On Thursday, March 22, in Banff, the Economic Development Association of Alberta (EDA) awarded the Town of Drumheller two awards.
    They were awarded the Best Community Economic Development Program and Best Marketing Project for Dinowalk – The dinosaur street naming project.
    The Alex Metcalf Award acknowledges individuals or agencies for excellence in economic development relating to the attraction, expansion or retention of business within Alberta.
    This award is not limited to the attraction, retention and expansion of industry alone and includes the development of new strategies, programs and/or developments that bring economic benefit to a community. EDA recognizes up to three economic development initiatives or projects each year with this award.
    The Economic Developers Alberta Marketing Awards are open to all Economic Developers Alberta members, in good standing, who undertake to promote and market, with a view of improving the economic well-being of their communities. Drumheller alongside Brooks, High River and Big Lakes Municipal District were this year’s winners.
    “I want to thank Julia Fielding and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski in particular for their support of these projects; but I also want to thank all our staff that prepared and installed the wayfinding signage. In particular, Bob Bremner, Gord Cunningham and Kevin Blanchett and additional staff from Infrastructure Services that made this happen on the ground,” said  Paul Salvatore, Director of Community Services.
    The awards were given for the Dinowalk / Dinosaur Street Naming Project as great examples of community collaboration and excellent media coverage in relation to the secondary dinosaur themed street names in Downtown Drumheller.
    “These ideas and concepts were a product of collaboration with Urban Systems, Marketing Hits, the Economic Development Advisory Committee which includes representatives from the Drumheller Chamber of Commerce and Community Futures Big Country in addition to the Royal Tyrrell Museum and other key community members including Board Chair Summer Manca and our constant contact with Travel Drumheller,” added Julia Fielding, Economic Development Officer for the Town of Drumheller.
    “It is always great to be recognized by our peers within the industries that we serve. In this case, recognition from the Economic Development Association of Alberta underscores the work that we do is excellent, but only possible with great teamwork and support community-wide,” noted CAO Drohomerski.
    The selection of the dinosaur types and medallions took place in July 2017. Secondary street names of Drumheller dinosaurs took place in September, 2017 and the final installation of Wikipedia linked medallions will be installed during the Spring of 2018.
    Digital aspects of the project will be taken-over by Travel Drumheller in order to promote an interesting walking experience in the form of a virtual scavenger hunt that connects tourists to the stories about dinosaurs that once roamed Drumheller over 67 million years ago.

The Town of Drumheller is planning to start construction of a new dog park, and in doing so, is exploring a couple options on how to make the facility user-friendly.
CAO Darryl Drohomerski has been researching different options in various communities, and a key feature for a successful park is separating male and female dogs.
“I wasn’t aware this was an issue until we began looking at different communities,” he tells The Mail.
By separating male and female dogs, the parks are more harmonious. The animals tend to have more positive interaction, he has learned.
It also cuts down on “romantic” interactions.
“We have heard from pet owners in the community that have invested great amounts in having purebred animals and also those who are breeders. Unfortunately, with an off-leash dog area, these interactions can be costly to breeders and even led to lawsuits,” he said.
Drohomerski explains the community has a couple of options. One is to make two separate dog parks. This would allow daily access for pet owners, however, it would be more costly to build and maintain. Some have tried parallel parks, however, these are distracting to the animals.
The other option is to alternate days for usage. Male dogs would be on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, while Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday would be for female usage.
This mode has worked well for some communities. It would also allow the town to build a larger park, reserving Monday for a maintenance day.
“Maintenance days are important, it also allows cat owners to come and use the park,” said Drohomerski.
The town will be posting a short survey at www.dinosaurvalley.com/aprilfoolsday