The decapitation of the long-necked dinosaur sitting along the railway between the offices of Community Futures Big Country and The Brick may cost more to the Chamber of Commerce than the beast could wrap its head around.
“With regular maintenance, it leaves very little money in the reserve for major repairs. I assume that this one is going to be a major. Somebody did a real number on it,” says Christensen. A welder will be hired to repair the dinosaur, but work won’t even start until spring.
Local businesses adopt the 29 pre-historic creatures, having their names placed on the dinosaurs, by contributing $100 per year. This reserve of $2,900 is enough to cover painting and regular maintenance, often performed by volunteers, but leaves little for unforeseen repairs.
“Even little repairs are expensive.”
“It’s a shame,” says Kathy Little of the chamber. “It’s becoming an expensive project for the chamber to maintain as these dinosaurs get vandalized.”
Although many in town feel they’d be better without the structures occupying busy corners of the downtown area, they are an asset in creating the image of a tourist destination which Drumheller has become.
“They’re a nice tourist attraction – people comment on them that they came here when they were kids, and are coming back to find some are gone.”
Scaffolding will have to be brought in to repair the dinosaur.
“There’s a lot of money involved in doing this,” says Little. “The repairs on this one could run up to $3,000.”