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Hancock has had a long year of many projects around the city. During a joint meeting on Monday, City Manager Mary Babcock updated the Council, Planning Commission and DDA on the status of several projects. The city is getting an EV charging station. The level 3 charger can fully charge a vehicle battery in under an hour. 55,000 dollars are coming from EGLE, with the city paying $11,000 and UPPCO chipping in another 26,000 dollars for the project. The EV charger will have owners pay for charging their own vehicle.
And the dog park is set to have work finish this spring. Funds for the project were raised through a combination of a MEDC grant and crowd funding. To which the public raised $24,000 for the dog park. Hancock is also finishing FEMA work at the Maasto Hiito trails. The restoration work will not cost the city anything. As the nearly 300,000 dollar project is paid for by both FEMA and state funds. The project has taken a lot of time due to much of the restoration taking place on private property. The damage at the trail system resulted from the Father’s Day Flood in 2018.
The fire hall will get something new too. Erico Electric Inc will install a new generator in the hall. The project totals out to around $41,000. Hancock will pay about $8,000 for that project. There is also the coastal restoration project, funded by EGLE, near the Ramada Inn. That is a 50/50 grant costing $90,000 in total. The project will focus on preventing further erosion in the area and install a new sidewalk along the shore of the canal.
Other grants the city is working on include a new police cruiser for the department, a pickle ball court, a historic signage grant, and a solar array grant at the old dump site. The city is also receiving 450,000 dollars from the American Rescue Plan. Hancock still needs to decide how to spend that money. Babcock finished with there is certainly a lot of excitement around the projects for the city, and what will happen over the year.
