News

Fire system in Town Hall to be updated

by Geoff Fox

The elevator in Hancock Town Hall is still not able to work because of a compatibility issue with an old fire alarm system that trips, shutting off the elevator.

When it shuts off, Town Manager Mike Faith said he can reset it, allowing it to work for a while, but he told town officials he doesn’t feel comfortable overriding the safety system so people can use the elevator.

“Unfortunately it’s been broken for a while,” he said during the January town meeting.

There was an attempt to get parts, but they are no longer made because of the age of the elevator.

Faith said they tried to get it fixed enough to get it up and running, but that plan was shot down by the State Fire Marshall’s Office as fire officials said the entire system needs to be updated.

The project has gone out to bid and an advertisement appeared on page 9 of last week’s Hancock News.

Faith said the alarm system updates would run between $50,000 to $60,000.

The new fire alarm system would serve the whole building, have cellular back up, would be fully addressable, with a control panel out front as well as one where employees come in the building when coming to work, and around 70 smoke detectors in the building.

There will also be correct signage, making sure emergency lights work, and making sure the proper doors are installed.

Faith said the project could begin in the next 60 days.

There have also been discussions with county officials about helping with the costs of the fire system upgrades, upgrades to the senior center area, or a generator for Town Hall so it can operate if there’s a power outage.

Nothing has been decided, Faith said, but he thinks the county could end up helping.

Looking at costs for lighting

Faith said he is looking at better lighting for the stage in the main meeting room.

He said the lighting on the stage is deficient and “pretty dark” but the lights off stage are “great.”

Faith said he’d ask an electrician to take a look at see what the cost would be to add more lights on stage.