MML Review Magazine Fall 2025

U.P. Community Exchange Program Connects Ironwood and Hancock

HANCOCK pop. 4,501 IRONWOOD pop. 5,045

By Margaret Mooney

Whatever challenge or opportunity a community is experiencing, sometimes the best advice and greatest inspiration come from local leaders in neighboring municipalities. Based on this idea and inspired by the positive outcomes of the Michigan Association of Mayors’ (MAM) long-standing Community Exchange program (formerly “Mayors’ Exchange”), the League launched a new iteration in 2025 with the unique needs and circumstances of Upper Peninsula communities in mind. Seeking to strengthen connections among the League’s Upper Peninsula members, the U.P. Community Exchange is an opportunity for municipal officials in all roles to host and visit a fellow community— encouraging the “exchange” of invaluable peer ideas and strategies for success. While the possibilities for what this might look like are endless, the City of Hancock and City of Ironwood were among the inaugural group of U.P. Community Exchange applicants and eagerly arranged their visits after being connected in early spring. For Ironwood City Manager Paul Anderson, it was a desire to “get new ideas on community development and learn how another city of our size operates” that inspired them to apply for the program. Similarly, Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock shared that her community applied “seeking to build camaraderie with fellow local leaders and understand how they handle the issues that we also deal with.” First, officials from Ironwood made the two-hour trip north on the Keweenaw Peninsula to visit Hancock. The day began with informal discussions, followed by a tour of several points of interest in the community. The tour included a stop at Hancock’s 40-acre Business and Technology Park, which received significant federal and state funding in recent years to complete its expansion and infrastructure improvements. Designed to support business and economic growth in the community, the Business and Technology Park project was an exciting milestone to celebrate as part of Ironwood’s visit to Hancock. Paul Anderson expressed, “It was great to see that Hancock still has developable land within their city boundaries that they are able to take advantage of. ”Although Ironwood is geographically larger than Hancock, Ironwood Community Development Director Tom Bergman observed, “we have an Industrial Park but with no room to expand it.”

Pictured from top to bottom: The City of Hancock Business and Technology Park, the Ironwood Memorial Building, and the City of Hancock City Hall.

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