Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette The floating dock at Porvoo Park has recently been completed. Signs advising no swimming and diving were installed at the dock Tuesday due to the variable depths off of the dock.

HANCOCK — Phase II of Hancock’s Business and Technology Park is very close to becoming a reality. At Monday’s meeting of the city’s Planning Commission, City Manager Mary Babcock said the park will see completion before the beginning of the school year. Babcock said the park will be connected to the high school via a sidewalk.

“Portage drive does not have a sidewalk right now, but our goal is to connect Campus Drive and Portage Drive, all the way up to the Business and Technology Park,” Babcock said. “So there will be nice safe walking for residents and people to use, because people are really like to walk to the Business and Technology Park. So that’s a pretty big improvement for us up there.”

Babcock said there have been sewer and water issues in the city which will need to be addressed, including weakening sewer pipes, though residential backups have been addressed. A sewer collapsed by Depot Street which the city is looking for bids and quotas to have the repairs done by the fall. Other work needing to be done includes patchwork at Monetzuma Park. “They’ve also been doing a lot of patching at Center Street in East Hancock and Michigan Street in West Hancock. Both of those have grants that we applied for, for work that would be done next year. So we patched them this year to the best of our ability, and we are hoping for those grants so that we can get those done,” Babcock said.

Porvoo Park’s new dock had its last installments completed on Monday. Signs will be placed near the dock which will prohibit swimming and diving off the dock. Babcock said this was so people understand there is a lot of risk management for the city due to variable depths along the dock. “In one spot along the dock, it’s three feet deep, and then 20 feet to the west, it’s 15 feet deep, and it’s just too dangerous for people to start swimming there, because you’re assuming it’s deeper and that you’re going to dive in or something,” Babcock said.

Babcock also gave an update for the inaugural winter event, “Hancock Lights the Night.” The holiday event will see campsites at the city campground transformed into a lightshow where visitors can drive through and browse from late November to early January. A grant of $15,000 is assisting the city to put on the spectacle. About 20 campsites have been reserved by various businesses, banks and families with some of them from outside of Hancock. “We’ll be starting to decorate it Oct. 15, and people will be able to get in there, and hopefully we’ll open right after Thanksgiving to have people drive through,” Babcock said.