Chief librarian Ken Feser at the podium, Mayor Linnsie Clark, with Couns. Robert Dumanowski, Cassi Hider, Andy McGrogan, Ramona Robins, Shila Sharps and Alison Van Dyke taking questions at the library town hall on Wednesday evening.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
A small crowd of about 50 people attended a town hall Wednesday at Medicine Hat Public Library to engage with local elected officials.
Chief librarian Ken Feser moderated the event, with Mayor Linnsie Clark and six councillors sitting on the panel. Feser asked the audience to be civil and respectful during the event, which was mostly adhered to with only one audience member shouting out a question/comment near the end of the event.
More than 30 questions were submitted online prior to the event, and there was not enough time to get through them all, but it kicked off with several questions regarding the Strong Towns initiative. Strong Towns is receiving $212,000 in public funds over two years to consult with the City of Medicine Hat.
“Every penny makes a difference, $200,000 is a lot of money,” said Coun. Andy McGrogan. “We are in it now so we should engage fully, we should take some lessons from it that will bring value to our citizens.”
The Strong Towns discussion segued into a question about leadership. “I’m here right now answering tough questions,” responded Ramona Robins. “I certainly take input from people. Sometimes I have to get to the point where it’s getting argumentative and I say we’ll have to agree to disagree. That’s not always a satisfactory answer to people who want you to adopt their point of view.
“I think leadership is staying true to yourself and what you know and what you believe.”
Attendees also wanted to know what the city is doing to ensure absentee property owners maintain curb appeal, and Clark outlined limitations of what the city can do.
“Within the law, the city and the province, they are pretty much allowed to do whatever they want with their property. There are limitations … if it’s unsightly, if it’s a dangerous property.”
Bylaw officers can go in and issue tickets and take other measures, but there is a balance between protecting the neighbourhood and respecting an individual’s right to make their own decisions, she said.
A series of questions also touched on downtown marginalized populations, safety issues, difficulties using bank machines downtown, affects on business owners and if there are warm places where people can go in the winter besides the library.
Coun. Shila Sharps, who sits on the Police Commission, began by clarifying some facts about the Medicine Hat Police Service. The average across Alberta is 185 police officers per 100,000 people, and Medicine Hat has 170. As a comparison, Sharps used Rocky Mountain House, a significantly smaller centre, which has 201. She also made the comment that Medicine Hat needs to stop bragging about paying low wages.
“We want to be able to attract good personnel and good skill. If we are trying to aim to be the lowest payer in the province, I don’t see how that is a good thing,” said Sharps.
Commenting on perceived safety issues downtown, Coun. Alison Van Dyke said when looking at the statistics of callouts, incidents of violent crime in the downtown core are almost nonexistent.
“We do have daytime and nighttime shelters in Medicine Hat available with more than adequate beds. We have hot meal programs and all kinds of additional services available. We have an amazing community housing organization that can house people if they choose to be housed. Again, we can’t force people to do anything. People have free will; they have the opportunity to accept that help or refuse it if they so choose.”
The upkeep of boulevards was moved from municipal works to parks and recreation this year, which resulted in a less than smooth transition, explained Robins. Contractors were used to help and municipal works also jumped in to catch up. She then went on to explain the backstory and situation with Gershaw Drive, which won’t see any improvement in the next few years.
A discussion of a Waterfront District, which is part of the long-term (40 years) municipal development plan was followed by one about recreational facilities. Utility costs and the structure of the cost relief payments also came up but then Feser moved to a more lighthearted topic, which was about allowing residents to have chickens within city limits.
The last item was about involving young people in decision making, which is what caused the outburst from an audience member regarding the average age of residents in the city, apparently suggesting that since youth can’t vote until they are 18, why find out what they might want.
