Let’s get back at it
By COLLIN GALLANT on September 5, 2020.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant People are conditioned to see Labour Day as the end of fun. As a kid, it’s back to school time. It’s usually when you can decide if your CFL team is going to do anything this season. And that continues in adulthood with September being a sort of “back-at-it” period following lazy summer days and long evenings. This year, as the pandemic now hits the half-year mark, school reopening is seen as a blessing by some, and with absolute dread by others. Back to work is a call some of us would love to get. We’re also staring down colder temperatures, albeit a couple months away. It’s back to topsy turvy, it seems, this fall after most of us righted the ship and found at least a workable groove this summer, rediscovering the outdoors, turning off the TV, getting a bit more relaxed in day-to-day interactions that were cringe-inducing last spring. It doesn’t help that rain and even widespread frost is forecast for early this week. But, grumbling will hardly help either. So, let’s keep walking. Keep eating together, thinking about where our food comes from, our extended families, talking to our neighbours. Let’s keep an eye and ear out for each other. Keep turning off TV reruns, keep reading books, keep watching our bank balances. And let’s move to thriving, rather than just surviving. Those who’ve kept a job and kept a paycheque have saved some bucks here and there over six months. Let’s support local businesses, pick up a local charity, and beyond money, each figure out some way to make ourselves and our community better. At the beginning of the pandemic, when nobody knew what to do with themselves, the message was get up and at ’em. Let’s get back to work. Heavy work Last week the News featured video of a 23-tonne storage bin picked up and perched in Cancarb’s production line by a massive crane. In the background of the expansion work however, was an even larger unit that is now helping to carry out a turnaround at the Methanex plant further north. The company is traditionally mum about maintenance matters, but judging from the size of the contractor parking lot off Box Springs Road, it’s worthy of note. As well, various union job boards show some less substantial maintenance work coming at the local CF Industries plant in September. Road work This summer’s game of “Escape from the Southeast Hill” will continue into September. With work zones scattered on Division Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Finlay Bridge and Kingsway Avenue during the past several months, the final stages of Kipling Street rehabilitation will shut down the little known but very useful Third Avenue Hill road for about a month or so. As well, a new wrinkle will see detours on the Southwest Hill near the Trans-Canada Highway go into effect on Tuesday. A look ahead It’s Labour Day on Monday, but without football, or the traditional afternoon barbecue put on by the Medicine Hat and District Labour Council for the unemployed and under employed. It’s cancelled due to COVID, but a donation was instead made the local food bank, the News is told. City council will convene on Tuesday night following the long weekend. 100 years ago Every baby deserves to be well-born and well-nourished, provincial officials said as they opened a “Mothers Clinic” for Medicine Hat, the News reported on Sept. 7, 1920. Alberta Health Minister and former Medicine Hat MLA C.R. Mitchell, described the operation that would provide education and support to young mothers. Nurses would make home visits, provide practical advise and training to young mothers. The initiative stemmed from findings made by the British army that found nearly 1 million men were rejected for service due to conditions that lingered from malnutrition or ailments in early childhood. The News applauded the effort in an editorial, stating “a stream can rise no higher than its source.” Medicine Hat’s new courthouse was opened for use on Friday, Sept. 3 when Judge Greene held chambers. The sheriffs office was to be moved over from the nearby News Block soon. And, the National League clarified that the new practice of issuing an intentional walk was not illegal. It did not contravene the requirement of the back catcher to remaining position, nor did it constitute a balk, read a statement that aimed to quell a fan uproar in Pittsburgh. 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
