Medicine Hat Media

Posts Tagged ‘City of Medicine Hat’

It’s time for the 7th annual One Book One Community (OBOC) in Medicine Hat. Winner of the 2010 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, Newfoundland author Jessica Grant’s quirky Come, Thou Tortoise is this year’s featured book. This delightfully offbeat story features an opinionated tortoise and an IQ-challenged narrator who find themselves in the middle of a life-changing mystery.

The OBOC festivities will begin with ‘An Evening with Jessica Grant’ on Friday, October 14th at 7:30 pm in the Medicine Hat College Theatre (refreshments and book signing to follow).

On Saturday, October 15th, facilitated book discussions, readings from the novel by FUT in the Hat, and fun activities take place in Medicine Hat College, beginning with coffee at 9:30am. Everyone is invited to this book club! All events are free with the exception of Saturday’s lunch (tickets now available at Medicine Hat Public Library and at Medicine Hat College Vera Bracken Library).

For more information about Come, Thou Tortoise, Jessica Grant, and One Book One Community, visit the website at http://obocmh.ca.

This event is sponsored by the City of Medicine Hat, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Medicine Hat College, Medicine Hat Public Library, L.E.A.R.N., Medalta, Coles, and Safeway.


Snow, ice, roads, sidewalks, salt, shovels, sand. Probably not your favourite words. This happens every year. People complaining about snow, more specifically about snow on sidewalks. It’s the same old story. Worse than snow even, is ice! The deadliest of them all. The stuff that makes people fall, get hurt, break bones. It’s pretty deadly stuff, and it’s harder to get rid of, sometimes nearly impossible if you are looking at not damaging your pavement/cement.

In Medicine Hat, there is a bylaw in place to keep people shoveling the snow, or salting/breaking away the ice from sidewalks adjacent to their property. I was wondering about exactly what the bylaw says, and found it in on the Medicine Hat Police Service website. Supposedly, people have 24 hours to remove any snow/ice/dirt from their sidewalks. This is kind of weird considering it seems like an obscure measurable. If somebody complained to the bylaw officers, by the time they got there, it might have already been cleaned. What if somebody slips and falls but it was at the 22nd hour after it snowed, guess it wouldn’t count if they went and cleaned it up on the 23rd hour? Seems like there is some intrinsic flaws with this plan.

In reference to what I said earlier, about the salt damaging your cement/pavement – it’s true. De-icing salt will damage (sometimes permanently) your cement, not to mention the environment as well as your grass. What about using a ice chisel or metal shovel to remove ice – same issue really; you are going to be damaging the cement. There’s really no way around it, you have to do it. The damage doesn’t change the bylaw – which by the way can get you fined from $100, to $10,000 (most people don’t realize this). *EDIT* Dusty has just brought to my attention that damaging the sidewalks is also against a bylaw to damage streets or “contiguous” areas, meaning sidewalks (anything touching the street). Full quote from bylaw: “No one shall deface, damage, or write upon any structure which is on or contiguous to a street.” So because de-icers and ice chippers damage the sidewalk, is it still okay? This also brings up a funny point about children’s sidewalk chalk… which according to this point, it’s against a bylaw.

Wait a second… What about alleyway sidewalks, sidewalks/gaps in between properties, street crossings, sidewalks adjacent to city parks? These places are always normally always icey. I know this because I walk my dog over some every day (there’s a lot of this in new developing areas where some lots are not built/empty) – sometimes slipping or falling. Most of these are owned by the city? Would the city be safe from their own bylaw? The bylaw states:

The owner or occupant of any premises adjoining a sidewalk shall clear away any snow, ice, dirt or other obstruction from a sidewalk within twenty-four hours after the time such snow, ice, dirt or other obstruction was deposited or formed on the sidewalk.

Semantically, premises are considered any type of “land AND/OR building” and the “owner” means the city. So does that mean I can call up the city and have them removed within 24 hours? What if it isn’t removed within 24 hours, do they fine themselves? How does this work?

Blaming and complaining about individuals is fine and everything, so long as you are not lazy yourself and phone it in. But what about these other “ownerless” areas of ice… which in my opinion far out-weighs (at least in my area) the few lazy people that don’t shovel.
Bylaw No. 1556 PDF


Medicine Hat Transit will be providing the following transit service this holiday season:

  • Thursday, Dec. 24 – Peak Service: 6:45 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.
  • Friday, Dec. 25 – No transit service
  • Saturday, Dec. 26 – Non Peak Service: 10:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.
  • Sunday, Dec. 27 – Non Peak Service: 10:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.
  • Thursday, Dec. 31 – Peak and Non Peak Service: 6:45 a.m. to 10:45 p.m.
  • Friday, Jan. 1 – Non Peak Service: 10:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.

Please plan ahead if you need alternative transportation to reach your holiday destinations.

For Medicine Hat Transit schedules, please visit www.mhtransit.ca


If you are free Wednesday night and are concerned about how Medicine Hat runs it’s natural gas and oil production (Prodco) you should check this out. I went to the last meeting and everybody from the public that spoke (about 15 people) were against the recommendations from E&Y. The main concern is that they recommended the City establish an independent board. The fear is that the city would eventually lose ownership of its resources. More information can be found here.

From the City website:
A Special City Council Meeting will be held:

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
6:30 p.m.
City Hall Council Chambers
580 First Street S.E.

Purpose: For Council to discuss/debate the E&Y Report on the Strategic Review of the Natural Gas and Oil Production business.

Delegations are normally given a maximum of five (5) minutes (excluding Council Members’ questions/answers or clarifications) as per the City’s Procedure Bylaw No. 2270.


Vaughn says: As part of Medicine Hat Media’s new partnership with the City of Medicine Hat, we will now be posting their press releases a long with any news or announcements coming from their website in association with Corporate Communications Manager, Jody Lamb. Here’s the first of such posts:

The City of Medicine Hat is launching its new automated waste collection system in September. A 95-gallon waste cart will be delivered to each Medicine Hat resident with an active solid waste account.

“We are excited to introduce this new and improved system of collecting residential solid waste,” said Ed Jollymore, solid waste utility manager. “This system, used by many municipalities nationwide, is one of the most advanced in the industry. These carts will provide for a cleaner environment, better looking streets on collection day and a much safer collection method.”

The carts have two wheels for easy handling and an attached lid that reduces odours and helps keep out insects and stray animals.

Here are some important tips about the new automated waste collection service: THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


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