In an effort to shake things up and revitalize various procedures, Mayor Heather Colberg and council have agreed on new community representation across the Valley.
This practice was attempted before, yielding poor results. Council plans on alleviating those problems by allowing the mayor and deputy mayor to do rotations to visit all communities.
“Every deputy mayor does a two-month rotation. Therefore every two months, the communities will see somebody else,” said Colberg. “One of us will be there and hopefully in most cases, it will be both of us.”
The communities of East Coulee, Midland, Nacmine, Newcastle, Rosedale, and Wayne will be visited to build a strong relationship with council on a quarterly basis. These communities were chosen as they have community associations and/or halls. This is an option for associations to utilize and is not a mandatory requirement.
A program will also be put in place to keep councillors in the loop on current projects and activities once communication is established. E-mails are expected to be sent out to council members at the beginning of each month.
“We’re going to create a program so automatically the next deputy mayor is aware of it and so that we don’t have something on the go and then the deputy mayor changes and it gets dropped. That’s got to be the priority,” explained Colberg.
Some residents of Bankview have raised concerns over this system as they do not have a community association for council to reach out to.
They felt that their vote was for councillors to represent constituents of Drumheller as a whole.
“We are available to all citizens at all times,” stated Colberg. “I want everybody from East Coulee to Nacmine to feel like we’re all the same people and this isn’t trying to make any communities feel more special than the others.”
The mayor was open to other communities that do not currently have a hall, to come together to voice their ideas. The venue was not the primary concern.
“We’re just trying to create open lines of communication,” said Colberg.
“I just want happiness, I know it sounds cliche but it’s the truth.”
Colberg holds a vision of a connected and more prosperous Drumheller. This system could be a way to help bring that idea to life.
“It’s to create that unified community that I’ve been dreaming of for a long time,” said Colberg.
This system is currently in its infancy and will be adjusted as time goes on.
“The wonderful thing about doing this by having the deputy mayor come is that everybody gets to know the councillors and that’s huge,” said Colberg. “Everybody gets the opportunity.”
Council meetings begin at 4:30 p.m. every Monday on the top floor of Town Hall.
