A quarter of the snow removal crews are working overnight this week to clear the catch basins, an official says. John Anderson/Dreamstime

By Jesse Gill

CITY OPERATIONS

City of Medicine Hat crews working overnight to clear gutters with thaw expected

Feb 18, 2025 | 5:07 PM

The City of Medicine Hat’s municipal works department is working on clearing snow in the Crescent Heights area to help with drainage as warm weather is expected soon.

A quarter of the snow removal crews are working overnight this week to clear the catch basins ahead of temperatures expected to reach double positives this weekend.

Operations manager Trevor Funk said the city has have eight staff on night shift from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., supplemented by four contracted trucks to haul snow out of certain locations.

“To pull snow off of roads like 20th Street, 12th Street and Division Avenue. Those are some big roads, so I anticipate that those will take most of the week,” Funk said.

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat: Dec. 12-14

Dec 12, 2025

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat: December 5-7

Dec 05, 2025

WHAT'S ON

Top five things to do at the Medicine Hat Public Library in December

Nov 30, 2025

“As we get closer to the end of the week, we can make decisions on stretching that out into roads like Altawana and that type of thing.”

Funk said that if they can pull the snow out of the gutter and expose some of those catch basins, then next week Mother Nature will help burn off that ice a little bit faster.

He added that a lot of the secondary roads that have parking throughout the whole road often get packed down with snow and ice that doesn’t melt naturally very fast.

When the water doesn’t drain properly and ends up pooling, Funk said they have other ways of clearing those catch basins.

“Whether we have to bring the graders out again and do some gutter trenching, or we can use the hydrovac truck to actually thaw the catch basins to open them up,” Funk said.

Funk is asking residents to move vehicles off of the street in areas in Crescent Heights where they have no parking signs placed.

He said that will help their crews do the best job possible.