"Don't move our park."
A large cardboard sign, propped against a park bench, shares the message in bold black letters. On Wednesday morning, Hans Overton, sitting nearby, speaks into his cellphone's camera as he livestreams on Facebook.
Overton is one voice in a group of neighbors fighting to keep East Miller Street Park from being relocated.
A more vocal and visible member of the opposition, Overton frequently shares his thoughts about the issue on Facebook, through protests outside of City Hall with his cardboard sign, and by attending Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission meetings.
The issue involves a park relocation in favor of expanding Jefferson City's national veterans cemetery.
In October, a group of veterans proposed the plan at a commission meeting. Two months later, both sides met at a meeting to discuss the possibility.
At a Feb. 11 meeting, the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission approved a transfer of the land that is currently East Miller Park to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration, which regulates national veterans' cemeteries.
The land will be officially given to the VA only if it approves an expansion of the cemetery, meaning the park relocation is not for certain at this time. Chris Leuckel, president of the Parks Commission, said they have not sent the memorandum of understanding to the VA yet regarding the offer.
One of the next steps is for the Jefferson City Council to also approve the transfer of the park land, City Counselor Ryan Moehlman said.
Tom Rackers, a lobbyist who has been working with the local veterans to expand the cemetery, said they can't do much else until the MOU is sent to the VA. He added the group has the "full support" of elected officials with whom he has spoken.
"There's a lot of good things happening," Rackers said. "But we're just going to take it one step at a time. I've met with the city numerous times, and they're very supportive of this. We don't anticipate there's going to be any problems, but you just don't know."
For the last 50 years, Jefferson City National Cemetery has been closed for new interments, leaving Jefferson City area veterans without a nearby national cemetery to be buried in. The nearest with openings is Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.
About three years ago, a local group started working to see what could be done to bring more burial space to the area. After searching for a new piece of land, the group decided an expansion across the street into the land currently home to East Miller Park would be the best option.
The Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department agreed.
But some in the community did not.
"They said the proposal was a win-win situation for both sides," Overton said, sitting in the park a week after the Parks Commission decision. "I'm assuming the both sides they were talking about were the Parks and Rec and the VA organization. Those were the two sides they were talking about. It can't be a win-win for the community because they didn't have the community involved."
The Parks Commission's plan would be to develop a segment of land on the other side of U.S. 50/63 from East Miller Park into a new park space. The land is slightly smaller than the current park, so to balance it, the Parks Department would also improve the nearby Park Place Neighborhood Park.
Leuckel said expanding and updating the two parks will better serve the community surrounding the parks by expanding the park's footprint and providing upgraded amenities.
As part of their examination of the issue, staff used ParkServe Interactive mapping made by The Trust for Public Land to calculate the service areas of all three parks.
A service area for a park is the population living within a half-mile, or 10-minute walk, of the park.
For East Miller, the service area includes a population of 1,840. The proposed new location on East Elm Street would have a service area of 1,540, and Park Place would have a service area of 1,319.
The East Elm Street space, across the highway, isn't visible from the current park because of a large sound barrier wall along the highway. On the other side of East Elm Street is a neighborhood of low-income housing.
The new proposed park at East Elm Street would include a splash park, playground and half-court basketball court, along with other park amenities. Improvements to Park Place would include barbecue grills and a playground.
To Overton, the replacement wouldn't equal the loss, and he takes issue with the proposed location behind the wall.
"This location is sacred to the community here. We don't want to be behind a wall," Overton said. "I don't have anything against low-income housing. But you know who won't go over there? Mrs. White. Mrs. White is not going to take her child over to low-income housing. She doesn't live over there. Mrs. Black, who doesn't live over in low-income housing, is not going to take her child over into low-income housing to go to a park."
For some of the neighbors, it's not as much about losing the park amenities as the sense of place and history that comes with the park, which is located near The Foot District - once Jefferson City's black business and residential district along Lafayette Street between East Dunklin and Miller streets. In the 1960s, much of the area was lost.
Also nearby is Lincoln University, a historically black university established by soldiers of the 62nd United States Colored Infantry.
