Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock, presents the city’s road quality findings, among other topics, to the Hancock City Council, Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority.

HANCOCK — Hancock City Council, City of Hancock Planning Commission and the Downtown Development Authority met under one roof for a joint meeting Wednesday at HoCo Arena.

The meeting saw city officials from those sectors of local government listen to discussions and presentations from City Manager Mary Babcock, President of Moyle Construction, Andy Moyle, Houghton County Commissioner Glenn Anderson, City Clerk and Treasurer Linda Kalinec, Head of Community Development Todd Gast and Chief of Police Tami Sleeman — among other members of the Planning Commission and the DDA.

Babcock presented what she termed as “out of the box thinking.” According to her, this aligns with projects the city is working on alongside the Planning Commission and the DDA.

The future of buildings of the former Finlandia University that are now owned by the city was brought up. Babcock said she is open to what residents have to say about future use of the buildings.

“We’re just still wanting to work out what the future could be for our buildings and trying to come up with some options,” Babcock said. “I would love to get some public input on any suggestions that anybody has we can look at it and see if it’s a viable use, we are definitely taking suggestions.”

Babcock mentioned that Moyle Construction President Andy Moyle, is handling a number of former Finlandia buildings including Summit Place and Skyline Commons, the former now low-cost dorm-style off-campus housing aimed at Michigan Technological University students. Moyle is cautious about new housing for students, as he has seen recent vacancies within that area. “We used to have a need for as many student rentals as we could possibly get,” Moyle said. “People have vaccines now that they’ve never had before — it’s very unusual — in the student housing world.”

Moyle said he anticipates Skyline Commons will be open for rent for residents in fall 2026.

The City of Hancock also is taking a look at using EGLE Community Energy Management Grant money, $130,000, to buy and install solar panels on the south side of HoCo Arena. It is something Babcock says will help ease the energy bill, the arena’ largest cost. “The city is very interested in trying to figure out ways if renewable energy can work within the city,” she said. “This grant covers 80 percent of the cost of that project.”

According to Babcock, the city received a $356,000 MSHDA grant to work on construction of three workforce housing units on one of the oldest homes in Hancock — 222 Hancock St. The aim with projects such as Summit Place, Skyline Commons and 222 Hancock St. is to try and keep up with the need for housing for contract workers in the area as well as Michigan Tech off-campus student housing needs.

Babcock also gave a water and sewer update saying the 2026 Sewer Project is in development and the city is attempting to reach out to commercial properties within the next week in order get access to establish water line cross connection. The City of Hancock is currently contracting Hydrocorp in order to establish the cross connection in these buildings.

Babcock said the City has not found any lead in its’ water pipes. According to Babcock, they are 85 percent complete in obtaining the data.

The theme of outside the box thinking, in regards to low-cost residential housing, energy, water and grant allocation, puts the City of Hancock in an interesting and exciting position for the coming years, according to the city manager. If the improvements to HoCo’s energy use work, then the City of Hancock might expand further into other needed areas.

“If [the solar panels] work for us, you know we might look at our second biggest one — the campground,” she said. “We might look at trying to do something down here in the future.”

During the public comment periods, which took place before and after the presentations, residents of Portage Lake Condos expressed concern regarding the prospective Navy Street development. Their concerns largely dealt with the economic and physical impact of the development on their properties. There was no official item on Wednesday evening’s agenda that directly addressed the Navy Street. development.