City Notebook: Do your bit
By COLLIN GALLANT on July 15, 2023.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant The city is looking for path and park ambassadors to help out in Medicine Hat’s greenspaces – a good idea, but one that still contradicts city statements that residents shouldn’t sweep their own gutters to avoid flooding. An explanation is required. The ambassador program asks Hatter to sign on and keep a watch on certain parks or portions of the trailway, alerting city staff of problems or just chatting with their fellow citizens. It seems a good tonic to the endemic problem of folks grumbling without doing anything to make things better, while giving some level of ownership to residents of their own community. Outdoor rink guardians provide a similar service in the winters. The gutters issue arose last month after localized flooding was caused by blocked storm grates. One city councillor asked whether residents could be asked to simply sweep of grates once in a while if they see a problem. The result was a lawerly discussion about why the city should not advise residents to stand on a roadway. Call instead, and crews would take care of it, is the official message. Now, a lot of Hatters will also scoff and say they pay enough in taxes to avoid the need to volunteer. Indeed these hard working individuals are too tired to lift a broom to help city hall save a dollar. How it works The Hat got less than a half-inch of rain on Thursday, according to Environment Canada, so how does it end up two-feet deep at some intersections? The sole of your shoe is about a half inch thick. A social media skeptic may ask: Are they lying? First, the reading is at the gauge at the airport and localized amounts vary. But, secondly and more importantly, volume rather than depth is the more important consideration. Take an area eight blocks by six blocks (48 square blocks, about the size of the flat top portion of the SE and SW hill). If it gets an inch of rain rather quickly and if one particularly square block sits predominantly lower that the rest, water gathering there will be 48-inches, or four feet, deep. Of course there’s drainage, and some soaks in or goes the other way, but water finds its own way, doesn’t it? And by the way, the 11.3 millimetres of rain on Thursday is about twice the amount of total local rainfall received in June, which is traditionally Medicine Hat’s wettest month. Quick ones The new Western Canadian Baseball League franchise in Saskatoon will be named the Berries when it begins play in 2024, it was announced this week after an online poll was hijacked by some very funny people. Summer love We missed it on Thursday night, but Redcliff’s Joey Kirchner has found love on Canada’s version of Bachelor in Paradise. The male model, whose pet name is the “Disco Cowboy,” was, in fact, proposed to by Tessa Tookes, a former HR specialist from New York, during the show’s taping in Ontario’s cottage country. The couple watched the episode in Winnipeg. Now, it’s easy to poke fun at anyone with any celebrity in these modern times, but, what the heck, we wish them the best. A look ahead Council meets on Monday to discuss a bylaw to address the urban deer population, respond to an offer by the curling club to purchase the building and debate council’s operating procedure. Cypress County council will hear about a plan to build a mosque south of Medicine Hat as well as a regional ag-focused labour market study when it sits on Tuesday. 100 years ago A lightning strike and fire destroyed the Redcliff power plant that supplied the city’s water plant, the News boomed this week in 1923. The tower mostly was mostly full at the time, avoiding panic, but an emergency town hall meeting was called to address the crisis. As well that week, fire from a gas engine destroyed the $20,000 building of the Medicine Hat Pump and Brass Co. The United Farmers of Alberta held a convention in Medicine Hat to form a federal riding association. President Rufus Cates, of Oyen, told delegates the region’s membership numbering 1,673 was the most among Alberta ridings. If bank mergers continued, Canada may be left with no more than 12 large financial institutions, a committee on banking concentration heard in Ottawa. The number had been 31 in 1903, compared to 17 at present. In Cape Breton, the federal militia was called in to quell clashes between 10,000 striking coal miners and company police. John L. Lewis, the United Mine Workers president in New Jersey, suspended the local officers calling the riots and sympathy strikes “a mad adventure.” Scandal in Rome: Prince Carlos Bandlal and wife were reportedly “chloroformed” by two servants who stole jewelry valued at 2 million lire. 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 34-33
