Jenn Balderston, Visitor Services Manager, and long-time volunteer Bob Moffat, of the Atlas Coal Mine. Moffat, 78, is a fifth-generation miner who will be guiding tours for the 2015 tourist season at the Atlas.

    
    The Atlas Coal Mine is looking forward to the upcoming tourist season with great anticipation after two record-setting years of visitor numbers.
    “2015 is going to be a really exciting year for us. We found that 2013 and especially 2014,  we were running at capacity and then over capacity.” said the Atlas’ Visitor Services Manager Jenn Balderston.
    “2013 was our best year to date, it’s crazy, but great, we were able to beat that.”
    Balderston said the Atlas welcomed 37,264 visitors in 2014, which was an increase of 1.73 per cent over the previous year.
    And the Mine’s Haunted Atlas this year was their best yet, raising double the revenue of 2013, making just under $23,000 for the tipple restoration project, notes Balderston.

This drawing of the Atlas Coal Mine's wooden tipple shows required work as assessed by timber restoration specialists Mcdonald & Lawrence.

    The National Historic Site has made some changes to the way visitors will be able to experience the former coal mine, starting the first opening day of tourist season in May.
    The general admission fee bumps up a couple of dollars but now includes the train tour, and at the top end of the site admission price tier,  Balderston said will be specialized tours for groups of five to ten people.
    Long-time volunteer and Atlas treasure Bob Moffat will also be guiding tours this season.
    Moffat is a fifth generation coal miner who worked the local mines during his earlier years in the Drumheller area.
    “There’s not a lot of miners left. Bob’s an incredible storyteller. He gets to share his life first hand with the visitors,” said Balderston.
    The Atlas also wants to bring in special attractions such as pony days on long weekends, with kids being provided rides in coal cars made by inmates at the Drumheller Institution.
    Balderston said the Atlas will also have roving tour guides, and aims to provide talks every hour to visitors in order to better share more of the mine’s story.
    Previously guests only interacted with guides if they took one of the mine’s guided tours.
    The Atlas is also looking into offering what Balderston calls a collections tour, which would take a small group on a behind-the-scenes look at the historic site’s collecting, archiving and storage of mining artifacts, memorabilia, and information.
    Highlights for the Atlas for 2014, Balderston lists as the community engagement of everyone who came together to make the year a success for the coal mine, the addition of Executive Director Julia Fielding to replace Linda Digby, the first phase of the wooden tipple restoration by Macdonald & Lawrence, restoration experts out of B.C, and the higher attendance numbers.
    Balderston said the mine’s been fortunate to see the growth it’s had, and cites word-of-mouth, including social media, and continued interest from being profiled on The Amazing Race Canada in 2013 as helping bring more visitors to the mine in 2014.
    And all of the changes they’re making, explains Balderston, are designed to increase visitors, help lower burden on staff, and make for an improved experience for visitors.
    “We pretty much took the book, threw it out, and started to rewrite it.”

Gasoline at the pump was under 77 cents per litre as of Wednesday afternoon, January 21.

    With the price of crude oil falling to $48 a barrel Monday, January 19, there’s a definite upside to the low prices.
    Drumheller & District Chamber of Commerce president John Shoff said the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has done studies on the economic impact of low fuel prices, and they’re estimating about $1,300 in savings per family for the year based on current oil rates.
    “So that’s a pretty good amount of disposable income, essentially that gets injected back into the local economy, that goes back directly to local businesses, with people purchasing things that they may not have purchased,” Shoff said, adding this money that the families would have previously put toward their fuel costs.
    Shoff said the majority of oil and gas businesses in Drumheller are maintenance, not drilling and exploration, so tend to be somewhat insulated from the recent oil price drop.
    A downside of low oil and gas prices would be less funding available from the Government of Alberta for the Town of Drumheller. Mayor Terry said his concern would be a further burden that the Town’s taxpayers would have to carry.
    “Anything they do as far as a rollback would impact the Town,” said the Mayor. “The downloading by the provincial government - we’ve all seen it over the years, how many extra things have been pushed back to the municipal level, to the taxpayers at a municipal level. And it’s enough-we’ve reached a saturation point.”
    The Mayor says the provincial government has certain responsibilities, and their dumping down to the municipalities can’t continue.
    A positive outcome for the town after the provincial budget is tabled, expected later in March,  is the current funding levels are maintained, said the Mayor.
    “The best case scenario would be at least the status quo. On our municipal sustainability funding, nothing adjusted there. And of course, we got our full funding for our flood mitigation. And no other programs or services were downloaded to the municipal level.”

This projection of crude oil prices chart from the Bank of Canada shows a steady climb in oil prices. The Bank of Canada says oil extraction now accounts for about 3 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP),  and crude oil accounts for about 14 per cent of exports. The information was presented at a speech to the Madison International Trade Association (MITA) of Madison, Wisconsin on January 13, 2015.

    When the question was posed on the possibility of the Town having to dip into its reserve fund, the Mayor said he thinks it’s a bit of a stretch that would happen, saying any negative effects from the provincial budget would likely be reflected in Drumheller’s 2016 municipal budget. He said the Town’s 2015 budget is close to Council approval. Town Council is hoping for a 2 per cent tax hike with no service cuts.
    Don Wilson, president of  Donald J. Wilson Services Ltd. in Drumheller,  has 35 1/2 years experience in the oil and gas industry, and said he’s seen a drop in oil prices like this twice in his career, with the prices taking 6 months to a year to come back.
    “It’ll never come back to where it was, but then, we never thought we’d have $110 oil, either.”
    Wilson estimates it’s been  20 years since gasoline prices have been this low.
    He said he can’t see any reason the oil price would stay depressed, and expects the price will start rising again in spring.