by Geoff Fox
The Hancock Rotary Club has a new member in the Town of Hancock after town officials agreed to join the organization during the March town meeting.
Former Mayor Dan Murphy, who is currently the president of Rotary, told town officials exactly what that means.
Murphy said the service organization is made up of professionals and individual business owners who care about others above themselves.
At a corporate level membership, an organization, in this case the Town of Hancock, one member doesn’t always have to attend the weekly meeting.
Murphy gave the example of any one of the councilmembers could come to the meetings instead of one designated person, such as Town Manager Mike Faith coming to a meeting one week, Councilman Patrick Norris comes the next, and Councilman Dave Kerns coming the next two weeks.
The cost would be around $150 a quarter or roughly $600 a year.
Murphy also called officials’ attention to apple trees planted in the Civil War Heritage Park as part of a Rotary project a number of years ago in honor of the apple industry that once thrived in the Hancock area.
He told town officials the apple trees are in serious need of being pruned.
“That’s not Rotary’s problem unless you give it to us,” he said. “If you give it to us, we’ll take it on, but it’s in your park.”
Murphy said it’s getting toward the end of the season to do the pruning.
He also noted people do take apples off the trees to eat.
Councilman Roland Lanehart, Jr. said he talked to a person who knows how to prune the trees who would do the pruning as a donation to the town. The town would have to clear the branches.
The vote was unanimous to join Rotary.
