On Friday morning, Drumheller residents concerned with the flood mitigation projects in the valley learned that approved berm designs will not be released until after the municipal election in October.
The Facebook Page Drumheller Alert shared this information, stating, “A new Project Management team will start next month for the Resiliency and Flood Mitigation project. Then the election will follow. Berm designs will be released after the October 18 election. This will allow the newly elected Council to review and approve the plan to go forward.”
CAO Darryl Drohomerski tells the Mail, there are a few reasons why the designs will not release until after the election. He said Council will be appointing a new project management team later this month. This would put them in position as the province heads into municipal elections.
Drohomerski explains for a sitting government, it is common practice to not make large announcements during an election cycle.
“We didn’t want to make it an election issue because you wouldn’t want to give a candidate an unfair advantage by having them unveil a design none of the competitors could have too,” he said. “You don’t want to give preferential treatment to any existing elected official who could use it as a platform for their candidacy.”
He also adds the berm designs are not complete, and positioning the announcement in the fall will allow the mitigation team to make sure they are complete.
“There are a couple that are close to being ready to submit to the province for their own licensing, and then getting closer to be able to develop tender documents,” he said.
They are also cognizant they need to talk to affected landowners before they are made public.
“We’re not going to release a design, even if it is a wireframe design that shows the general location of the berm until we actually talk to the property owners they impact,” he said.
He also notes, because it is a multi-year project, they will be releasing designs in a phased approach.
“We can’t do all of this work in one year. So we have what we think is a good plan to do work in 2022, 2023, and 2024. We are concentrating on the properties and designs that are slated for 2022,” he said
The Town has a community engagement event coming up on August 10. He explains this is to lay out the basics of the project and the need for flood mitigation.
“One of the things we have recognized is people really need to know the basic of understanding of what we are doing, and why we are doing it,” he said.
