Hancock City Council agrees to proposal to purchase Houghton County Arena for $1

HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) - The Hancock City Council has agreed to a proposal to purchase the Houghton County Arena for $1 from Houghton County.

The proposal was submitted to the council to review in Sept. and was approved during the council’s regular meeting Wednesday.

Conditions include that the Michigan State University extension offices remain in the building free of charge for 10 years.

Additionally, the arena’s ice rink must be usable for a minimum of seven months a year and Houghton County can purchase the arena back for the same price if the city puts it up for sale.

Arena operations have been handled by the Portage Lake Multi-Education Services nonprofit, which will be exiting the role this summer after additional service.

“The Portage Lake Multi-Educational service group will actually be continuing all the operations through June 30th of 2023,” said Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock

Babcock also said there are still some updates needed in the building.

“In the five-year plan,” said Babcock. “There will be hopefully maybe an elevator that will go up the Dave Wiitanen room. The bathrooms need to be upgraded, some locker room work, and then also a new Zamboni.”

Babcock also says County Commissioner Tom Tikkanen is expected to sign off on the agreement before the end of the week.

They plan on closing on the property within 60 days.