By James Wood

City landfill experiencing location issues

Apr 24, 2017 | 12:33 PM

Medicine Hat residents looking for the municipal landfill may want to check their Google results twice.

The Solid Waste Utility is currently experiencing a problem with the way their facility locations are listed online, with the municipal landfill appearing in the wrong location.

If searched on Google Maps, the landfill appears to be located in a light industrial area in the west end of Medicine Hat, when in reality it is located outside the east end, along Highway 41A.

The utiliy’s manager, Ed Jollymore, indicated the issue has occurred in the past, with several locations being listed as the municipal landfill site, including City Hall.

While the correct address appears on the City of Medicine Hat website, Jollymore indicated commercial GPS units also have trouble finding the landfill.

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“In the case of the City of Medicine Hat, on file there are three addresses,” said Jollymore.

“There would be the City of Medicine Hat, City Hall as the owner, and then Environmental Utilities as the administrator, and the physical location (of the landfill).

According to Jollymore, the issue has been resolved before in other databases, but having a location error on Google Maps was “a new one”.

“We didn’t realize that Google Maps had us smack in the middle of the light industrial area, which isn’t really where we want people going,” said Jollymore.

“We’re going to be talking with our information technology group. They have all the information, with the GPS and the legal titles in the city, and we’re going to ask them how we should approach Google, and how do we update it.”

Jollymore indicated that residents can look to the municipal website for directions to the landfill.

“I use Google a lot, and I find its a good reliable database, but this is proof that you maybe want to scrutinize what you get,” said Jollymore.

A link to the page providing directions can be found here: http://www.city.medicine-hat.ab.ca/index.aspx?page=954