Mayor Yemen is confident that Drumheller residents will be treated fairly by the Alberta Government in recovering from the floods.  
    This comes after a positive letter from The Minister of Municipal Affairs  Doug Griffiths.
    “I am writing you to inform you that the Ministerial Task Force Responsible for Flood Recovery has agreed that the Government of Alberta should work with the Town of Drumheller to finalize an “approved Development zone” that would allow development in certain areas currently defined by the province as floodway, providing there are adequate measures in place to protect against a 1:100 flooding event,” states a letter from Minister Griffiths.
    “I am still hearing the sky is falling,” said Yemen, indicating that is not his understanding. He expressed his concern to the administrator for the Flood Recovery Task Force Andre Corbould and received assurances.
    “He said “bottom line, it is status quo, Drumheller - move forward with what you are doing, your actions have been evaluated and we are in agreement, move forward.’”
    He has heard concerns from people involved in real estate and mortgages, and has taken his letter from Griffiths directly to them to help allay fears.
    “Even though we are identified as floodway in the map, we are being treated as a flood fringe, so with the mitigation as we have always done, we can continue developing, that is how it was explained to me,” said Yemen.
    He said the town has begun to give out development permits, as it always has with the stipulations.
    “It has to comply with our land use bylaw which states you have to mitigate,” said Yemen.
    Minister Griffiths also indicated in his letter that more dyking could add to the approved development zone.
    “Existing developed areas, not currently protected by dyking, could be added to the approved development zone as mitigation is implemented and approved. For future developed areas in the floodway, the town would have to propose appropriate mitigation strategies and provide justification for how such development would still be in the context of the broader provincial policy intent,” states the letter.
    Yemen says right now the town is working on a report to look at how the valley could be more protected.
    “Now it is all process. We are going to give the report to the government, they are going to analyze it, reevaluate what we are saying and evaluate the costs,” said Yemen. “We may not see everything we are asking for but we won’t know that until we finish this process.”

Lack of candidates could lead to council by acclamation

    Nomination Day for the upcoming municipal elections is just around the corner.
    Forms to run in the election are due on Monday, September 23, between 10 a.m. and noon at Town Hall, which is now located in the old Civic Centre building on Centre Street.
    As of today (Friday, September 20), only two residents, former mayor Bryce Nimmo and Kalon Sykes, have declared their intention to run as Town councillors in Drumheller. So far, no mayoral candidates have come forward.
    All but two of the incumbent members of the current Town Council have pledged to run for re-election. Mayor Terry Yemen and Councillors Jay Garbutt, Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk, Sharel Shoff, and Tom Zariski have announced they will seek re-election. Councillors Andrew Berdahl and Doug Stanford are stepping down.  
    Should no other candidates come forward, the entirety of Town Council could be decided by acclamation, rather than a democratic vote.
    Previously, the last time a Drumheller mayor and councillors won their seats by acclamation was in 2004 when Paul Ainscough was declared mayor and Sharel Shoff and Karen McKinnon were named councillors for west Drumheller.
    In 1998, Layton Thomas and Harry Stables won council seats through acclamation.
    Within the past 30 years, the closest the Drumheller Valley councils came to being decided entirely by acclamation was in  1995 and 1992, when the Badlands Municipal District council seats were determined without an election.
    Nomination forms for the 2013 election can be picked up from Town Hall.