On Monday, November 25, Drumheller Town Council approved Bylaw 15.19 which establishes the Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation Office. 

In this meeting Council also approved the appointment of Darwin Durnie as Chief Resiliency and Flood Mitigation Officer and created an advisory committee to oversee the program implementation. 

The responsibilities of the program will be to administer and manage flood readiness, oversee drought management and direct infrastructure projects related to the flood resiliency project. 

“This is a very important step in our flood mitigation program and we have chosen a person who is capable, responsible and knows the valley very well”, outlined Mayor Heather Colberg. “With the magnitude of this project, we look forward to working with, and using Darwin’s expertise”. 

“The vision from Council for this office is to be proactive and change the channel on flood readiness, with a sustainable plan to protect Drumheller from future flooding”, outlined Darryl Drohomerski, CAO for the Town of Drumheller. 

Darwin Durnie added, “Council and CAO have been very innovative in creating a program office. It will allow the Town to focus on daily operations while the program can be efficient and nimble dealing with this very complex project. I'm pleased we can continue to change the channel on flood preparedness.” 

This program is being funded by the Federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, the Alberta Community Resilience Program and the Town of Drumheller. These funds are aimed to help Canadian communities mitigate future flooding disasters and supports the design and construction of projects that protect critical infrastructure from flooding and drought and to help ensure public safety. 

    Two Drumheller students have received scholarships to pursue their post-secondary education, thanks to Inter Pipeline’s Bursary program.
    For the last 16 years, Inter Pipeline has given back to the community by way of its awards program called Discovery Awards.  In 2019 Harrison Martynes, graduate of DVSS and Andrew Germain, who graduated from St. Anthony’s School, received the scholarships.
    The Discovery Award is given to students in industry-related fields which can include anything from accounting to engineering technology, or business to a millwright and welder. The awards criteria includes demonstrated academic achievement, community support, and financial needs.
    In addition to first-

year students receiving the grants, the same student can apply for additional awards for their second year of post-secondary education.
    This year 47 awards of $2,000 were awarded by Inter Pipeline to students in communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The total distributed through the program this year was $94,000.
    The process of application is completed through the school that the student attends.