HANCOCK — The Hancock City Council held it’s April meeting on Wednesday, and largely addressed upcoming outdoor projects.

After the approval of the last meeting’s minutes, Mayor Paul LaBine began with a communication correspondence from Charter Communications. Charter announced that they will be closing their walk-in location on Enterprise Drive, by or after May 7.

Following the communications correspondence, City Manager Mary Babcock delivered the administrative report, where she discussed a meeting on Monday night with 10 residents discussing a new dog park.

“We are currently working with Dave Mattila to get an easement for his property to the north of the Driving Park,” she said. “The 10 individuals we’ll help kind of figure out the amenities; water, the fencing, the ground cover that would be needed. Then that’ll go through the recreation commission to move forward with that. So we really appreciate Dave Mattila, giving us the opportunity to put that park there. People are very excited.”

After the dog park, the administrative report addressed a meeting from last week with the Portage Lake Water and Sewage Authority.

“We have been making bond payments of $800,000 a year for quite a few years,” said Babcock. “Last year was the final year, so there will be an adjustment to our billing. We should probably see about $116,000 reduction in our bills this year. If everything kind of stays constant, they are keeping $400,000 and putting it towards their capital improvement projects. Then the other $400,000 is going to be split between the entities that support the authority.”

Her report included a tax valuation analysis from the Michigan Municipal League.

“Our value has gone up about $4 million this year,” she said. “There are some good points on here. In 2018 and 2019, we were well below the rate of inflation for taxable value. And in 2020, we have an increase in them. In 2021, it’s gone up even further. So we’re on the right trend for that. And it’s looking good.”

The final point on the administrative report were the efforts of the Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action.

“We had fruit trees (apple and plum) planted around the city, by the Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action, and they did a great job. We now have new trees at Klondike Park and along South Lincoln Drive, between Michigan and Apple Street. It’s kind of an exciting project for the group. They were very ambitious, so we look forward to the fruits of their labor,” Babock said.

Moving from the administrative report to new business, the first item was paying accounts payable in the sum of $471,660, which passed unanimously.

The next order of business was the approval of Resolution 21-08, which released Lot 27 from the Spruce Haven Restrictive Deed Covenant. According to the council, homeowners in Spruce Haven were sent letters.

“So presumably, everyone who’s a homeowner there has been notified and is aware that this is happening and has been given the opportunity to weigh in, if they feel strongly one way or another about this action,” Councillor John Haussler said.

The resolution passed unanimously.

The council also accepted a grant from the Portage Health Foundation for the Hancock Tori Market to the sum of $5,000.

Business item number four was the acceptance of the award of Hancock Sewer Repairs Phase 2, FEMA pw 157, and Tezcuco Street well removal and restoration amounts of $199,444 to Portage Lake Construction.

A motion to remove a troublesome wall by General Glass was also passed.

The fifth and final item was the consideration of a language change for the purchase agreement for 201 East Franklin Street property to Red Jacket Construction from “Buyer shall complete construction,” to “Buyer shall commence construction” of the project within one year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the buyer of that properly listed “supply chain issues” in regards to building.

“With COVID, there’s been some supply chain issues with getting the buildings built. So he will have a completion date of Aug. 31, 2022. I honestly would like to include that in the document,” Babcock said.

The amendment to the language of the purchase agreement passed unanimously.