City Notebook: A neighbourly practice moving north to south
By COLLIN GALLANT on November 9, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but could what’s happened in Grande Prairie be exported to Medicine Hat? It may not sound exciting, but it’s an intriguing question when it comes to economic development. Medicine Hat, Redcliff and Cypress County are now in a period of detente when it comes to attracting business investment and citizens haven’t been as ready to point jealous fingers at housing developments or businesses setting up in their neighbouring municipality. This week the News reported that the three municipalities were proposing a sort of joint administration of a proposed industrial park north of the city and town in the county. The level of integration in a project that still could be decades away from dirt turning is not known, but it appears to be a toe-in-the-water for a joint development program that’s practised between neighbours in the Grande Prairie area. That is from whence current city top administrator Bob Nicolay arrived last year, and where two counties and the city lured a new methanol plant this year working together on the understanding of earning shared tax revenue from major projects. That agreement focused on investment attraction with all three partners bringing either land, utilities or other services to offer. It’s very similar to language being bandied about now in the southeast. Fun with science Your net worth is a bit higher than you might think, according to a new book by research-humourist Bill Bryson. According to the author of “The Body: A guide for occupants,” the cost to acquire all the component elements in purest form to compose an average sized man would be in the range of about $155,000. Bryson became interested after recalling that his high school science teacher once said a human was worth about $8 of stuff that could be found at the local hardware store. (Most of it is carbon). So, don’t sell yourself short. Also, yes, this column mixed up longitude and latitude last week, but should receive at least partial marks considering it’s likely the first time you’ve heard about either in years. A look ahead Remembrance Day ceremonies take place Monday in Medicine Hat and Redcliff. The local Chamber of Commerce will hold its “leadership breakfast” on Tuesday for already registered guests, then host its annual general meeting on Thursday evening at the Medicine Hat Lodge. The city’s land office will this week unveil initial layout of the proposed Brier Run community, which would neighbour the Family Leisure Centre complex in Crescent Heights. 100 years ago King George declared that two minutes of silence be observed throughout the British Empire on Nov. 11, “so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of everyone may concentrate on reverent remembrance,” the News reported this week in 1919. Using local clocks, and a signal to suit the locality, “all locomotion should cease” in factories and workplaces at 11 o’clock to mark the Armistice’s hour of effect “to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and those who laid down their lives to achieve it.” An explorer who had been lost in the Canadian arctic for more than a year, told a crowd at the Empress Theatre that the barren lands were not as most believed, but rather warm for long stretches and teaming with life. Manitoba-born Vilhjalmur Stefansson also displayed projection photos of the stages of building a snow house. The United Farmers of Alberta petitioned the province to expedite coal and hay deliveries on the incomplete Hat-to-Hanna rail line to reduce wagon hauling trips of 40 miles or more. Shortages of food, fuel and animal feed were widely reported after a drought in the summer. In a break with accepted practice, British women were increasingly wearing monocles in public, a style editor reported. A crop of alfalfa seed in Brooks was promoted as the biggest cash crop in Alberta history on a per-acre basis. The receipt on the 12-acre parcel owned by I.E. Strong was $9,000. 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 27-26
