HANCOCK — Keeping storm and sanitary sewers operating as best they can is an important function of a community’s officials, and Hancock is taking a step toward that goal with a grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Mike Markham, civil project manager for OHM Advisors in Hancock, said the city received a $1.4 million grant from the DEQ Stormwater, Asset Management, and Wastewater Program (SAW) to determine the status of the city’s sewer system. The city’s match for the grant is $107,543.

“The entire project is to create an overall asset plan for sanitary and storm water sewers,” he said.

Markham said the city is advertising today for bids to do a televised survey of 117,000 lineal feet of the city’s sanitary sewers at various locations. The bids will be opened Feb. 23 and the council will select a bid at its March 15 regular meeting.

“(The televising) is just to take a look at conditions of pipes that are more than 20 years old,” he said.

Markham said the DEQ grant is also for determining the condition of storm sewer pipes, but the sanitary system is considered more critical, which is why that system will be examined first.

In the spring, Markham said bids will be taken to televise the city’s stormwater system.

After the televising of pipes is completed, Markham said a report about both sanitary and stormwater systems will be sent to DEQ by October 2018, which will include what problems exist in the sewer system. It will be 2019 before any repair work can be done.