Orono council approves $300,000 Hennepin County youth sports grant application for Hackberry Park

The Orono City Council voted on Sept. 23 to submit an application to Hennepin County Youth Sports requesting $300,000 to support improvements at Hackberry Park, including drainage work and conversion or rebuilding of an existing ballfield and addition of a multiuse sports field. The council approved resolution 75-10 on a 4–1 vote; Council Member Benson opposed.

Parks staff said detailed design would follow receipt of funds and that project elements are scalable if the award is less than the requested $300,000. Parks and finance staff told council members that the city’s permanent parks fund (more than $4.4 million) and the stormwater fund could cover local shares of the project, and staff anticipated the parks fund balance would approach roughly $800,000 after the next levy installment.

Council Member Benson said she was not opposed to addressing drainage issues but objected to asking for grant money before the council had a consolidated presentation of community engagement and use data. "My opinion at this time with this grant ask…is that this is not the right time for a city to be asking for the grant money for this project," Benson said, citing project cost increases and wanting more formal data from sporting associations and neighborhood stakeholders.

Supporters said the park has long-standing drainage and usability problems that warrant pursuing grant funding now and that the grant process would not lock the city into a final design. "We already know there's a need," one council member said, adding that the grant would fund design and initial work and that community meetings would continue as design progresses.

The council approved filing the grant application; if awarded, staff said the city would proceed to detailed design and scale the project to available funds.