by Kate Shunney
Washington County officials visited Hancock last Tuesday, July 23 to hold the evening portion of their regular meeting at Hancock Town Hall.
Commissioner John Barr opened the meeting, then invited Hancock Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. to speak to the commission about needs or priorities for their town. 
Lanehart welcomed commissioners to Hancock and introduced council members Richard Strong, Josh McCusker, Patrick Norris, David Kerns and Town Manager Mike Faith.
Faith took the lead in presenting two requests to county officials.
His first topic hit on the state of a tree planting area at Hancock Elementary School. A recent planting project put hundreds of seedlings in the ground at the school, but crews had not been mowing the area between plantings. Faith showed officials several photos – one of the overgrown Hancock area and two of other tree planting areas in Washington County that had been mowed and trimmed between trees.
Holding up the photo of the high grass area in Hancock, Faith told commissioners that if that had been a private yard, the town would have already contacted the owner, hired a contractor to mow and given the property owner the bill for mowing.
County Administrator Michelle Gordon told Faith that the tree project was being handled by a private contractor under the planting grant and when that contract runs out, the job will revert back to the Board of Education to maintain.
Hancock Convenience Center
Faith also posed the possibility of letting a private contractor operate Hancock’s trash drop off facility – the Convenience Center on Hess Road – to extend their hours into the evening and weekends. Currently, the center is open Tuesday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
He asked the commissioners’ permission to pursue talks with the county’s Solid Waste director about the idea.
Faith proposed that residents would be able to use a dump pass or permit to use the center.
“That transfer station serves all people of Western Maryland, not just Hancock, so we would need to make sure it served everyone,” Gordon said.
Commissioner Wayne Keefer of Hancock said he was aware this idea had been talked about before and had to be seen in the larger context of what it took for the county to close down the former Hancock landfill area.
“The county has assumed some of the post-closure expenses. Our former administrator said was close to $1 million. Would you like to take that on?” Keefer asked town officials.
Faith said he believes the yearly cost for monitoring the former landfill is around $30-40,000 per year, according to the county’s budget.
“If we can figure it out, yeah we could take that on,” he said.
Keefer said he likes the idea of evening operating hours for the local convenience center.
High school programs
Councilman Josh McCusker asked about the status of a Maryland DNR program proposed for Hancock High School in the past.
He said he likes the idea of it and thought it would benefit local students.
“Could the commission help push this?” he asked.
Commissioner Keefer said he recently spoke with the Superintendent of Schools and asked for an update. New electives at the high school could lean toward a fuller agricultural or natural resources program if students show an interest, Keefer said.
“Hopefully if there’s interest, it could lead to a magnet program,” he said.
Mayor Lanehart said Hancock has 23 acres that an ag or natural resources program or FFA club could use.
Commissioner Derek Harvey said he has continued to hear people bringing up an interest in closing smaller, outlying schools like Hancock and Cascade as a way to save money.
Harvey said those who think that have a skewed view of the economics of closing community schools.
“The cost to the county revenue over the long term would be very detrimental,” he said.
“No family is going to move here without a school,” Mayor Lanehart said.
“Some people think this issue is resolved but stay vigilant and engaged,” Commissioner Harvey told Hancock officials.
Councilman McCusker said the Hancock council would be sending a letter in support of the DNR program to the Washington County Board of Education.
Economic development
Councilman David Kerns thanked county commissioners for their partnership in paying for a water line extension to the BFS Hancock truck plaza to serve new businesses there. Town Manager Faith said it allowed service to continue out to Blue Goose as well.
Kerns said the next major line extension would be to Lanco, the cheese factory on the north end of Hancock.
“It’s going to be expensive,” he said.
Commissioner Barr said he appreciated the collaboration with the town to extend the public water line eastward.
In other economic development discussions, Mike Faith said there have been recent discussions with the owners of the Fairview Orchard properties about future uses of that 5,400 acres west of Hancock. The heiress for the German family that owns the land recently visited Hancock and spoke with Faith and Jonathan Horowitz, Director of Washington County Business and Economic development.
Horowitz said the German owners have a background in hotels and fine restaurants and there have been preliminary talks about ways to make the Hancock property generate revenue, possibly in the hospitality sector. That land is currently in agricultural and hunting leases, primarily.
Other business
In other county business, officials said they are working to clear the picnic area on Route 40 over Sideling Hill, and there are plans to put new roofs on picnic areas, get lighting on the roadside park in order to improve security.
“I hope it’ll be a park the county and Hancock can be proud of,” said Commissioner Keefer.
Hancock resident Mike McCarthy stood up to credit town officials with working on his behalf to resolve a utility issue with internet service recently.
“The mayor and Mike went beyond what they needed to do to resolve the issue,” McCarthy said.
Blighted buildings
Debbie Cohill, director of Interfaith Service Coalition, said her agency sits just across from two blighted buildings in Hancock. They are in poor physical condition and house wild animals and rodents, Cohill said.
“As you know, I have complained several times,” about the impact of those buildings on the neighborhood, Cohill said.
She thanked county officials for granting the authority needed for their code officer to take steps toward cleaning those properties up.
Gregory Cartrette said he is working through the process to add members to a Building Code Board of Appeals to address issues like Cohill had pointed out.
“Then I can start taking action on dilapidated and blighted buildings,” Cartrette said.
“I look forward to seeing Hancock looking a lot better,” Cohill said.
Commissioners closed their 40-minute meeting with positive comments about Hancock.
“I’m always impressed with the sense of community here,” said Commissioner Harvey.
“That’s what small towns like this are all about – take care of each other,” said Commissioner Barr.
