Mayor Yemen opened the meeting by thanking town staff for “giving up their weekend”, to handle river ice breakup issues around the valley.
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Vance Neudorf from the Canadian Badlands Passion Play, gave council an update on the 2016 season, which showed an increase in attendance from the previous year, of 1500, despite experiencing a loss of $95,000, for the season.
The group has laid off two staff, and has engaged a marketing professional with a specialty in social media. There will be a new rewrite of the script this year.
There will also be some new summer concert ideas toward the end of August, yet to be announced.
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CAO Ray Romanetz gave Council an overview of the Alberta Government Spring budget delivered by the Notley government on March 16. Mr. Romanetz and Director of Corporate Services Barb Miller met to decipher the budget’s ramifications and how it affects Drumheller. A number of budget items will have an effect on provincial funding that comes into the municipal funds. Overall the town receives approximately $148,000 more in Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) operating before a drop in MSI Capital at about $141,000, resulting in an additional $109,578 in grants. Two projects have been approved from re-applying for provincial grants. There was also a slight decrease in funding from the Alberta provincial partnership program.
There is an application presently underway for the possible replacement of Bridge 11 on Wayne Road. There are two other bridges on the Wayne Road that will be replaced in the next few years by the province, and only three of the bridges on the Wayne road are owned by the town.
Mr. Romanetz informed council that two projects will happen this year, paid for by the province, are the overlay on the Highway 9 that runs from the Winks/Mac’s intersection east to the Boston Pizza intersection, and the turnout area at the bottom of the South Hill, near the dinosaur welcome sign.
Barb Miller noted that the education requisition that forms part of Drumheller ratepayers tax notices, will show a negligible decrease overall.
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Council dealt with the issue of the renewal of the Curling Club lease, and passed a motion to enter into a further 5 year lease, ending in 2022. Mr. Romanetz noted that the numbers of curlers appear to be increasing.
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Council appointed Director of Corporate Services Barb Miller as Returning Officer for the upcoming October 2017 Municipal Election, and will hire former town employee Bill Wulff to act as Deputy Returning Officer.
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