Medicine Hat Minute: Tree Watering, Electricity Demand, and Emergency Alert Questions

Medicine Hat Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Medicine Hat politics

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• There’s only one meeting scheduled at City Hall this week, a meeting of the Corporate Services Committee on Thursday at 11:00 am. No agenda is available yet.
  
  
• The Parks & Recreation Department is hoping residents can pitch in to help water the trees that grow along the city's boulevards and roadways. The Adopt-a-Tree program is a pilot project only open to 200 residents. Next up, the City will create Super Elite Pave-a-Pothole Officers. We’re kidding, but you have to love the creativity of getting people to do for free what your tax dollars are supposed to pay for.
  
  
• Hatters should be aware of some ongoing construction in and around the city. The road rehabilitation project on Carry Drive SE is moving on to its next phase and will see the roadway closed to through traffic from Carter Crescent SE to Ross Glen Drive SE. Access to Saamis Archaeological Trail from the Kin Coulee Tunnel and Southwest Drive SW will be closed beginning today, as will two bridges in the area.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• It has been a month since a tornado touched down near Medicine Hat. Cleanup of the area has been ongoing and a review of the emergency response has been taking place. The question of why an emergency alert was not broadcast ahead of the storm has also been asked. Glen Motz, Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner, said his office has received questions from residents who experienced lost or damaged property. We received a few emails about this issue too. While the City’s emergency management centre has the ability to initiate alerts for events like flood, fire, or utility outages, Environment Canada is responsible for the broadcast-interrupting alerts - and only for a very specific set of criteria which this weather event did not meet.
  
  
• The new South Country Co-op Pickleball courts had a grand opening on Thursday. The 20-court facility has been used by players since June and held Alberta’s first ever provincial pickleball tournament last month. Both the club and the City applauded each other for the success of getting the courts built, which by all accounts, seems to have been an extremely organized and smooth process. Mayor Linnsie Clark said Medicine Hat is becoming a hub for pickleball enthusiasts.
  
  
• A City Committee said there is potential for a plan to deal with an expected coming increase in electricity demand. Currently, homeowners who wish to improve electricity delivery to accommodate their hot tubs, electric vehicle chargers, and other smart devices must take on the costs of upsizing the size of wires, local transformers, and home electrical panels. The Committee requested administration explore using a local improvement tax model which would spread the cost of this work among willing residents on the circuit.

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