City Notebook: Back to the dump

By COLLIN GALLANT on April 22, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

It’s Earth Day and, once again, while we were all debating whether or not to rake lawns and flower beds, the city’s summer yard waste collection program fired up last week.

The snow settled the debate for this weekend. Don’t worry, though, we haven’t missed a summer yet.

In the meantime however, the city is promoting a self-directed litter clean-up on Saturday, as is the Southeast Hill Community Association and others.

It seems like an OK idea, no matter how you view the environmental issue which can get people hot.

Back to the dump, however, for more pragmatism.

The city’s solid waste department reports 4,000 tonnes of yard waste was collected in 2022 in a program that composts, rather than buries, leaves, grass and vegetable matter. That’s just off the five-year-average of 4,200 tonnes from more than 17,000 residences.

Beyond compost, it also produces carbon credits that are swapped over to the city’s power plant in a rather elegant business arrangement.

I’ve always liked the bins because they are easy to fill (easier than garbage bags, anyway). What sort of sense is it to call the bulldozers to deal with carrot peels or jack-o-lanterns that will take care of themselves given time?

In Medicine Hat virtually any vegetable matter that comes out of a garden can go into the green bin (use the rule of thumb on branches).

The notable exception, however, is kitchen scraps, like bone, fat or leftovers.

Council sources say they are often asked when the city’s going to get with the program and offer food waste diversion like other cities.

Calgary and Edmonton have long taken such refuse, and this season, Lethbridge added a yard and foodwaste combined bin to be picked up weekly in the summer and twice-monthly in the winter.

The Hat faces a few hurdles, however, and likely won’t leap them in the short term.

The process involving food scraps requires an indoor facility – it’s thought to control rodents – and Lethbridge got a big federal grant to build one last year.

Another issue is staffing, or more specifically, shifting crews, and adding a winter food waste pickup would require hiring.

Currently, yard waste drivers do road maintenance and snow clearing in the winter, which makes sense. Medicine Hat contracted out general recycling pickup when it was established, so no shifting room there.

That’s a lot about garbage to start your Saturday, but it’s nice to consider the seemingly insurmountable, unsolvable problems facing the environment in small, digestible bits.

Celebrations

The Alcoma School in Ranier will celebrate the end of its 100th school year on the June 26-27 weekend, including a Sunday BBQ open to the public and any former pupils out who may now reside in Hat land. Another note from out west for your summer calendar: Brooks will host the Alberta Plus-55 Summer Games Aug. 17-20.

This and that

UCP leadership contestant Jon Horsman (who is only related distantly, if at all, to the Hat’s Jim Horsman) has been named to the board of directors of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. He was an executive VP with ATB before the brief leadership run that ended with an endorsement of Finance Minister Travis Toews.

A look ahead

The public services committee meets with a light agenda on Monday. It’s the final week before the provincial election officially begins. Council returns on May 1 to finalize this year’s property tax rate.

100 years ago

Farm machinery and battery manufacturing plants were soon to be secured for the city, the News wrote in mid-April 1923, “further evidence that this city is to become the most important manufacturing centre of Western Canada due to its natural gas and central location for distribution.”

The principals involved were the Western Canadian Farm Machinery Co. and Piegl Bros. Batteries, maker of the “Champion” electricity storage system.

Amid lengthy sessions on cutting a deficit, independent MLA Davidson of Calgary sought to end debate by proposing a one-sixth reduction on MLA indemnities for the session. It was “a bombshell” that was received as such, declared the News, after it was ruled out of order.

The government also lifted a legal prohibition on slot machines, player pianos and gramophones and instituted a $50 per year tax on the machines.

The new $3-million, 75,000-seat stadium of the New York Yankees opened on April 18 with a 4-1 hometown win over the Boston Red Sox. Combined with the 45,000-seat Polo Grounds, home of the National League’s Giants, a total of 130,000 Knickerbockers could watch baseball in a single day, the News marvelled.

In the Hat, the six-team industrial league would call the Foundry Street diamond home.

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