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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Council Notes
Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, March 13, 2017

Deputy Mayor Patrick Kolafa briefly commented on some of the activities he participated in last week including Travel Alberta’s SHiFT Program, An Evening at the Library on Saturday, March 11 and the 5th Birthday of the Badlands Community Facility.
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Darren Goldthorpe, manager of Recreation, Art and Culture updated council on plans to celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday. He told Council the Heritage Art and Culture Committee is working on ideas to celebrate, including a picnic on the 150th day of the year, (May 30) He also highlighted some of the work on the ParticipACTION150 playlist activities. Some events coming in the short term include shuffleboard, yoga and an Earth Day clean-up. Flags have been ordered for the entrances into town as well as around the BCF.
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Deputy Mayor Patrick Kolafa shared his experience attending the AUMA Mayor’s Caucus Meeting on Tuesday, March 7. A number of government ministers did presentations, including Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Brian Mason to address concerns of the AUMA. He recently announced that the remaining funds from the Federal Building Canada Fund would be used for provincial infrastructure as well as to pay off the debt, and not for Municipal infrastructure. Councillor Kolafa was able to have a brief conversation with the minister on flood mitigation.
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Councillor Sharel Shoff did a report on Palliser Municipal Services. It recently held a board meeting and has made some recommendations to amend its funding formula for the members. She also noted that Beiseker has sent a letter expressing its wishes to no longer be a member.
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Councillor Shoff also spoke about Community Futures. She said it has made good progress in collecting outstanding business loans, allowing it to work more on investing in projects. It recently went forward and purchased two shipping containers to be refitted as micro business outlets. Its main focus is to get the word out about the services it provides.
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Councillor Shoff also led a discussion on a meeting held on February 16 by Starland Studios. It invited a number of professionals in the film production industry. About 70 came out for the meeting.
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