates are available on the Hanover City website. Check them out yourself. Draw your own conclusions. I still think the citizens of Hanover deserve an explanation as to why this part of the process was completely bypassed. In my opinion their decision was made before we even sat down. We offered the importance of the trees in the park; they offered their perceived need for a really big baseball field. The City Councilors, who initially supported our position, abandoned us in our time of need. Their explanation was that the initial vote to support building the field had already passed ergo, if they chose to not accept the donations, they would be compelled to go forward and build it, fully funded with taxpayer money. We were reluctant to accept that explanation. Recently revealed cost overruns with the required soils corrections for the Public Works project would have most certainly driven them to financially abandon the ball field renovation. Prior to the announcement of the vote, Mayor Kauffman reminded everyone that yelling, clapping or other celebratory outbursts would not be tolerated. The final vote was 5-0 to accept the donation. Game over. Several of us chose to quietly leave the meeting at that time. We humbly accepted our defeat with grace. So I guess that’s it. Short of civil disobedience and chaining ourselves to trees (which I’d be highly reluctant to support at this time) I don’t have much more to offer except this; write Hanover City Hall and ask Administrator Hagen to delay cutting the trees until after the competitive bids are reviewed, just in case, they need to revisit additional costs to the city not previously anticipated in the estimate. Once the historic bur oaks of Settler’s Park are cut down, they won’t get a “do over.” You can email Brian here: brianh@ci.hanover.mn.us Thank you all once again, for standing with us.