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Last updateFri, 20 Dec 2024 5pm

St. Anthony’s School united against bullying

    On Friday, February 3, staff and students demonstrated that bullying is not cool during their annual anti-bullying day.
    All of the students from kindergarten to Grade 6 rotated through different activities where students talked about anger management, self-esteem, and the different types of bullying, such as cyber bullying.
    The students made anti-bullying posters and took part in activities that demonstrated how to solve conflicts and how they can make new friends.
    Bullying has made headlines recently, because of the impact on its victims, especially those who have ended their lives as a result of being bullied.
    “I think this is an important topic to discuss, because everyone at some point in their lives has been bullied,” said James MacDonald, the teacher who organized the event. “The students need to know that their words and actions can deeply affect the lives of their peers.”
    The aim is to have students be proud of themselves and respect the individuality of others.
    If you or someone you know is the victim of bullying, there is help. The FOR Club at the Drumheller Valley Secondary School and the teachers of St. Anthony’s School can help.
    “The teachers and staff at St. Anthony’s School are committed to creating an environment in which all students feel accepted and valued,” said MacDonald.


DHA pushes toward modernization

    The Drumheller Housing Administration (DHA) has had an ambitious several years, undertaking projects that have completely changed the face of the affordable and subsidized housing in Drumheller.
    The DHA was founded on April 1, 1995, by a the order of the ministers of municipal affairs. The mandate of DHA was to provide safe, affordable housing for residents who needed a home.
    The DHA currently oversees several properties in Drumheller.
    The Greentree duplex townhouses were built in 1967 and contain 26 units with 2-4 bedrooms. The Hunts townhouses, which include 24 units, were built in 1971.
    The aforementioned housing units are subsidized, meaning the provincial government sets the price of rent based on a formula using income and circumstances.
    The final property the DHA manages is the new Sandstone Manor, a 20 unit apartment. Sandstone Manor is classified as affordable housing and monthly rent is roughly $200 below market rates.
 In the last three years the DHA has made leaps forward.
  “We started three years ago with a large deferred maintenance list and a shortage of funds,” said Gerald Martynes, board member of the DHA. “We were able to turn things around by hiring contracted maintenance men, using inmate labour, and getting control of the costs.”
  One such maintenance issue was water in the basements of some of the units. Through exterior ground sloping and sump pumps, the problem has been virtually eliminated.
   The DHA was also able to secure $440,000 in federal grants for new furnaces, hot water tanks, toilets, and siding.
    The DHA has also started several green initiatives, such as having gasless push mowers, using rain barrels, and the  DHA has received $20,000 from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and another $20,000 from Encana to purchase recycling trailers for use at Greentree and Hunts townhouses.
    There is currently a waiting list of 20 people for one bedroom units and vacancies are typically filled within a month.
    Potential residents must go through a screening process.
    One criteria being considered for the screening process is the addition of detailed criminal record checks to discourage criminal activity in the DHA managed properties. A similar program is used in the Edmonton area and other municipalities are considering the same.
    The DHA continues to move forward with modernizing the affordable and subsidized housing in Drumheller.    
    Projects this year will seek to improve video surveillance, replace wooden fences with chain link, and encourage residents to save energy.
    For more information, or to apply, visit www.rentdrumheller.ca.

Scientist explores human migration into North America in Speaker Series

    The Royal Tyrrell Museum Speaker Series is discussing a topic seldom studied in Drumheller: our own species, Homo sapiens.
    To that end the Tyrrell Museum has invited its first out-of-town speaker of the new year, Dr. Gary Haynes of the University of Nevada-Reno, to speak.
    Dr. Haynes, a professor of anthropology, research focuses on the earliest people of the Americas. The talk will look at the current knowledge and conjecture about the timing and nature of the earliest appearance of Homo sapiens in North America, more than 13,000 years ago.
    Dr. Haynes will also explore the effects that the migration had on the large mammals, such as mammoths and sabre-toothed cats, that lived in North American at the time. A question that has lingered for years is whether the arrival of humans was responsible for the extinction of the large Ice Age mammals.
    The Speaker Series will be held in the Royal Tyrrell Museum auditorium on Thursday, February 9, at 11:00 a.m. For more information about the Speaker Series visit www.tyrrellmuseum.com.


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