COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -The College Station City Council voted 5-1 Thursday to end the Veterans Park baseball field project and move forward with the Midtown Park proposal instead.
“We’re going to end up getting more than we had originally envisioned for less money at a location that is as close to the regional vision as you can get,” said College Station City Council member Mark Smith.
The city has already spent approximately $1.5 million on design and work at Veterans Park. City Manager Bryan Woods said the city anticipates recovering more than $900,000 of that investment if the project moves forward with the same field designs.
“Of that we anticipate that if we were to move the project and it were to remain the same, basically the design of the fields. We’d recuperate a little over $900,000 of it,” Woods said.
Councilman David White cast the lone dissenting vote against ending the Veterans Park plans. White said he thinks the council should honor their commitment to the project.
“I don’t think it’s an either, or okay? I think we should go with veterans and then make the decision whether we should go with midtown knowing we have baseball fields over at veterans,” White said.
Councilwoman Melissa McIlhaney voted in favor of moving forward with the Midtown proposal, saying Veterans Park was never the ideal location.
“We have the opportunity in Midtown to do 9 fields, and we were only able to do 3 at veterans, and we have the opportunity to have a public-private partnership to offset some of the costs with that. So, all around I think the citizens are getting a better deal in a location that better accommodates baseball,” McIlhaney said.
McIlhaney said any city funding is being negotiated with the potential private partner but would not exceed the amount the city would have spent on Veterans Park.
Copyright 2025 KBTX. All rights reserved.