In 2016, The Historic Foot District was officially recognized and a plaque was erected, which reads in part: "It was widely accepted as the cultural heart of the black community. It was demolished during urban renewal, which suddenly and dramatically removed the heart of this proud, self-contained black business community."
Overton recalled the message of the plaque to emphasize the importance of the park to the community.
"When you take the heart out of something, what happens? It dies," Overton said. "If you reach over here and snatch my heart out, guess what's going to happen to me? I'm going to fall to the ground and die. That's what gentrification's done to this community. That's what removing this park, the continuum of removing stuff from this community, does to this community. It kills it.
"And we want to bring it back to life. We kind of pump some more blood through the heart of this community, through the heart of this park. We want to pump some more life into it."
Katie Owens, a Russellville resident who formerly lived near The Foot district, said the removal of the park is bigger than the park itself.
"Block by block, the former Foot has been dismantled. And over the decades, the affected community has had little power to stop it due to lack of representation and community sympathy," Owens said. "To take the last vestige of that community for a cemetery, even one for veterans, is ironic because that act would be the final death nail in the coffin that was The Foot."
That loss of more African American history and culture in the area is the big issue, said resident Marco Devon Patterson, who is also a veteran.
"When I want to take my kids to a park, this is a place where I have memories attached," Patterson said. "Other people have memories attached. There's a little bit of Afro-American culture that's here, that's connected to the area.
"When you start erasing a culture, or pieces of what existed as a culture here, it's like you're really hurting Jeff City in the long run because another culture develops - and when that other culture develops, it can backfire on what people think they're developing."
Vander Hughes, a Jefferson City resident who opposes the park move, has also spoken to the Parks Commission about the issue. He said moving the park will be a mistake.
"The only downside is the time that we recognize these mistakes is afterwards, and something has been paid. A price has been paid to learn that lesson," Hughes said. "How about we take the land from an area where nobody's living? Not in an area that people are living, to be at risk of making a mistake."
Previously, Rackers said they attempted to find another location but had trouble finding an area that met criteria such as being level and out of a floodplain.
Jefferson City resident Jevon Love understands both sides of the issue. He has a degree in parks and recreation and is also a veteran. While he understands the desire to honor veterans with the cemetery, he doesn't agree with the decision.
"This should be about serving the living," Love said. "I understand people want to honor the dead, but I think it's more important to honor the living that are here. I can see the convenience. But at what cost to the living? To the people it's already serving?"
The Parks Commission decision isn't the end of this process or even the final decision on whether this move will happen. Overton and other park supporters aren't going to give up their fight here, either.
The decision now moves to the national level. The VA's National Cemetery Administration operates 141 national cemeteries in 40 states and the territory of Puerto Rico. Veterans and their spouses, minor children and adult children in certain circumstances can be buried in these cemeteries.
With the Jefferson City cemetery closed, the closest national cemetery option open to burials is Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. Springfield National Cemetery is open to cremations only. The nearest state cemetery is in Fort Leonard Wood.
One goal of the NCA is to provide veterans with reasonable access to VA burial options, which they define as first interment for casketed or cremated remains in a national or state cemetery within 75 miles of the home.
Under this definition, the state cemetery at Fort Leonard Wood would be considered reasonable at 54.08 miles away, or about 75 miles by road. The St. Louis national cemetery would not.
To the veterans group, Fort Leonard Wood doesn't seem close enough. Rackers said family members, especially those older in age, should not have to travel so far.
Overton has already taken one step to continue the fight upward. A few days after the Parks Commission decision, he traveled to Jefferson Barracks, which maintains the Jefferson City cemetery, to get more information about where the process will go next.
The main VA office is in Washington, D.C. Overton said he and other supporters plan to send letters or emails to people higher in the process than Jefferson City, and he's willing to travel, if necessary.
"We're going to be contacting a state representative," Overton said. "All the way up. If we have to go to Virginia to knock on the door, we'll do that, too. We're going to make it happen. This is what the community wants."
Overton said he believes they will be successful, despite the obstacles.
"We're just going to keep pumping that blood into this community, pumping that blood into this park," Overton said. "And in the end, this park is going to be here."