3 things to watch at city council Monday

After some recent marathon meetings, the agenda for Monday's gathering appears to be on the shorter side.

Council members and council watchers alike can rejoice.

Saving McHugh House

McHugh House is the sixth oldest residential property left in Calgary and there's a chance it could be torn down soon.

The Catholic diocese of Calgary wants the property on 18th Ave. S.W. cleared for redevelopment byApril 6and is giving the City a chance to buy the old house.

Council is being asked to approve buying McHugh and moving it to a temporary site on 17th Ave. until a permanent home is found.

History is priceless but when it's gone, it's gone forever. In this case, the price tag for the purchase, removal, relocation and restoration may hit $900,000.

Back to the ice-encrusted streets

Some councillors just aren't done fighting about the job the city has done in clearing a record snowfall from Calgary's residential streets.

• Snow clearing report expected inJuly
• Slippery city-owned sidewalks a 'double standard'

Some communities had snow removed from their streets two months ago, but some communities are still waiting for the contractors to show up.

Couns. ShaneKeating and JoeMagliocca don't want to see this happen again. They want the city to develop contracts for bidders willing to clear residential streets up to four times a year.

The councillors also want some spring, summer and fall work added to the contract to attract bidders so they could hire staff year-round. They want a plan developed by July so there will not be a repeat of this winter's unusual driving conditions in residential areas ever again.

Water, water everywhere

Four councillors want the city to look at making Calgary's high quality drinking water a bit more accessible. As their motion states, there are costs monetary and environmental to bottled water.

So given the hundreds of millions of dollars Calgary has invested in its water system, the councillors want the city to develop a plan to make its water a lot more accessible to people in city buildings.

Presumably this means a lot more drinking fountains so people don't feel the need to buy a bottle of water.

Then there's an element of making Calgary's drinking water more accessible at public events.

Did you know fire hydrants contain wait for it drinking water? It's true.

So how about making it possible to drink from that hydrant.Some interesting ideas but of course, no price tags known at this time.