The Drumheller Fire Department, as well as surrounding counties, are monitoring the current dry conditions, happening due to lack of moisture and strong winds.

The lack of moisture and strong winds have the Town of Drumheller and surrounding counties monitoring the dry conditions, and has led to a suspension of fire permits in Wheatland County for all burnable debris and grass.
    Dry conditions saw two recent fires spread too close for comfort along  an  active railway line, said Wheatland’s General Manager of Agriculture, Jim Laslo.
    He adds with these two fires, Strathmore Rural and Carseland Fire Departments were able to extinguish both fires quickly, but the lack of moisture prompted action.
    “As a result of our investigation of those fires, it was determined that there was quite an extreme risk of fire at this point in time. So we wanted to suspend the current permits that are out there,” he said.
    Laslo said the dry grass conditions, coupled with the winds that Wheatland County’s been experiencing, prompted them to suspend the fire permits as a precautionary measure.
    He said the County hasn’t issued a formal fire ban just yet and will  have to wait and see what happens with moisture content.
    “I think that this early in the year, it’s drier than what I have previously seen,” he notes. “It has been dry at times when we’ve had to do this, but this early in the year - in March - it's drier than I recall.”
     Exemptions to the suspension can be found under “Notice: Fire Permits Supended” at www.wheatlandcounty.ca.
    Kneehill County told The Mail "As of right now, Kneehill County has no issued Fire Ban in progress. However, it is up for discussion among our Fire Chiefs within the County."
    County residents can check  Kneehill’s website at www.kneehillcounty.com., where the county would post information on fire restrictions or bans.
    Starland County Fire Marshall Glen Riep said the county is  looking at possibly suspending permits for controlled burns, but they're not in a situation where they're putting fire bans on.
    Drumheller Fire Chief Bruce Wade said the fire department is monitoring the dry conditions daily, and adds that people should take extra caution with matches, cigarettes, backyard fires, campfires, etc, because conditions are so dry.     
    Wade said there is currently no fire ban in effect for Drumheller.

Left to right are the candidates seeking the provincial Conservative party nomination for Drumheller-Stettler: Ed Mah, Jack Hayden, and Greggory Jackson.

    It is no surprise who will be running for the nomination to be the Progressive Conservative candidate for the Drumheller-Stettler riding, but to make your selection, most are going to have to travel to Hanna to vote.
    The nomination period closed on March 7 and three have stepped forward. They include former MLA Jack Hayden of Byemoor, Greggory Jackson of Gadsby and Ed Mah of Drumheller.
    The ballot to select the leader will be held on March 21 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Hanna and District Community Centre. This will be the only poll.   Bert McFadyen, chair of the Nomination Committee said it was simply because they did not have enough manpower.
    “We need about five people for each polling station, we were just short of people, it’s that simple,” said McFadyen.
    He explains there are a number of rules from the party that they have to abide by, and the candidates wanted to have seven polls. He said for this to happen, they would have to have all the polls on the same day at the same time as the main poll. If they decided to have advance polls, again, they would have to be all at the same time. They would need at least five people to man each poll.
    “Logically it wasn’t going to work, you understand just how many people we would need,” said McFadyen.
    Despite this, candidates will have seven opportunities to go head to head at seven forums throughout the riding.
    They begin on Friday, March 13 at the Consort Seniors Lodge. The next week on Monday, March 16, they will be at the Coronation Community Centre, Tuesday at the New Community Centre in Castor, Wednesday at the Senior Citizen’s Rec Centre in Oyen.
    They head to the Stettler Agri Plex on Thursday and then Drumheller on Friday at the Jurassic Inn.
    The nominee forums are from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
    The final forum will be Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Seniors Circle in Hanna. After that, the poll opens until 6 p.m. at the Community Centre.  
    PC memberships will be available for sale at the door to the forums.  Current Wildrose members will be able to swap their membership cards for a PC membership if desired.
    Chair of the Drumheller-Stettler PC Constituency Association Board Doug Jones says in a press release he is looking forward to the forums, stating that it was exciting to have three nominees and looks forward to taking this constituency out of the wilderness of the last four years. He said we need a strong representative for this constituency at the provincial level.  
    For further information, contact Bert McFadyen, chair of the Nomination Committee, Drumheller-Stettler Progressive Conservative Association at 403-664-0816.