Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, September 19, 2022

Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and announced flags will be at half-staff on September 25 and September 30 for Alberta Police and Peace Officer Memorial Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation respectively.
There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the Flood Mitigation Newcastle berm at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27.
She thanked members of the Flood Mitigation Citizens Advisory Committee for arranging the tree carving at the Downtown Plaza on Friday, September 16 and Saturday, September 17.
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Council unanimously approved a request to extend the Leave of Absence for Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk for an additional eight weeks for medical reasons.
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Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski presented council with a request to appoint two members to the CN Trail Fundraising Task Force. Two applications were received from community members, Jason Blanke and Madison Colberg, and CAO Drohomerski noted anyone interested can still submit applications.
Mayor Colberg added the task force will hold a meeting at the Badlands Community Centre (BCF) on September 28 and anyone interested in being part of the task force is welcome to attend.
Council unanimously approved the appointments of both Mr. Blanke and Ms. Colberg.
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Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request for decision to begin the expropriation process for two properties in Newcastle. Ms. Blakely noted the Flood Mitigation Office has been working with the landowners to purchase two portions of the parcels under the flood program needed to complete construction of the berm. However, the landowners have declined every offer to this point.
With the reduction in the top width of the berms, Ms. Blakely explained the amount of land required for purchase was reduced significantly, and the number of impacted landowners was also reduced from three to two.
Council unanimously passed the motion to begin the expropriation process for the two parcels.
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Director of Infrastructure Dave Brett presented council with a request to cancel the tender for the Highway 10X Bridge 11 replacement project. A total of $3.2 million was budgeted for the project, with the Alberta government covering 75 per cent of the costs, and the Town of Drumheller and Wheatland County are contributing 21 per cent and four per cent respectively for the municipal portion.
Mr. Brett explained bids came in significantly above the $3.2 million-the lowest bid coming in 2.5 times higher than this amount-and it was recommended to cancel the tender to allow the Town and Wheatland County to explore potential redesigns and efficiencies and retender the project in early 2023.
Council unanimously agreed and directed administration to look for efficiencies to reduce costs and retender in early 2023.
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Manager of Recreation, Arts, and Culture Darren Goldthorpe presented council with a briefing note on the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. This is a very high strategic priority for the Town and will help assess the status of recreation and parks, and develop a plan to meet the future needs of the community.
A request for proposal was advertised in June 2022 and a total of four proposals were received. Administration evaluated these proposals, and awarded the proposal to RC Strategies of Sherwood Park in the amount of $70,494 for services; administration met with RC Strategies in late-August to begin the project.
It is expected the engagement plan will come before council in October with public engagement to held shortly afterwards; Mr. Goldthorpe noted he expects the Parks and Recreation Master Plan will be completed in spring 2023.

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

Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, September 12, 2022

Mayor Heather Colberg opened the Committee of the Whole meeting and made several opening announcements.
The Legion will be holding a farewell parade in honour of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, September 19 starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Cenotaph.
There will be tree carving at the plaza and car boot sale on Saturday, September 17.
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Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski presented the Committee with the Drumheller Public Library bylaws for council comment and review. He explained, although the library is its own entity, under the Libraries Act, the municipality may disallow a bylaw passed by a municipal board.
Following discussions and some concerns around portions of the bylaw, the Committee requested Councillor Stephanie Price to invite members of the library board to attend a future meeting to provide further information prior to council giving its consent for the board to pass the bylaw.
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Flood Mitigation Program project director Deighen Blakely gave an update on the program and its plans over the coming months.
Preliminary designs have been completed for the Nacmine, Michichi Creek West (Dike A), East Rosedale, and East Coulee berms. Construction is underway on the Midland, Willow Estates, and Newcastle Berms; there are some outstanding land acquisitions pending for the Newcastle project, and some tree clearing is still being completed on the Willow Estates project.
One-on-one meetings with impacted landowners are underway for the Hospital Dike Extension and North Drumheller Michichi Creek (Dike B) projects. Ms. Blakely noted a tender package has also been prepared for the Dike B project.
The Downtown Dike D project was originally tendered in spring 2022, but the project was put on hold for rescoping as the bids came in well over the approved budgeted amount. A community information session will be held on Tuesday, September 20 to gather input for the project, and a new tender package is anticipated to be prepared for release in spring 2023.
So far, the program has purchased 16 out of 27 properties targeted for buyout as they are unable to be protected by flood mitigation. A total of $4,592,500 has been spent so far on land purchases, and an additional $1,771,000 on reclamation costs; it is estimated the total buyout will cost $8,499,000.
Construction work is expected to continue over the fall until spring 2023 on the Midland, Newcastle, Grove Plaza and Willow Estates berms; redesign work on the other berms continues and it is expected tender packages will be ready for these projects by spring 2023 with construction to begin over summer and fall 2023. It is anticipated a Request for Tender will be submitted to landscape and replant shrubs and trees in spring 2023, with planting being carried out over the fall.
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Manager of Community Development and Social Planning (CDSP) April Harrison presented the Committee with recommended updates and amendments to the Recreation Fee Assistance Policy. The program began in 2016 and was previously updated in 2021. Since then, CDSP and Recreation departments have identified other points of clarification or amendments to make the policy consistent with its intent to offer a tiered cost reduction for membership at the Town’s recreation facilities.
Administration was provided direction to revise the Recreation Fee Assistance policy with the recommended changes and bring a draft policy back to a future council meeting for council’s consideration.

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