HANCOCK, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Tuesday, October 22, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that 27 towns will receive a portion of the 6.5 million dollars in grant money as part of the Shared Streets and Spaces Program.
In Houghton county the City of Hancock and the City of Houghton will receive $200,000 each for projects currently planned for the communities. Hancock will use the funds to improve sidewalks and crosswalks around their schools. The project will make it safer and easier to walk from one school to another. The improvements will involve Elevation Street and Campus Drive.
Across the bridge in Houghton, the city will use the funds to make improvements to Bridgeview Park along Houghton’s waterfront.
The grant program supports quick-build projects that improve streets, plazas, sidewalks, transit stops and parking areas to insure safe mobility, public health and strong commerce. Hancock’s City Manager Mary Babcock says their connector project will improve pedestrian access to all the schools.
“And the connector project, it’s about 6250 square feet of sidewalk that’s going to connect our elementary school on Elevation Street to our one of our main arteries on the north side of the city, that’s Campus Drive, which then connects to the high school,” said Babcock.
Babcock says the city also wants to complete a project to make the area more bike friendly. The goal is to provide a safe way for kids to walk or bike to school
In Houghton the funds will be used to make improvements to Bridgeview Park. A beautiful parcel of land in the shadow of the lift bridge, that city officials feel is the heart of the city.
“We’re going to be increasing, pedestrian safety and walkability across Lake Shore Drive from downtown and then getting folks from there to the water by regrading a lot of that area to make it fully handicap accessible, making an accessible ramp down to the dock,” explained Waara.
With the sidewalks and bike paths in Hancock really benefitting residents, the Bridgeview Park renovation is meant to serve residents, but also attract visitors…And keep them.
Also receiving grant funding are the cities of Negaunee, Caspian, Escanaba, Iron River, and The Marquette County Transit Authority.
