News

Weaver’s may need town investments to be marketable

by Geoff Fox

The Town of Hancock still hasn’t sold the property that used to be Weaver’s Restaurant and officials are now looking at making  improvements to the building in order for it to be sold.

Last year, the town had a contract for the sale of the building, but the person making the purchase backed out, leaving the town still in possession of the building.

Town Manager Mike Faith said he was recently in the building and got a quote on what the costs would be to repair the roof and remediate mold inside.

“The thinking at this point is trying to get in a condition where we can actually sell it,” he said.

Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. said town officials would have to have more discussions on the building and if they want to spend more money on it.

He added there are people who think the town should just tear the building down, but he disagrees.

“We can’t have another vacant lot on Main Street,” he said.

Plate readers in service

The Hancock Police Department has two of three license plate readers now in service. The third had a faulty part on it and that new part has been ordered.

Lanehart said the two that are in service have already made several traffic stops where the car had dead tags or no insurance. The plate readers have also detected two stolen cars coming through Hancock. There have also been cars driving around without registration or licenses or wrong tags.

“The Police Department is doing a good job and getting them cleaned up slowly,” he said.

Possible Criminal Justice program at HS?

Faith said he recently attended a meeting in Hagerstown where he spoke to a person from the Washington County Board of Education who made a comment about Hancock possibly hosting a Criminal Justice Program at the high school as a lot of Hancock want to be enrolled in a similar class.

Faith said it was great idea and has a meeting scheduled with Chief Rich Miller, the person from the Board of Education, himself, and the school to flesh out the idea.

The program, he said, would be a Tech High program at Hancock High School.

Aerators at lagoon down

In other town business, Faith told town officials there are three aerators down at the town’s wastewater lagoon.

One aerator had a motor burn up and two had issues with disposable wipes.

Faith said the disposable wipes are packaged as being flushable, but they are not as flushable they claim because those wipe burn up the aerators at the lagoon.

When they’re flushed, that’s what taxpayer money is being used to fix.