by Geoff Fox
The Town of Hancock is looking to get their comprehensive plan put together this year which will be needed as they move forward on budgeting, applying for grants, and as they make priorities.
Public input is needed as the plan comes together this year and questionnaires will be available in both paper and online versions.
The paper version will be available at the town office while the online version will be available to town’s website and social media pages. The survey can be taken at https://tinyurl.com/4neynda5.
“We really want to encourage everyone to take 15 minutes and fill that survey out,” Town Manager Mike Faith said.
The survey will help determine the priorities of the town when the plan is created.
Faith used his own example that a pedestrian walkway on a new U.S. 522 bridge that would allow foot and bicycle traffic to safely cross the bridge unlike the current bridge.
“So that’s an important thing to put in the comprehensive plan,” he said.
Other inputs would come from the people of the town. That’s where the survey comes in.
The town’s social media page has already shared the link and Faith said it would be live on the town’s website this week.
The survey is five pages long and has 12 questions. The first two questions involve who you are such as a homeowner, renter, or business owner in town and optimism of the future of Hancock.
You don’t have to be a resident of Hancock, so if you work in town but live in Morgan County or Fulton County, you can still complete the survey.
There’s also a section for a person’s opinion on various strengths and weaknesses of the town on a one to five scale.
Questions four through nine are essay type questions where you must write or type out the answer.
The last three questions regard age, length of time involved with the town of Hancock, and an optional personal information.
“It’s quite a detailed survey,” Faith said.
The survey is open until the end of April and is being conducted and handled by Mackin Engineering.
Faith said Mackin would go through and compile all the information. Once it’s completed, the information would be presented to Faith and the Planning Commission.
That will be crafted into the verbiage of the comprehensive plan, he said.
“I’m sure there’ll be a few drafts before it gets to council to approve it,” Faith said.
The timeframe should be a few months with the hope of final product being the end of the year.
Faith said he’s talked to officials about the plan and survey and received feedback from them, but there hasn’t been a lot of time spent on the plan.
The comprehensive plan, Faith said, is the bible for the town that lays out for the town for the next 10 years such as supplying water to residents, capacity and support to treat wastewater, recreation opportunities, and economic development.
The last comprehensive plan the Town of Hancock completed was in 2010.
Faith said the town has stuck to that plan because when applying for grants, a lot of times it has to align with what the comprehensive plan is.
For example, if the plan mentions has something about a pedestrian crossing on the 522 bridge, but then the town applies for a grant contrary to that. The grant provider would notice it doesn’t align with the plan.
“This is kind of laying it out like this is the vision for the future,” Faith said.
The town’s comprehensive plan would align with the Washington County’s comprehensive plan, even though it doesn’t have to do so. Faith added it makes sense since the town is in Washington County.
Mackin is looking at the county’s plan to update the town’s plan.
Faith said the comprehensive plan is important to the town and he wants people to participate in the survey.
“At the local government level, everything we do is better with citizen participation,” he said. “If they participate in the meetings, they participate in the dialog, decision making, we get better outcomes. This is no different.”
If 1,000 people participate and say they want the pedestrian crossing on the bridge, that makes it more likely it will happen, Faith said.
