Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette From left, council members Dean Woodbeck, Mandy Lounibos, Whitney Warstler and City Manager Mary Babcock at Wednesday Hancock City Council meeting.

HANCOCK — Just days after Baraga County decided not to go ahead with the use of Flock Safety License Plate Reader cameras, the City of Hancock is considering using them. At Wednesday’s meeting, council discussed the possibility of installing Flock Safety License Plate Reader cameras, which would take images of suspect vehicles. The cameras are capable of finding license plates as well as determining other vehicle characteristics such as colors and damages. Images taken then go into a database which can be shared with other communities utilizing Flock Safety to track the suspect vehicles.

While the cameras are currently not in use locally, crimes connected with Houghton County have been solved with the assistance of Flock Safety cameras used by other agencies. In addition to the City of Hancock, interest in Flock Safety cameras has been expressed by the City of Houghton and Houghton County. The council agreed to table the implementation of the cameras until they learn more about the cameras.

The council agreed to a purchase which is expected to lead to more housing in the city. A parcel at 711 West Water Street was purchased with the price of $10,489.81 with taxes due of $1,808.18. The property was on the Houghton County tax foreclosure list and the city had the right of first refusal to purchase it. The city is purchasing the property with the goal of developing it into a single family residence rather than rental property. After the meeting City Manager Mary Babcock said the property will not be up for sale until the space is cleaned out and investigations are held to determine if the exiting structure is safe enough to keep. “If it cannot be saved, then we will look at maybe selling it to the person [next door] to have it torn down,” Babcock said. “But right now our goal is so it doesn’t become a rental house and that it becomes a place that gives somebody the opportunity to be a homeowner, because it’s hard to come by a house that is reasonable for entry for new families.”

The Council approved the sale of city-own property in the Spruce Haven subdivision — Lots 4, 12 and 17, to Moyle Construction for $60,500. Moyle Construction will build three single family homes on the lots.

The council also a resolution 25-22 in support of the Lakeside Townhomes Act 381 Brownfield Plan. The plans for 538 Lake Avenue call for a six-unit house property which Babcock said is similar to what the city did for Skyline Commons. The council had the option to include the Brownfield revolving loan fund capture. Babcock explained the brownfield plan is asking for $509,000 to fund the apartments with assistance of a $2.1 million investment.

“I do believe, and this would give up the capture to pay back the developer the $459,000 and then there’s a $50,000 administrative fee, and then a $10,000 plan fee. So the one thing that the city council can determine if we want to contribute to the revolving loan fund that is designated in the current plan. But it does not have to be in there. And I think it’s asking for $146,000. That seems to me a little steep for the amount of $459,000 investment for the city but that also captures all local taxes. It’s not just the city of Hancock that contributes the $146,000,” Babcock said.

The council added an amendment to the approval by removing the last five years of the plan with the revolving fund for 16 years. Secretary of the Brownfield Authority Jeff Ratcliffe explained what the option entails. “If you wanted to lop off the last five, it’s capturing at basically the full amount of local taxes,” Ratcliffe said. “So that’s where it jumps from less than $2,000 a year to $24,000 so you could say let’s take away the last five years, and that’s 100 and some thousand dollars.”