The team at the Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation Office took advantage of the mild winter conditions to assess the Red Deer River and surrounding banks as part of their planning efforts.
    On Thursday, February 20, a group from the office including Mayor Heather Colberg, geotechnical engineers, land surveyors, project managers, and water engineers toured the river. This will allow the team to plan for the mitigation projects in the short and long term.
    “We have been doing an investigation and inventory of the existing dyking and we have to look where we are going to augment it and where we are going to put new dyking,” said Darwin Durnie, Chief Resiliency and Flood Mitigation Officer for the town.
    Some of the mitigation work, he explains, will not have to be undertaken with major projects. Sometimes it has to do more with making room for the river.
    He said, for example, across the river from Newcastle Beach erosion has occurred, and because the beach has not been maintained, the willows have grown. This has slowed the water down on the beach side, but sped it up on the north side, eroding the bank. A solution could be as simple as having an inmate crew come in and cut the brush on the beach, making more room for the river to naturally flow.
    The team left from Newcastle Beach and toured from Nacmine, all the way to East Coulee. Durnie explains that assessing the terrain with a view from the river is optimal, and doing it in the winter gives them the ability to use all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles to traverse the water.
    “Whether it is slope stability or erosion, it‘s way easier to assess it from the water and none of us like canoes,” chuckles Durnie.

    Tonight the Dragons wrap up their regular season versus the Brooks Bandits and then prepare to hit the ice for the first round of playoffs versus the Olds Grizzly’s this Sunday.
     The Dragons played their final regular-season game on Sunday, afternoon, February 23 against the Okotoks Oilers. This was after pushing their winning streak to 10 games.
    On Saturday, February 22, the Dragons were in Olds to take on the Grizzlys. 16-year-old rookie Adam Raesler opened the scoring with his first goal as a Dragon. Olds came back and were up 2-1 after one period. In the second the Dragons went on a scoring spree with four goals coming from Grayson Dietrich, Luke Fennig, Shane Ott, and Eric Martin.
    They didn’t let up in the third as Carter Belitski and Joel Patsey each scored, before Dietrich finished his hat trick with a goal at 3:04 and another at 6:32 on the powerplay. Dragons win, 9-2.
    On Sunday the Dragons were home to face the Okotoks Oilers who had their sight set on securing first place in the AJHL Viterra South. After a scoreless first period, the Oilers took the lead in the second period. In the third, the Oilers jumped to a 2-0 lead, before Grayson Dietrich put the Dragons on the scoreboard.
    The Dragons had some great opportunities with a two-man advantage with seven minutes left, but the Oilers scored short-handed to put it out of reach and added one more on an empty net to make it a 4-1 win.
    The Dragons final regular-season game is on Wednesday, February 26 as they take on the Brooks Bandits on the road.
    The playoffs open for the Dragons Sunday, March 1 when they host the Olds Grizzlys.  Game 2 on March 2 will also be played at home before they head to Olds on March 4 and 5 for games three and four.