by Geoff Fox

The town is starting to crack down on vehicles with out of state plates belonging to residents living within town limits.

Town Manager Mike Faith said the town has a huge problem with these vehicles not being registered as there are multiple cars in town that have not been registered in Maryland even though the owners have been living in Hancock for years.

According to the Maryland Vehicle Administration, people must obtain a Maryland driver’s license and Maryland vehicle title and registration within 60 days of becoming a Maryland resident.

Faith said he wasn’t sure if a lot of the owners of vehicles with out of state tags, but town is going to start issuing warnings about the plates.

“We don’t want to start issuing citations, we don’t want to go that route,” he said. “We just want people to comply.”

He understands it’s expensive to register vehicles in Maryland and “it’s a pain in the ass” to do so as well as fees being doubled.

“I’m sorry about all that, you still have to register your car in Maryland if you live here,” Faith said.

Faith said Sgt. Shawn Faith consulted with Boonsboro Police, as he previously worked for the department, on how they handled the situation there with that municipality advertising the problem with a public notice.

The town placed a public notice in the May 20 (page 22) and May 27 (page 15) Hancock News regarding the vehicle registrations.

“That’s your notification,”  Town Manager Faith said. “Everyone’s notified.”

The next step is the town will print a copy of the ad and have police place it with a letter on the offending vehicles as a warning.

“We’re hoping that if we do that, the majority of people will comply and get their cars registered in Maryland,” Faith said.

He hopes to get things started within the next week or two.

People have been reading the paper as police have already received a few calls about unregistered plates.