It was an incredible year for the Village of Rockyford, from hosting 1,000 when it celebrated its centennial, to improvements to its downtown core.
    The Village turned 100 in 2019, and Mayor Darcy Burke said it was an incredible highlight.
    “The big thing for Rockyford is we turned 100 years old. We hosted about 1,000 people at the end of June. We had a fantastic day and the community came together. It was a homecoming for many people,” said Burke. “ When you plan an event like that you just never know how it was going to turn out and it was just perfect all around.”
    The day featured a pancake breakfast, parade, tours, reminiscing, banquet,  fireworks and a “dance in the dirt” featuring Drew Gregory and Renegade Station.
    On top of the celebrations, the Village took on a number of projects to create a lasting legacy. This included the rehabilitation of the Union Cemetery, and creating a boardwalk on Main Street with historic style lighting and historic walk.
    “There are a lot of things to see when people visit Rockyford,” said Burke.
    Another milestone for the community was the reopening of its curling rink. The rink had been closed for two seasons for renovations and improvements.
    “The board from the Curling Club got some money put together and this year it reopened,” said Burke.
    It is a $170,000 project and the community raised funds without any provincial grants. Even after two years, the curlers came back and this year there are 10 teams playing in league.
    “I really tip my hat to the Curling Rink Board of Directors for their due diligence and their desire to have the rink open again. To see 10 teams come back to curl, and young people curl, it is a real tribute to what thet wanted to do,” said Burke.
    Looking forward to 2020 Burke sees some serious challenges going forward. Many to do with its budget. Recently the provincial government announced that small communities would begin to pay for policing. In the first year that means Rockyford is responsible for paying an extra $5,744.
    The village also learned its Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding has been reduced by $30,000. This is funding for capital projects. Burke said this means that projects they have been looking at will have to be delayed until the village has funding.
    Despite this, he is looking forward to the coming year with all the interesting things that Rockyford has to offer including the 63rd annual rodeo. They are also hosting an outdoor bullarama with a family concert on June 30.

    There will be some high flying action at the Drumheller Off-Road Vehicle Association (DORVA) track this spring as the group is hosting a national motocross race.
    DORVA will be hosting an event on the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Schedule. This means on June 14, some of the best riders in the nation will be on the track in Drumheller.
    “These are the top events of the Canadian series,” said Brad Peake of DORVA. “The Triple Crown Series is a Rockstar Energy Drink series that has three disciplines attached to it; arena-cross, motocross, and supercross. What they do is assign points for positions for each race and each discipline and whoever has the most points for all three disciplines wins the big triple crown prize.”
    There are 13 events in the series and the Drumheller motocross event comes midway through the tour across Canada.
‘This is on a scale that we’ve never reached,” said Peake
    He said they have already made some major design changes to the track to prepare for the event to make it unique. They have been working on getting a race for a couple of years. He explained to the organizers about Drumheller’s unique valley and its ability to attract visitors that helped to sell them on the deal. He says they will be working with partners to get the word out on the race.
    “We don’t want to just preach to the choir but to get the information out to the enthusiasts,” he said. He hopes they can get 2,500 out to the event.
    DORVA is familiar with the tour. This year they sponsored racer Keylan Meston on the Rockstar Triple Crown Series. He races in the 450 pro class and wrapped up the MX season placing 5th overall at Walton and 6th overall for the MX series. He has spent a lot of time training at DORVA.
    “He was pumped that we were able to support him financially and come down to the races as much as we did,” said Peake. “He said it makes a difference to have someone in your corner.”