Drumheller Town Council has their sights on what they would like to accomplish in the coming year.
At their recent Strategic Business Plan Meeting, Council chose their top four priorities; developing a revised fundraising strategy for the Badlands Community Facility (BCF), establishing a community foundation, conducting an organizational service capacity review, and finalizing the design for phase 2 of the BCF.
Should there be time, Council also highlighted beginning the 2014 budget process and conducting an efficiency review of the Valley Bus Society.
Developing a new fundraising strategy was considered the top priority. It is hoped the details can be pounded out in a meeting between the Town of Drumheller and fundraising cabinet later this month.
“They’ll be having another meeting and talking about next steps,” said Mayor Terry Yemen.
Council also hopes to create a community foundation by next summer. Such a group would help communicate between the community and BCF and provide fundraising support for future Town projects.
“It’ll be an opportunity and network where community issues and concerns can go right to the BCF. They can work with the administration of the facility to find out what works and what could be improved. There will be a fundraising component too,” said Yemen.
It is also hoped the Town will be able to review itself to identify areas and departments that could be made more efficient.
“We’ll look at the departments in the Town. Maybe one department is heavy, so we’ll break up some of the responsibility. We might take the load of a director and made a head of a certain area instead,” said Yemen.
The last priority is to have a design ready for the second phase of the BCF.
“We’re going to work towards getting it done, but I think we would be remiss if we got too far down the road before we took care of our present facility,” said Yemen. “We want to be shovel ready for phase 2. Grants will be announced and its first come first serve. You want to be ready with a design when grants come out.”
The second phase will include a second ice surface for Drumheller and a new curling rink.
Should the opportunity arise, Council hopes to begin work on the 2014 budget, and conduct a review of the Valley Bus Society to ascertain if there are ways to increase efficiency and expand service.
“We’ll be going into a new budget cycle so we’ll be looking at that,” said Yemen. “The Valley Bus Society has moved up on our priorities quite a bit. It’s an efficiency review, so we’re trying to see what they could do different. We’d also like to explore the possibility of expanding it and doing some fixed routes, which could help with the sustainability of the Valley Bus.”
The fixed routes could be utilized by all residents of Drumheller, but the emphasis will always remain with the original mandate of providing seniors and persons with limited mobility transportation.
It is hoped the first goal, developing a revised BCF fundraising strategy, will be addressed and a report ready for Council by the end of December.
