Hancock canal-side development misguided

Editor:

I live at the paved end of Navy Street at the Portage condos. The trail behind those garages that merges with pavement west past the hockey player’s bnb house has been a respite summer, winter, spring and fall for scores of dog walkers, geriatric skiers, snow shoers, bikers, pedestrian commuters, parents, kids and ordinary walkers from the increasing speed-breaking traffic and rough pedestrian walkways we have in Hancock.

Residents have favored the city’s original master plan for years calling for a biking-hiking pathway through that wooded canal-side path there. Sunday, April 1, at 6 pm, in the HOCO Fairgrounds building, anyone else who’s for the original master plan and against developing that path into a road for canal side development can protest the city’s misguided plans to do so — beginning as soon as the snow melts.

I am not in favor of ignoring the corridor. Before the condo association placed giant boulders blocking access behind its garages there a few years ago, a through-dirt road did support occasional motorized traffic. Here’s what happened, however, as the population grew — after COVID especially:

• Increasing motorized traffic zoomed unpoliced both ways along the path making it too dangerous anymore for casual walking

• Motorcycles also used the path to recklessly access the steep unstable soil embankments leading to the DNR trail above

• Snowmobiles and 4x4s used the path to access private driveways and backyards where dogs, babies and other living beings hung out safely, or so they thought

•Squatters with unleashed aggressive dogs used the path to access “free” camping along the canal

That singular path has so much potential to enhance the City of Hancock. These are the concerns of a minding-her-own business Hancock citizen and taxpayer who is all for development and IMPROVEMENTS AND MAKING THE NEIGHBORHOODS SAFER, but not foolishly tearing into the narrow piece of tree-hugged canalside strip of land below unstable soil and steep city grades.

Do not allow this seemingly already done deal to play out. Use the $$ to develop and to properly oversee a green space that syncs with enduring U.P. values and characteristics.

Please visit the area for yourself to understand why the Navy Street Extension should not be permitted to go forward. Then attend the Wednesday, April 1, meeting at the fairgrounds to state your concerns.

Sincerely, Frann Grossman,

retired educator,

Hancock