With Christmas just around the corner, the HBA’s Vice President, Shelly Luccshesi and Treasurer Carol Freeman visited the new city council. Extending an invitation to the council’s returning and new members to join the parade at the Christmas walk. The HBA thanked the city for its support of the event, and help with setting up Hancock’s Christmas decorations. Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock added the town is excited about the event as many people have an opportunity to visit local stores, donate to Toys 4 Tots with the police department, and enjoy holiday traditions.
They’re swamped right now, lighting up the city everywhere. I don’t know if any one of them will decorate their own homes after their time. But we now have our daytime standard guy. He’s working, he comes in at five now. He works from five to one just because of the early morning on the slippery roads. So that is a change for us. – Mary Babcock, City Manager, City of Hancock
The DPW crew in charge of winter road maintenance is preparing for the upcoming season. Chief of Police Tami Sleeman reported the city responded to 14 traffic accidents during October. Accounting for about one accident every other day.
That’s one every other day. Yeah. So that is a lot. Even with the guys out doing enforcement, we’re still getting a lot of accidents and we have dry weather right now. So we’ve got that kind of accident when there’s no bad weather. They’re doing their best. – Tami Sleeman, Chief of Police, City of Hancock Police Department
Hancock city officials remind motorists to slow down along Quincy Street where accidents seem to occur more often. The limited width of the roadway makes for tight traffic while traveling through downtown. Maintaining the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit along the road allows pedestrians and cross traffic enough time and visibility to see oncoming vehicles. Drivers should also limit potential distractions while driving, such as pulling over to a parking lot or safe area to answer a phone call or text.
Hancock’s first council regular council meeting with new members had three absences with councilors Ron Blau, Lisa Givens, and mayor pro tem Whitney Warstler unavailable. Mayor Kurt Rickard motioned to remove one item for a WUPPDR invoice approval until more members could be available in December. Action items on the council agenda included approving a grant from the Shared Streets and Space grant program, paying bills and the last payment for the Minnesota Street Summer project, as well as adding several members to the Hancock Recreation Commission. The council’s final item asked Hancock to approve a centralized policy handbook for the city’s recreation facilities. Councilor Lisa McKenzie, who helped work on the facility policies said the recreation commission worked extensively to locate the Hancock’s parks, facilities, and other public amenity policies to bring it all under one document.
We haven’t had a comprehensive plan document on this. And Dean was nice enough, he pretty much wrote it and he used some of our old documents. I think the other one was from 1989 maybe. He kind of took that one and merged it with the other. And I think it’s a good document that now that we have something we can use. And if we find we need to make changes, it’ll go back to the Bart Commission and we’ll make the changes. – Mary Babcock, City Manager, City of Hancock
Councilor Lounibos added that the centralized policy document made her aware of several amenities that are available to the public that she did not know of before. Such as rental space for the chalet building. The Policies document did not change the majority of the fee schedule.
It seemed pretty easy to read and I learned some things like the chalet. So I like the good renting. I also think it was perfect to have all of them in one place. So that was good. – Amy Lounibos, Councilor, City of Hancock
But did increase the rental price for the Hancock beach pavilion to 100 dollars. City Manager Babcock says the fee will cover the increased cost of maintenance for a popular rental space, and other fees remain similar to rates to those in the 1990s.
Some people rent it where it maybe doesn’t cost as much (to maintain) and then there’s the next people that rent it and it probably costs what it would’ve been with the previous rental. So this is kind of a fair medium between the two. They do get the use of the kitchen area down there, there’s a refrigerator. We’ll make sure it’s unlocked and ready for them to use. They clean it before and they clean it after. – Mary Babcock, City Manager, City of Hancock
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