Public consultation on parks plan open - Medicine Hat NewsMedicine Hat News medicinehatnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicinehatnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
City budget issues focus on rec facilities
Poll
Yes
An ongoing city recreation review is geared toward centralizing facilities and rinks in favour of maintaining existing facilities spread throughout the Medicine Hat, city council was told Monday.
Council members have discussed the idea of reducing operating costs by conglomerating operations since approving budget cuts last fall, but a critic of the idea says community pools and rinks create value for nearby residents that must be taken into account.
The statement arose at council’s meeting when members discussed a related study of potentially adding amenities to open space in parks.
To build or not to build, that is the parks question - Medicine Hat NewsMedicine Hat News medicinehatnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicinehatnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
$6M shifted to help with relief projects
Poll
Yes
The city has re-allocated more than $6 million in previously budgeted capital spending to accommodate a host of new projects outlined last fall to take advantage of federal grant changes to spur the economy over the next year.
Cancelling or delaying the municipal items, or using the unspent portions of budgets that came in less than expected, keeps the city’s capital spending at par, administrators told the News on Friday.
Meanwhile, they said, the federal grants originally part of a longer-term transit upgrade fund will give “bigger leverage, and spending sooner” to stimulate economic activity coming out of the COVID pandemic in 2021.