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Kneehill County anticipates $27 million savings from Torrington gravel pit

Copy of Copy of kneehill county new admin building

Kneehill County council members held their first council meeting of 2021 on Tuesday, January 12 and received a request to amend the previously approved budget for the Torrington gravel pit.
An initial drill test in 2009 estimated 1.5 million tonnes of gravel to be excavated from the location. However, an additional 600,000 tonnes was discovered and will incur additional costs for the county.
“Once extracted, this will provide Kneehill County with a secure source of road crush gravel for the next 13-15 years, for an estimated total cost savings of $27 million, or $1.8 million per year compared to the cost of purchasing gravel from outside sources and then trucking it into the municipality,” stated a release from Kneehill County.
Previously, $5.25 million was approved in the 2020 budget based on the original gravel estimates; due to the discovery of the additional gravel, the costs are estimated to increase to $6.5 million and will yield approximately 2.2 million tonnes in total.
“The additional costs will cover extraction, overburden, stockpile, reclamation, and gravel agreement fees to the adjacent Valleyview Hutterite Colony,” Director of Transportation for Kneehill County Brad Buchert said during the meeting.
This includes $30,000 to help Ember Resources Inc with unbudgeted costs to abandon a non-functioning shallow gas well in the location of the additional gravel, as well as $30,000 for extra fish salvage costs due to the discovery of fish in one of the pit lakes, and was a federal requirement by the Canadian Department of Fish and Oceans; the fish were most likely introduced due to overland flooding and included fish native to the nearby Kneehill Creek as well as the invasive Parisian Carp.
Work on the gravel pit began on September 30, 2020 and the remainder of extraction is anticipated to be completed by the end of February 2021; reclamation is expected to be left until spring 2021 when the weather warms.
Councillor Kenneth King motioned to authorize the amended budget of $6.5 million, transferring the remaining $650,000 from the gravel reserve and an additional $600,000 from the road reserve to cover the additional costs. The motion was carried unanimously.
Planning and Development Manager Barb Hazelton also made a presentation of a statistical summary of developments in Kneehill County between 2017 and 2020.
Residents stayed busy in 2020, with 97 development permits approved last year; in comparison, 51 development permits were approved in the county in 2019. Subdivision and redesignation permits decreased slightly in 2020, though have remained fairly consistent over the reporting period, with 24 subdivision approvals and two redesignation approvals.

“The largest trends we saw were single family dwellings,” said a statement from the county, “garden suites and second dwellings were equal in the number of applicants. Other notable trends were garages and accessory buildings, which include shops and agricultural storage buildings.”
Business and home
occupation developments also saw marginal increases, though miscellaneous developments decreased slightly over previous years.
The average construction cost was over $300,000 and Kneehill County says this will “help offset assessment decreases.”
Construction costs in 2019 and 2020 were similar, though well below those in 2018 due to two big ticket items--a $36.8 million GrainsConnect grain elevator project in Huxley and a $26.6 million solar power facility, though construction has not begun and is anticipated for May 2021. In 2019, a $6.1 million Class II Disposal well facility and a $13 million water treatment facility were approved, and a $16 million commercial greenhouse was approved in 2020--construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2021.

Local Fish and Wildlife officer appointed

McLeod River Fisheries Patrol

There is a new Fish and Wildlife Officer in the area, and he may have some local insight into the valley.
Joa Markotic, son of Martin McSween and Yvonne Markotic, grew up in the valley and graduated from DVSS. He has returned home to assume his new posting.
“I was born in Drumheller and grew up in the area but have been living away for the past 10 years. I am thrilled to be back in the community where I grew up and hope I can make a positive impact while protecting the fish and wildlife populations in the area,” he said.
Markotic began working in Drumheller in November of last year.
He has been a Fish and Wildlife Officer for nearly two years, working in Whitecourt before being stationed in Drumheller.
“I also worked for the Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services in Pincher Creek as a problem Wildlife Technician prior to becoming an officer. In that role, I dealt with human-wildlife conflict, including trapping dangerous wildlife such as bears and cougars, and investigating livestock predation by wildlife,” he said.
He is passionate about the outdoors and is an avid angler and hunter. He spends most of his free time outdoors, fishing, hunting, and exploring.
“A large part of the work Fish and Wildlife Officers do is to educate the public about our mandated legislation and on how to minimize conflict with wildlife,” he said. “I urge anyone who sees suspicious or illegal hunting and fishing activity, dangerous wildlife encounters, and serious public lands abuse locally to report it to Alberta’s Report A Poacher line at 1-800-642-3800.”

Town withdraws support from waste to energy project

Copy of Copy of 20170815 Darryl Drohomerski CAO 0412

The Town of Drumheller is in the process of officially withdrawing from the Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Association (SAEWA).
SAEWA is a coalition of municipal entities and waste management jurisdictions that have been exploring creating an energy from waste facility, and have identified a site in the County of Newell.
Drumheller and member municipalities of the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association (DDSWMA) have been members since 2012. During that time members of the association have contributed $87,376.84. Currently, this is 53 cents per capita annually.
At the DDSWMA meeting on Thursday, December 17, Rockyford Village councillor Bill Goodfellow made a motion that SAEWA bill municipalities directly. Prior to this, the membership fees were taken out of the association’s expansion fund. The motion passed, meaning each member of the Association will now directly pay if they wish to remain a member of SAEWA.
For Drumheller, this means they will no longer be paying into SAEWA. Drumheller CAO Darryl Drohomerski says Council has discussed the SAEWA membership and is not supportive of paying into the project.
This change came before the 2021 Solid Waste Association budget was passed.
“We have been trying to get out of it for a couple of years, so we won’t be putting it in our budget,” said Drohomerski.
Drumheller has many concerns about the project, from costs to ownership, transportation, and operations.
“We’re taking money we are putting away for the future and actually giving it to a membership we don’t know is ever going to come to fruition. This is ultimately going to take the waste we are putting in our landfill,” said Drohomerski.
He likens the relationship like paying a competitor to help put themselves out of business.
“For Drumheller and area residents it is important because it can determine the long term viability of operating landfill. There are many members of our current association, and they may elect to leave and take their waste to SAEWA, which would impact debt, operations, and membership,” said Drohomerski.
Drumheller contributes about half of the waste that is brought to the DDSWMA landfill each year.

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