Medicine Hat Minute: Virtual Meetings, Power Outages, and COVID Stimulus Celebrations

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

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• The week begins with a City Council meeting today at 6:30 pm. Council will receive a presentation on the City Centre Area Redevelopment Plan. The Plan aims to address matters like land use, transportation, public infrastructure, the environment, and social issues in the Downtown core, the North Railway area, the former arena lands, and all the way over to the Veiner Centre.
  
  
• The Administrative Committee is sponsoring the introduction of a new bylaw that will be presented to Council at today’s meeting. The bylaw will enable Council meetings and Council Committee meetings to be conducted by electronic means. It also allows for people, delegations, and special interest groups approved to present at Council meetings to do so either in-person or electronically, but still requires that members of the public looking to speak at a public hearing do so in person.
  
  
• On Wednesday, there will be a meeting of the Municipal Planning Commission at 2:30 pm. At this meeting, Council will review an application for a Change of Use development permit for an overnight emergency shelter at 435 North Railway St SE. There will also be a Corporate Services Committee Meeting on Thursday at 11:00 am. No agenda is available for this meeting.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at Towne Square celebrating the completion of $18.4 million in federally and provincially-funded COVID stimulus projects. A total of 18 projects were completed, including expansion of the Gas City Campground, construction of Big Marble Go Centre’s multi-court pickleball facility, upgrades to a BMX track, creation of the Towne Square, upgrades to Athletic Park’s ball diamond, and installation of a boat launch at Fire Station No. 1. The City said there were “no hiccups” from a project management perspective and that all projects ended on budget.
  
  
• City Council approved the appointment of Dr. Glenn Feltham to the role of Interim City Manager. Feltham was previously President and CEO of NAIT and holds a PhD from the School of Accountancy at the University of Waterloo, an MBA from the University of Montana, and an LLB from Queen’s University Faculty of Law. He began his term on Wednesday and will stay in the role until a permanent City Manager is recruited and hired.
  
  
• Wind gusts up to 90 km/h caused damage to power lines and left some Hatters in Parkview and Veinerville without power Wednesday morning. The City closed the landfill to public drop-off and large branches were blown down in Central Park. Heavy rainfall scattered debris and garbage bins. Monsoon June strikes again!

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