City Notebook: The hills are alive with the sound of power planning
By COLLIN GALLANT on May 4, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant What do the City of Medicine Hat and Liesl Von Trapp have in common? Well, they’re both 16 going on 17. You’ll have to excuse the ridiculous lengths this column’s author has gone to to make a clever intro into the topic of electricity generation. The author makes no apologies, but will provide an explanation. Von Trapp, of course was the eldest of the child characters in the Sound of Music. She winds up leaping about a gazebo in the company of delivery boy, Rolf, singing about the wonderful nature of teenage romance. It’s doubtful the planners in the city’s electrical generation division are doing something similar choreography, but they did get Unit 16 power plant up and running two years ago and are now beavering away at, you guess it, Unit 17. Hockey talk In a hockey vein, the Vancouver Giants are back in the WHL final series for he first time since they faced the Tigers 12 years ago in a ring-a-ding-dong-dandy series that nearly tore down the Medicine Hat Arena in 2007. They’ll face the Prince Albert Raiders, who are the class of the league to this point of the season, and former News sports scrib Darren Steinke is expected on the scene. Steinke, who now lives in Saskatoon, formerly covered the raiders for the PA Daily Herald before joining the News in 2004, and is back covering sports in that region. Check out his coverage at stankssermon.blogspot.com. The Memorial Cup starts May 16 in Halifax. Arena As for goings-on at the Arena these days, the old girl is the subject of a new tax abatement proposal for brownfield properties that will go to a public hearing at city council on July 2. That’s after talks between the city’s land office and a developer stalled after demolition costs came in higher than expected. Councillors eluded to ground contamination from the piping system at the now 49-year-old facility when the issue was raised in April, but there’s also asbestos, which is all-too-common in buildings of the era. As for future use of the site, sources say to think residential and think local when surmising a possible private developer. Election follow Lynn MacWilliam has resigned from Bassano town council one week after placing well back as a provincial NDP candidate in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding. But, now-private-citizen MacWilliam is becoming a pretty good quote in letting it be known the resignation is because of family illness, not because of her placement. “I lost two elections in 2015 and didn’t quit,” the News heard from MacWilliam, who ran provincially and federally that year. As for the NDP’s poor showing in 2019, MacWilliam was philosophical “It’s a very conservative riding,” she said. “Medicine Hat was very good to us. In (a differently drawn riding in) 2015, Strathmore was good for us. Brooks, not so much.” From afar A group of towns and counties in east central Alberta is making a push for agricultural processing cluster after splitting from a partnership that included local efforts. The Battle River Alliance for Economic Development is now accepting proposals to advance the value-added and processing strategy centred around Camrose. The BRAED was one of three members of the Eastern Alberta Trade Corridor initiative that included similar regional efforts, the Palliser Economic Partnership and Alberta HUB. A look ahead Council resumes sitting on Monday night. The municipal planning commission will hear initial proposals for the Coulee Ridge community in the city’s south end on Wednesday. 100 years ago Once again, Canadian Northern railway officials stated the Medicine Hat to Hanna rail line would be completed in 1919, The News reported on May 1 of that year, making the city a union point of two major rail lines. Unions in Medicine Hat endorsed the foundation of the “One Big Union” in a vote of 22-8. That made the local Trades and Union Council the only outpost in Alberta to back the scheme to break from international affiliation and exert greater political power in Canada through nationwide organizing and general strike action. A boy in Redcliff survived after being shot in the neck by a neighbour boy who had found his father’s revolver. New train engines for the CPR would soon be able to make the trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 93 hours, making it the fastest intercontinental trip ever recorded. 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 33-32
