The 2017 Municipal Election just got a whole lot more interesting today, as Heather Colberg announced she is running for mayor.
    After months of speculation, Colberg is taking a step into the political arena and says listening to the electorate is one of her top focuses.
    “Being new to this, I feel it is most important to do my homework,” she tells The Mail. The most important thing is to find out what the majority of the people want and what their concerns are.”
    Born and raised in the valley, she has enjoyed a 35-year career at Hi-Way 9 Express and then as an entrepreneur.
    I have been blessed to work with my family in creating a large and successful transportation company and I have a great understanding of what sacrifices have to be made to succeed,” she said. “I also ran a business with the support of my husband and team of great decorators and learned a completely different side of business.”
    She continues to do her homework and has been with mayors throughout the province to learn more about their successes and failures. She says past and present councils have done a good job of keeping Drumheller moving forward.
      “Overall, people want the valley to continue to succeed, so all my hope is to be part of the continued development and growth, and keep it all going in a positive direction,” she said.
    Going forward, she hopes to foster cooperation.
    “I want to see a united community, I want to basically have every different group or committee pulling the same chain so we can advance our community quickly,” she said, adding that communication will be paramount.
    “I want to set up an easier process for all people to bring their concerns or suggestions to town hall…Many people in our community are very knowledgeable so I want them to have a voice. I really want to see a valley of positive comments towards our town rather than negative.”
    She said she will be setting up meetings early in June to start the initial wave of ideas.

While out for an early morning run on May 1, Wendy Clark’s neighbour, Deanne Bertsch found the large yellow bags labelled ‘caution' on the side of the road near Beynon.

Clark’s husband Richard was informed when the neighbour called about the situation as she did not want to meddle with the waste.

“You know it’s too bad that people figure that’s how they need to dispose of their garbage,” said Clark.

Within a strong rural community, Clark believes that many are willing to take responsibility and clean up for the sake of the neighbourhood.

“All the farmers around here – I think we all play our part,” said Clark.

Kneehill County was called to pick up the contained substance and then send it to the Drumheller and District Regional Landfill.

The landfill is approved to accept asbestos and has strict procedures in place to take care of it. The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) rules are based around the workers safety when handling unsafe material.

“What really bothers me about this thing is that somebody did that for $50,” said Tammi Nygaard, manager of the Drumheller and District Regional Landfill.

An application must be filled out with 48 hours advanced notice as the asbestos must be immediately disposed of and a site must also be prepared.

The landfill does not accept the debris on windy days and the operator must be on site to tag where the asbestos is once it is buried. The proper documentation is then filed away but is available at any time for when the inspector comes to visit.

“There’s probably no way that we can figure out who did it because they most likely didn’t leave any Identifying paperwork on it, there’s no name or anything on the bags,” said Nygaard. “What really upsets me the most is that that is within the region and that amount of asbestos would have been very minimal amount for disposal.”

If they were to find out who left the brightly labelled bags, Kneehill County would impose a bylaw with possible fees and the landfill can lean on the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for reinforcement.

“Having said that, it’s going to probably be very difficult for us unless somebody physically saw them do it for us to figure out who did it,” said Nygaard.

Asbestos can be found in two types: friable and nonfriable. Friable typically means that the asbestos particles can become airborne. It tends to be more dangerous for the people that are producing and working around the material than someone casually in the landfill but it still remains a general hazard.

Asbestos is a danger to humans as it poses a health risk. It can create problems like asbestosis, also known as black lung, which creates tiny slits in the lungs and normally remains dormant for many years before acting up.

The debris can be found in many forms including drywall, ceiling tiles, floor tiles, linoleum, grout, insulation, and pipe. All listed are in friable form except for the solid pipe.

The total cost to get rid of one tonne of asbestos is $72.50.

“I don’t know if it’s just because people are uneducated and ignorant of the facts or just that they’re down-right lazy and don’t want to do the proper method of disposal,” said Nygaard.

The Regional Landfill took care of the waste Wednesday morning.