Dinny the Dinosaur is going to be getting some much needed repairs.
Ed Palm of Palm Engineering LTD inspected the dinosaur, located at the Rotary Spray Park, on June 8 to determine if the structure was still safe for the public to be near. Palm Engineering provided a letter to council of their recommendations for the dinosaur. Within the letter, it is mentioned that the structure was built from odds and ends pieces of rebar, expanded wire mesh, stucco wire, chicken wire, and concrete mortar and that the work was done over 60 years ago. The cracks have developed overtime from shrinkage, water penetration and vibration caused by high winds.
The town of Drumheller then invited quotes to refurbish the dinosaur based on the report. Two quotes for Stage one of the repairs were received, one by Frank Hadfield of Paleoprep quoted at $42,472.50 and one by Steve Vernon quoted at $6,700.
At the Monday, July 27 Regular Council meeting, Council passed a motion to award the quote for the dinosaur rehabilitation to Steve Vernon.
Stage one of the repairs will include removing sections of the dinosaur where large cracks are present and removing sections of mortar, which appear, displaced in large scales.
It will also include welding penetrating rods from the inner rebar cage through the mesh to a layer of mesh played on the outside of the hole. Dinny will also get repairs done to his surface concrete that has been broken away or otherwise needs attention. Lastly, all the cracks will be covered with a brushed on layer of latex emulsified rubber such as Elasto Seal and then the dinosaur will be primed and painted.
“He needs some major repairs. We are basically going to put a Band-Aid on him right now,” Drumheller Mayor Terry Yemen said.
“For now, he is still engineered, he is still safe. They are going to do some patches to prevent the water from getting in, clean it up, hopefully it will look good and it should give us the time we need to make an informed decision,” Yemen told the Mail.
“Council is going to want to hear from the community. That dinosaur, it is very iconic, and it is kind of where it all started from, but there is going to have to be a very significant amount of money spent on him. Is that the direction the community wants us to go? There have been some great improvements to the world of dinosaurs now, so there is some other options there,” Yemen said.
“Perhaps that is what the community wants us to do, something new or we do have the option of repairing this one but it is going to be at a significant cost. At a later time, we are going to have to ask the community and get some direction from them of what they want to do with him,” he said.
