City Notebook: How to avoid a brown Christmas

By COLLIN GALLANT on December 23, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Christmas without snow is like a wedding without tears, a seeming contradiction and that little touch of the imperfection that makes magic.

Tears of joy, like so many other things in the contrary human nature, really sets off the deeper beauty of the occasion.

For the rest of the winter snow causes headaches, car crashes, grumbling, but it’s welcomed, even wished for on Christmas Day.

Save the small potential for scattered flurries on Saturday, we will likely have to do without this year.

It goes without saying that it’s been a year of unease.

Money is tight. People are stressed. Every other person seems to be sick again. Everything is an argument.

Hard times however, make good memories and make our blessings – outnumbered as they may be from time to time – all the more poignant.

It’s a Christmas wish that they become more appreciated and we will all carry that forward into the coming year.

Whether the weather

If you recall this time last year it was a record low of -36.2C on Dec. 22 and much the same in the week. Then it rained to create two inches of sheer ice on Boxing Day.

The year before there was a heavy snow storm on Christmas Eve as we all trudged out to desperately seek out rapid COVID tests ahead of family gatherings that were cancelled in 2020.

Ten years ago, Medicine Hat spent Dec. 25 under a blanket of smoke from a dump fire in the county (more on this below).

But let us not despair.

The lack of moisture in the region has gone well beyond a joking matter, it is realized.

But here’s one: What’s scarier? Grocery shopping in the gloomy, early days of the pandemic, or these days, considering the prices?

The long and short of it

City council held the longest and shortest public hearings in recent memory on Oct. 16.

The longest involved the new rate-setting formula that drew the ire of attendees for about 210 minutes. The shortest came after the gallery cleared and a hearing on tearing down a city-owned shed on city-owned land on the flood fringe was completed in two minutes. There’s a long explanation about why a hearing was needed in the first place, but haven’t we all heard enough about procedure in 2023?

(More on the year that’s receding and the year ahead next weekend.)

This and that

-The executive director of the Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce is fielding some questions about a recent name change. Lisa Dressler, as she introduced herself at a city council meeting this fall, is better known as Lisa Kowalchuk. In case you’re wondering, Dressler is her maiden name, and after a divorce 13 years ago, she recently decided to make the change back, she tells the News.

– Chris Christie has been drafted back into duty as the interim executive director of the Community Foundation of Southeast Alberta to fill in for a maternity leave taken by current head Niki Gray.

10 years ago

The above mentioned landfill fire in 2013 wasn’t the only big story to have a 10th birthday this year:

– The flood in Medicine Hat, of course, led to a major berm construction program;

– Ted Clugston was elected mayor and council soon after embarked on creating a more city-focused economic development wing.

– Construction of the event centre to replace the Medicine Hat Arena was approved after eight years of debate.

A look ahead

The calendar is free of official business as we prepare to start writing 2024 on emails that send cash to people. But, the News’s year in review articles start coming out this week and will include some look ahead to the new year.

Medicine Hat city council will skip the first meeting in January considering it was to be held on Jan. 2.

Relax, put your feet up and get thinking about those resolutions.

100 years ago

OK. Do NOT worry.

It may seem ironic that you need a computer scientist to access stacks of papers produced over 130-plus years, but there have been a couple hiccups in accessing the News’s digital archives that lend material to this feature.

They’re still there, and will return, but after a really quite smooth shop moving this year, the 100 years ago feature is off until at least next week.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.