Drumheller – The January 28 session of the 2016 Royal Tyrrell Museum Speaker Series is a presentation by Joe Sanchez and Ben Borkovic, Museum technicians, who will explore “Wading Through History: Fossil Hunting Along Rivers Affected by the 2013 Southern Alberta Flood.”
    The flooding of several Southern Alberta river systems in 2013 affected hundreds of thousands of Albertans across dozens of communities and caused billions of dollars in damage. A lesser known impact of the floods is that the destructive effect of the water also led to the exposure of many new fossils in the rivers’ banks. The discovery of a complete skeleton of a small dinosaur (known as Leptoceratops) in the flood-ravaged banks of the Oldman River spurred an effort to seek out what other specimens might have been brought to light by the floodwaters.
    Over the past two years, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology has undertaken a field project to prospect numerous river systems in Southern Alberta to find and collect these newly exposed fossils and protect them from future flooding events.
    This presentation will showcase the exciting results from the project to date, such as the discovery of several dinosaur trackways from the St. Mary River and a month-long endeavour to recover a Triceratops skull on the Oldman River.
    The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. The series is held every Thursday until April 28, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in the Museum auditorium. For more information, visit tyrrellmuseum.com.

    Town of Drumheller Development Officer Julie Steeper provided Town Council with statistical information regarding Development & Planning Permits.
    The Town had a total of 338 Development Permits completed for the year of 2015.  96 of those permits were occupations, new construction and additions. Occupations are home-based businesses.
    The Town issued 111 building permits, 136 electrical permits, 53 gas permits, 32 plumbing permits and 2 private sewage permits submitted for issuance this year for residents.   
    Town of Drumheller issued 111 building permits, which comprised of 4 permits for Institutional, 22 permits for Commercial and 85 for Residential.  There has not been a Recreational Permit received or issued by the Town of Drumheller since 2009.
     Only one Industrial permit was issued in 2015 in the amount of $8000 however, three were issued in 2014 in the amount of $13,800,000.   Institutional permits numbered 7 in 2014 in the amount of  $7,977,210 of which the Drumheller Penitentiary was responsible for $7,500,000.   Only 4 permits were issued in 2015 for a total of $537,000.
    Commercial Permits were 21 and 22 for the years 2014 & 2015.  The amounts were $1,421,900 for 2014 and dropped to $592,447 for 2015.
    Residential permits were up by 10 in 2015 to a total of 85, however this was mainly due to demolitions (13) and installation of fireplaces (11).  
    In 2014 the demolition and fireplace permits totaled only 8.  
    The value of these permits in 2014 was $5,638,631 versus $3,928,286 in 2015.  In 2014 the Town issued 3 Multi Housing Units permits and only one was issued in 2015.
    Century 21 Power Realty owner Bob Sheddy explained, “Vacancy in the downtown core is about 4%.  Vacancy in the industrial park is currently forecasted at 7% and will top out at 14% by mid-year. There are only a handful of property foreclosures at this time.  Often our agents are able to assist clients in selling their properties before the foreclosure process commences.”
 Sheddy further explained, “Some additional factors that influence the market, (yes, unemployment is up and corporate relocations are down) but this is only one sector of the market. We still have a great farming community and Drumheller is a retail hub for the area.”