Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, June 5, 2023

Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and made some opening remarks. Councillor Tom Zariski recognized the week of June 5 to June 11 as Seniors’ Week, which recognizes the contributions of senior citizens across the province; he also congratulated the St. Anthony’s graduating class of 2023, which took place on Saturday, June 3 (see photo Page 12).
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski noted there will be some intermittent lane closures along Riverside Drive near 3 Avenue East due to flood mitigation work.
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Director of Corporate and Community Services Mauricio Reyes presented council with a request for direction to establish a volunteer advisory committee for the Drumheller Valley Family and Community Support Services (FCSS). He explained the FCSS program director or Community and Development Support Program (CDSP) manager provides updates to council throughout the year. Without a dedicated volunteer advisory committee, oversight of the program and these duties often are delegated to the program director.
Council directed administration to develop a bylaw and Terms of Reference for a volunteer advisory committee and recruit members to support the program.
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Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request to begin the expropriation process on three parcels where a portion of a parcel is required for flood mitigation construction in North Drumheller for the Michichi Creek East Berm and Michichi Creek West Berm. Ms.Blakely explained discussions and negotiations have been ongoing with landowners since November 2022 but, as of this time, no agreements at fair market value have been reached. Due to the lengthy timeframe for the process, and as work is anticipated to begin in spring 2024, this is just to begin the process and does not negate potential further negotiations.
Council unanimously approved the request to begin the expropriation process on the three partial parcels for construction of the Michichi Creek East and Michichi Creek West berms.
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Economic Development manager Reg Johnston presented council with amendments to the Residential Development Incentive Program. Council previously directed administration to amend the Residential Development Incentive Program due to a lack of uptake since it was passed; among the recommendations made included removal of price caps on residential listings and rentals, and the addition of titled RV lot incentives.
Once the document is public, Mr. Johnston will be engaging with some real estate businesses, and it was also recommended to reach out to developers, to discuss the program.
Council gave first and second reading to the bylaw and will hold third reading at a later date.
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Mr. Johnston presented council with a request for decision to award the Non-Residential Development Incentive Program. Rock Central Tattoo converted a residence, located at 130 Centre Street, for their commercial business operation, and are the only tenant. They have been in operation since February 2022 and the location was vacant for more than six months.
Under the Non-Residential Development Incentive Program they are eligible to receive a 50 per cent credit to their municipal portion of commercial taxation to a maximum of $2,000 for the 2022 tax year, and 25 per cent credit, to a maximum of $1,000, for the 2023 tax year.
Council approved the award of $972 for the 2022 tax year, and $606.35 for the 2023 tax year, totalling $1,578.35.
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Mr. Reyes presented a request to cancel the municipal portion of the 2023 property taxes for Sandstone Manor. This is a normal housekeeping item due to the contract between the Town and the Housing Authority, which has been in place since May 2009. Although the municipal portion is waived, the municipality is still mandated to charge provincial requisitions for the Drumheller and Area Seniors Foundation and provincial education fund.
Council unanimously approved the request to cancel the 2023 municipal portion of property taxes for Sandstone Manor.
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Director of Emergency and Protective Services Greg Peters presented council with a request for decision regarding implementation of a paid parking program within the community. (See story Page 3).
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Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Brett presented council with a request of no award for the Memorial Arena fifth dressing room addition. Administration has been renting a portable ATCO structure to act as a temporary dressing room for the last two years and in 2022 began the design phase to permanently add a fifth dressing room, and a tender was completed in 2023.
The total budget for the project is $350,000, with $50,000 allocated for consulting fees--total construction totalling $300,000. A total of seven bids were received, which came in much higher than the total project budget, with the lowest bid of $655,121 excluding GST, and the highest bid coming in at over $1.17 million excluding GST.
It was recommended for council to not award the tender to any of the bidders due to the cost overages and purchase an ATCO module and install it as a permanent dressing room structure; this will have an estimated minimum cost of $200,000 with additional operational requirements including trucking out septage and delivering water.
Council approved the non-award and purchase of a permanent ATCO module.

Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, May 29, 2023

Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and made some opening remarks, congratulating the Drumheller Valley Secondary School (DVSS) Class of 2023 who celebrated their commencement on Saturday, May 27 at the Badlands Amphitheatre, and Councillor Tom Zariski invited residents to celebrate the Drumheller Titans’ provincial championship on Friday, June 2 at the new downtown plaza.
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Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request to award the downtown berm and Centennial Park upgrades tender.
The project was tendered earlier this spring due to changes to recent design changes to the project which will allow Riverside Drive to remain open to two-lane traffic with a reduced lane width. This project was previously tendered in 2022; however, it was cancelled due to bids which were above the engineer’s estimate, and design optimizations have since been made, which includes a retaining wall estimated at approximately 240 metres and upgrades to the Centennial Park area which were opted for by the Town due to the impact of berm construction on the area.
Two bids were received-from Wilco Contractors Southwest Inc., and Pidherney’s Inc. These bids both came in under the engineering pre-tender estimate of $9,142,132.50 excluding GST. There is some additional work to upgrade storm sewers at the intersection of Riverside Drive and 3 Avenue East. This was not originally included in the tender as surveying of the storm sewer facilities was not able to be completed over the winter and was not initially identified as part of the tender. An additional cost of $121,105 will be included in the bid for the lowest bidder.
It was recommended to award the contract to Wilco Contractors Southwest Inc., in the amount of $7,293,322.60 excluding GST due to their previous experience working on other local flood mitigation projects,including the Midland and Willow Estates berms, and their relevant landscaping construction experience.
Construction is scheduled to begin in early July, after the Canada Day long weekend activities, and completed by the end of November 2023 with landscaping to be completed by the end of 2023 to ensure Centennial Park is available for use to the public by 2024.
Council approved the award request.
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Ms. Blakely also presented council with requests to begin the expropriation process on some properties where there is upcoming flood mitigation construction, proposed to begin in 2024. She noted some of this work will require regulatory approvals, which cannot be obtained until a certain point in the expropriation process; it was recommended to begin moving forward with the expropriation process to avoid delays due to the lengthy process required.
These properties are located in the Michichi Creek West berm area and the hospital berm extension. Negotiations began with the land owners in November 2022 and all offers at fair market value have so far been rejected.
Council approved the request to begin the process of expropriation on these parcels.
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Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Brett presented council with a request to award a tender for construction work on the Stirling Ditch drainage ditch which runs north-south between properties along Hunter Drive in Nacmine. A drainage ditch is also located on 2 Avenue which runs east-west and discharges into Stirling Ditch; this ditch requires some minor work to ensure proper drainage.
This project was previously approved in the 2023 Capital budget.
He explained, although this project has come as an outgrowth of flood work, it is not eligible for funding through the flood mitigation program. The ditch has drifted out of its proper alignment, and it was determined during the tendering period a Water Act approval was required, which can take upwards of 10 months.
Two bids were received-from Kaon Infrastructure and Farm Boy Landscaping and Maintenance.
Council awarded the tender to Kaon Infrastructure in the amount of $348,591.97 excluding GST. Construction is anticipated to begin mid-June.
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Mr. Brett also presented council with a request to consider passing a formal motion of approval for an Alberta Community Partnership Grant it had previously applied for.
He explained administration had applied for the Alberta Community Partnership program under the Intermunicipal Collaboration component and were successful in its application of $200,000. This grant would focus on a feasibility study to undertake a regional trail system along the newly acquired CN Rail line from Wayne to the hamlet of Rosebud in Wheatland County from a planning perspective. The Town would be the managing partner on the application, with Wheatland County in a supporting role.
One of the items part of the grant paperwork is to have a motion from council showing its support of the application.
Council approved the request.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found on
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.