Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, June 12, 2023

Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and made some opening announcements. She congratulated Celebration of Excellence winners (see Page 3).
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski announced there will be a significant detour in place along Highway 575/South Railway Avenue beginning on Thursday, June 15 for water main work over an estimated two-week period. (see Page 7).
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CAO Drohomerski presented the committee with an update on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Alberta. A motion was passed by the provincial government in fall 2022 which will move the onus of the cost and liability of recycling from end users, such as municipalities and taxpayers, onto the producer. This will regulate single-use products, packaging, packaging-like products, paper products, and hazardous and special products.
Producers will need to provide a collection and management plan by April 2024 and systems must be operational by April 2025; producers must be registered with the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (ARMA), which will provide oversight of the new EPR systems, and producers are responsible to comply with regulation.
As a municipality, the Town of Drumheller is a key stakeholder in the system and can negotiate with producers to play service delivery role on a contract basis or stay removed from program operations which are provided by outside service providers.
Councillor Patrick Kolafa explained, by October 2026, the Town will be mandated to provide recycling services to dwellings, which will provide curbside collection every two weeks at minimum to single-family dwellings currently receiving curbside recycling.
The Drumheller and District Solid Waste Association (DDSWA), of which CAO Drohomerski and Councillor Kolafa are members of the board, is in the process of making a motion to become a processor and a potential collector of material in the future.
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Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Brett presented a briefing note on the digital procurement platform implementation. Traditionally, bids have been received by the Town through a hard copy; over COVID modifications were made to allow electronic submissions by email.
Mr. Brett explained neither method aligns with current industry practices, and there have been issues with email size restrictions, firewalls, and internet connectivity problems. He noted there have also been substantial increases in the number of bid opportunities over recent years with a total of 32 bid opportunities in 2020, and an expected 75 bid opportunities in 2023 based on approved budgets and needs.
Research was conducted into the purchase of a digital procurement platform to help alleviate some of the workload associated with future bid opportunities, and it was determined Bids&tenders was the best option due to low cost and ease of use. Bids&tenders has also become the industry standard for municipalities and engineering companies and will help streamline the bidding process. Administration approved the purchase of Bids&tenders in February 2023 and it is anticipated the system will go live on June 20 with public communications taking place prior to and after the launch.
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Mr. Brett presented an update on the CN Rails to Trails project. He noted new trail development for this year is focused between 5th Street East near Liquorland to Highway 9/56 near FastGas. The pathway will be connected to the existing intersection to provide a safe pedestrian crossing, and the Plaza Stop will also be a feature at the west end of this project. This is planned for 2024.
Alberta Transportation has agreed to a cost sharing model for required pedestrian crossing upgrades at the 5th Street East and Highway 9/56 intersections and will see crossings on the north and east side of the intersection.
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Council adjourned to a closed session to discuss advice from officials.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found on
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.

Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, June 5, 2023

Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and made some opening remarks. Councillor Tom Zariski recognized the week of June 5 to June 11 as Seniors’ Week, which recognizes the contributions of senior citizens across the province; he also congratulated the St. Anthony’s graduating class of 2023, which took place on Saturday, June 3 (see photo Page 12).
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski noted there will be some intermittent lane closures along Riverside Drive near 3 Avenue East due to flood mitigation work.
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Director of Corporate and Community Services Mauricio Reyes presented council with a request for direction to establish a volunteer advisory committee for the Drumheller Valley Family and Community Support Services (FCSS). He explained the FCSS program director or Community and Development Support Program (CDSP) manager provides updates to council throughout the year. Without a dedicated volunteer advisory committee, oversight of the program and these duties often are delegated to the program director.
Council directed administration to develop a bylaw and Terms of Reference for a volunteer advisory committee and recruit members to support the program.
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Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request to begin the expropriation process on three parcels where a portion of a parcel is required for flood mitigation construction in North Drumheller for the Michichi Creek East Berm and Michichi Creek West Berm. Ms.Blakely explained discussions and negotiations have been ongoing with landowners since November 2022 but, as of this time, no agreements at fair market value have been reached. Due to the lengthy timeframe for the process, and as work is anticipated to begin in spring 2024, this is just to begin the process and does not negate potential further negotiations.
Council unanimously approved the request to begin the expropriation process on the three partial parcels for construction of the Michichi Creek East and Michichi Creek West berms.
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Economic Development manager Reg Johnston presented council with amendments to the Residential Development Incentive Program. Council previously directed administration to amend the Residential Development Incentive Program due to a lack of uptake since it was passed; among the recommendations made included removal of price caps on residential listings and rentals, and the addition of titled RV lot incentives.
Once the document is public, Mr. Johnston will be engaging with some real estate businesses, and it was also recommended to reach out to developers, to discuss the program.
Council gave first and second reading to the bylaw and will hold third reading at a later date.
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Mr. Johnston presented council with a request for decision to award the Non-Residential Development Incentive Program. Rock Central Tattoo converted a residence, located at 130 Centre Street, for their commercial business operation, and are the only tenant. They have been in operation since February 2022 and the location was vacant for more than six months.
Under the Non-Residential Development Incentive Program they are eligible to receive a 50 per cent credit to their municipal portion of commercial taxation to a maximum of $2,000 for the 2022 tax year, and 25 per cent credit, to a maximum of $1,000, for the 2023 tax year.
Council approved the award of $972 for the 2022 tax year, and $606.35 for the 2023 tax year, totalling $1,578.35.
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Mr. Reyes presented a request to cancel the municipal portion of the 2023 property taxes for Sandstone Manor. This is a normal housekeeping item due to the contract between the Town and the Housing Authority, which has been in place since May 2009. Although the municipal portion is waived, the municipality is still mandated to charge provincial requisitions for the Drumheller and Area Seniors Foundation and provincial education fund.
Council unanimously approved the request to cancel the 2023 municipal portion of property taxes for Sandstone Manor.
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Director of Emergency and Protective Services Greg Peters presented council with a request for decision regarding implementation of a paid parking program within the community. (See story Page 3).
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Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Brett presented council with a request of no award for the Memorial Arena fifth dressing room addition. Administration has been renting a portable ATCO structure to act as a temporary dressing room for the last two years and in 2022 began the design phase to permanently add a fifth dressing room, and a tender was completed in 2023.
The total budget for the project is $350,000, with $50,000 allocated for consulting fees--total construction totalling $300,000. A total of seven bids were received, which came in much higher than the total project budget, with the lowest bid of $655,121 excluding GST, and the highest bid coming in at over $1.17 million excluding GST.
It was recommended for council to not award the tender to any of the bidders due to the cost overages and purchase an ATCO module and install it as a permanent dressing room structure; this will have an estimated minimum cost of $200,000 with additional operational requirements including trucking out septage and delivering water.
Council approved the non-award and purchase of a permanent ATCO module.