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.

A group of Carbon residents has initiated a recall vote for the Village’s mayor and one councillor.
The Village of Carbon posted two Statements of Representatives of Petitioners received on April 24. These are signed by Marie Kooiman, declaring she represents the petitioners.
These statements read, “This is to advise that we are exercising our right to hold our municipal officials accountable and will be initiating a recall petition…”
These statements are for Councillor Trina Anderson and Mayor Bryan Peever.
According to correspondence from the village, the Notice of Recall petitions for the two names of elected officials has been verified and confirmed.
“From today's date, April 26, 2023, you will have 60 days to submit 200 valid signatures per submission. 60 days will be June 26, 2023.”
Since June 26 is a Sunday, the petitioners are given until Monday, June 27, adding an extra day.
The 200 signatures is indicative of 40 per cent of the electorate required to sign the petition.
The province passed an amendment to the Municipal Government Act in 2022 which allows electors to petition to recall an elected official. This includes MLAs, municipal officials and school board trustees. Recalls can be instigated 18 months after an election.
After a petition has been verified, the recall petitioner has 60 days to collect signatures. The recall petition must be signed by 40 per cent of the population of the municipality. A notice of recall can only be submitted once per member of council in a term.
If the petition is successful, the position is declared vacant at the next council meeting. If a member of the council is recalled, a by-election will be called to fill the vacant seat.