Courtesy: CHAT Newsroom

By Angela Kazmierczak

City offering sand to help with icy sidewalks

Feb 1, 2023 | 4:45 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Whether you are walking in a parking lot, in the neighbourhood, or on a sidewalk, massive slabs of ice will find you.

In response, the City of Medicine Hat has placed four yellow boxes, around Medicine Hat, for the icy conditions.

These yellow boxes are full of sand chip.

Last year, the city collectively decided they wanted to provide some traction materials to residents. So they ordered the bins. Previously, the city provided sand from the parking lot of the City Assets building at 188 Kipling Street.

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Residents can still access the sand pile, but the city wanted to make the materials available, through the bins, 24 hours a day.

Additionally, Trevor Funk, the Superintendent of Operations Support, says the bins are one way they are responding to concerns about the melting snow.

“In Medicine Hat, we’re always experiencing the melting and the freezing at night – we’ve seen it for the last 3 or 4 weeks this year already. It’s chasing your tail sometimes,” said Funk.

Funk says the city has received some feedback from residents about the icy sidewalks.

“I think this is really going to help, with really good use of the bins so far. We’ve filled them up already three times since Friday,” he said.

The bins can be found at the Big Marble Go Center, Fourth Avenue northeast, Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede, and at Southlands Drive. They will be kept out for as long as the snow and ice persists in the city.