Town of Drumheller and Village of Delia have come to an agreement for the Town to provide water and wastewater services to the village on a contractual basis, effective as of Monday, May 1.
Representatives from both municipalities met in the Drumheller council chambers on Friday, April 28 to sign the contract.
“It’s really difficult to have an operation run with only one employee, there’s no redundancy,” says acting Delia interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Bill Wulff. “And when working with something as valuable or as critical as the water supply, you have to make sure that everything’s up to date.”
Dave Brett, director of Infrastructure Services for the Town of Drumheller, says discussions surrounding the agreement have been ongoing for approximately six months.
Village of Delia will pay an agreed fee for routine annual and monthly maintenance, as well as an hourly rate for emergency work.
“Town of Drumheller has been providing (the village) as needed support historically when they ran into difficulties. This arrangement is formalizing that so that Town of Drumheller staff will be performing those oversight tasks and operation and maintenance aspects of the water distribution and wastewater collection system,” Mr. Brett tells the Mail.
He adds the two municipalities will formally work together to develop a plan which will allow crews to get these systems working to the level expected by the people of Delia.
Although the Town will be providing services to support the village’s water and wastewater system, it will not be providing the water flowing through the system; the village will continue receiving water from Harry Kroeger Regional Water Treatment Commission, which operates out of the Town of Hanna.
The agreement is currently for a one-year term, though Mr. Brett and Mr. Wulff say both municipalities are open to extensions.
