News | DrumhellerMail

Strong summer expected by area attractions

Drumheller was a hub of activity last weekend as many locals and visitors came out for the third annual DinoFest. It appears this should be a strong summer for tourism in the valley.

On your mark, get set, summer.
   Drumheller’s busy season is upon the valley and by all indications it looks like it could be a banner year for tourism.
   This weekend the season was welcomed in by Dinofest and just two weeks later, the Gran Fondo bicycle race will be taking to the blacktop in and around the valley. Last week, Travel Drumheller hosted a meet and greet and mini trade show with local operators and the atmosphere was very optimistic.
   Chris Curtis of Travel Drumheller said his message of making the valley a top tourism destination resonated with the whole room. He also was impressed by the caliber of attractions that have been established in the valley.
   Judging by the excellent Victoria Day long weekend, indicators are strong for the season.
   Jenn Balderston of the Atlas Coal Mine said the weekend was record breaking.
   “It was our busiest May Long to date,” she said.
   Over the weekend they had 1,043 person tours, up 181 tours from last year.
   “The Atlas continues to grow each year at an unprecedented rate and we are thrilled visitors are interested it the valley’s mining history and hopefully that interest only grows,” said Balderston.
   “My word, the long weekend was awesome,” is how Jay Russell of the Atlas Coal Mine summed up the season kick off.
   “There are issues we want to have addressed in the next couple years because of the growth, I think we are going to have to put them on the front burner,” said Russell.
   These are issues such as overflow parking and adding more tours on the schedule.
   “These are excellent problems to have.”
   The Tyrrell also opened the season with strong numbers. They had 11,203 visitors over the long weekend. While they were down about 500 compared to last year, Mike Dooley of they Tyrrell explains this could be accounted for by the weather.
   “If we had a strong Monday, possibly we would have been on par or even above,” said Dooley.
   He says there is a strong season to look forward to, predicated on the incredible media coverage the valley received last season. This year the Tyrrell will also be in the Calgary Stampede parade.
   “Last year we had the Amazing Race in Drumheller, and we’ve had Canada AM already this year, so there has been a ton of media coverage,” said Dooley. “We have DinoFest again, Tough Mudder and the Grand Fondo, there are a ton of events packed into this summer.”

Local farmer buys drone to check the progress of crops (and to play with)

Gary Chambers, local farmer and realtor with Century 21 PowerRealty.ca recently purchased a drone to help him check the progress of his crops without driving into the fields.

Here is a quick shot he took for TheDrumhellerMail.com of the World's Largest Dinosaur.

Province continues to work on Town’s flood concerns

Mayor Terry Yemen, Chief Administrative Officer Ray Romantez met with provinicial officials

Thursday in Drumheller to iron out issues including flood mappin for the area. Infrastructure Services and Planning departments for the Town were also in attendance.

The Town of Drumheller met with provincial officials in Drumheller Thursday to discuss flood related issues affecting Drumheller that came as a result the high water event of 2013.
“I felt it was a very positive meeting,” said Mayor Terry Yemen. “They have a clear understanding of what our expectations are.”
Yemen said the main discussion in the meeting focused on flood mapping and the flood exemption zone.
He said land use was also discussed at the meeting, but that everything is hinging on the flood mapping.
The Mayor noted the province’s current mapping still shows mostly floodway, and the Town would like that updated.
“There was some consensus. There still will be a floodway, but it’ll be very minimal to what there is right now,” says Yemen.
Yemen said the majority of what the Alberta Government map currently shows would be exemption, because of mitigated flows from the dam and flood mitigation work the Town has done.
“We’ll be looking at an exemption zone , which will be the majority of what is currently a flood zone. Then there will be the flood fringe, which we already had established,” Yemen explained.
He said new mapping would have most of the flood way as an exemption zone (all through different parts of Drumheller from Midland to Rosedale).
The province would like the Town to take the lead on an engineering study and cost analysis of mitigation versus relocation for certain areas, such as Lehigh, and provides funding for staff position to accomplish that.
The Town also reiterated at the meeting its position on flood mitigation funding, pointing out the provincial agreement from 1985 and the Town’s view current projects are an extension of that agreement.
Yemen notes that property buy outs are still on the table.
The Mayor said it’s all back in the hands of the province for approval, although the Town wasn’t given a definite time frame for the Town to expect answers back.
“There’s still lots of questions that have to be answered. It’s unfortunate some of these questions couldn’t have been answered months ago.”

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