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Tim Hortons chooses site on Highway 9 South in Drumheller

    The wait is over.
    After years of speculation, rumours, whining and campaigning, Tim Hortons has selected a potential site to bring its first franchise to Drumheller.
    John Barber, director of real estate development for Western Canada, for TDL Group, confirmed with The Mail the company has selected a site on Highway 9 in Drumheller, and is working towards opening in the near future. Currently there has been no development permit taken out. The company has simply identified a parcel.
    “We have identified a couple of locations, and they are working extremely hard on one of them right now, and if everything goes down the garden path in the right direction, and proper timing, we should have something in Drumheller in 2011,” said Mr. Barber. “We have it in our budget to open a store in Drumheller in 2011.”
    Barber said the company corporately handles the store, but they are franchised out. He was not in the position to reveal the franchisee. He says they have explored markets before without having an owner in place.
    “We went into Stettler without a so-called franchisee in place. We thought the market was strong enough, and that we would be able to find a franchisee in time to open the store,” said Barber.
    Tim Hortons was founded in 1964 by the former Toronto Maple Leaf along with a partner. At the time of Horton's untimely death in a car accident in 1974, there were 40 stores. Today there are 3,596 system wide restaurants with 3,029 in Canada and 567 in the U.S. There is a store in Kandahar, Afghanistan on a military base.
    Barber said Tim Hortons has been exploring positioning an outlet in Drumheller for quite some time, and this is not the first site identified.
    “It is a market that we should have been in a little bit sooner than this,” he said. “We looked at two or three places in Drumheller, but when we wanted to do it, the development costs (were too high)–not because of Drumheller as a town– but the lack of trades because of the economy running so strong for a while.”
    “We’ll be looking forward to having something there and hopefully the people will support it when the store opens,” said Barber.

Kaleidoscope Theatre to produce one more show before moving back home

    The Kaleidoscope Theatre will have one more production before moving back home to their Drumheller Composite High School location.
    Details are yet to be finalized but president Megan McLauchlin told inSide Drumheller they were hoping to produce the musical comedy, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, in the fall as their final show before going back home. The show will be directed by vice president Colin Regamey.
    “It has been very hard putting on a play without our theatre,” said McLaughlin, explaining all the work this entailed, such as needing to rent space, sound and lighting equipment, building a stage and having limited access for rehearsal.
    “Putting on a show is quite a big undertaking, and it is double or triple the work when you are not in your location.”
    Although challenging, working without their theatre has also been interesting, said McLauchlin, adding “I don’t know if Cabanet would have been as good in a big theatre, because it would not have been so intimate. At the Navy League building, you felt like you were in a little cabaret club in Germany. Whereas I think if we had done it at the Kaleidoscope, it could have been a whole different show and might have had a whole different feel.”
    While they are hoping to start auditions for the next show in September, the team has been busy doing casinos to raise money to give the theatre a bit of a makeover when they are able to move back to their premises in January 2011.     “We are actually revitalizing the theatre’s interior,” said McLauchlin. “We will be putting in new seats and repainting. We also have a volunteer designer helping us, it will look like a new space.”
    For the grand re-opening, McLauchlin said they hope to produce a big musical in late spring, early summer 2011.

Atlas Coal Mine tipple timber assessed by historic preservation experts

   Expert engineers from the Vancouver-based Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd. were onsite at the Atlas Coal Mine in East Coulee recently to assess the timber condition on its tipple.
   Last year, rot was found around some of the wood joints and this gave Linda Digby, executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine, concern. The affected part is supported by metal scaffolding so her concern wasn't for public safety. She explained to The Weekender her concern was focussed on the longevity of the framework as this tipple is the last one in Canada that allows people to climb.
   After an engineer's assessment, the museum applied for funding and received help from both the provincial and federal governments.
   “We are very lucky, we have all the expertise from Alberta Historical Resources and Parks of Canada Historic Site to help us direct this project,” said Digby.
   The Mine received a few bids from contractors but Macdonald and Lawrence, whom they found through the Timber Framers Guild, impressed them most with their level of expertise, their portfolio and the quality of their equipment.
   “These guys have done historic preservation all over the globe, for instance in Antarctica with the conservation and restoration of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut. They have also done work on Buckingham Palace, and their resume includes a letter of thanks from the Queen!” she said.
   “It takes a particular kind of expertise to do work on our site, we need a high level of contractor who understands historic restoration and who just has to know how to deal with challenges such as working at heights and with limited access. They also need to be sensitive to the fact that this is a museum and therefore there will be people around. And of course they must have the right trade skills. Macdonald and Lawrence had by far the most compelling package.”
   Engineers came to the site to gather intelligence on the timber. Using specialized machinery, they drilled core samples from the timber to make a profile of its condition, which will help them determine which to replace.
   The work is expected to start in July for a period of three weeks, during which time the tipple tours will not be available to the public.
   The team will then return in September to spend the month finishing the project.

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