The town is still waiting for a response from the province in regards to the flooding in the spring 2013. Recently Mayor Yemen sent a letter to MLA Richard Starke hoping to move the process along.
The Town of Drumheller is seeking answers and clarification of its flood funding from the province.
The Mayor sent a letter asking for MLA support in early November to the province’s former tourism minister, Vermillion-Lloydminister MLA Dr. Richard Starke, requesting his support in Drumheller’s quest for answers from the province on flood mitigation funding.
The Mayor said Starke has been very helpful to the Town.
“It’s tough trying to get these things done with the government when you don’t have an MLA that’s sitting with the party in office,” said the Mayor.
Dr. Starke is the assigned buddy-MLA for Drumheller-Stettler. Buddy-MLAs are assigned by the PC government to constituencies that do not have representation in government caucus but would like a government contact they can speak with.
Starke and the Mayor both say they have developed a good working relationship and the Mayor says he will continue to work with the MLA.
Dr. Starke was in Drumheller to tour the area after the June 2013 floods.
One of the issues is a thirty-year old provincial funding agreement. The Town would like to know if it is still valid or not.
“We’ll get an answer. I’m going to keep banging on doors until we get an answer,” said Mayor Terry Yemen, adding, "We might not get the answer we want.”
The Mail archives show that in early 1983, a group of consultants was hired through Alberta Environment to review potential flood hazard, damages associated with flooding, and flood damage reduction alternatives for the Drumheller valley.
The resulting 1985 Alberta Environment report outlines a dyking network for flood protection in the valley.
“While the network is incomplete, the overall long term plans contained in the 1985 Alberta Environment Report have helped guide development and long term planning in the community to date,” the Mayor noted in a September letter to the province’s Ministers of Municipal Affairs and Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.
The letter was included with the Town’s application for flood mitigation funding.
The Mayor said the province is within its proposed timelines for review of flood mitigation funding applications, but adds knowing sooner than later is better for the Town in order to line up the work for spring 2015.
