Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, December 13, 2021
Deputy Mayor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk thanked those who participated in the Flood Mitigation Office’s online and in-person meeting on Thursday, December 9 regarding the Downtown Dike D project. She also thanked the volunteers who have helped put together the WinterFest events over the last several weeks.
***
Drumheller CAO Darryl Drohomerski presented the 2022 meeting schedule.
***
Apex Utilities regional manager Shane Milner gave a presentation to council. Mr. Milner gave council an overview of Apex’s recent name change from AltaGas Utilities and their direction as a clean energy provider. Apex Utilities services southern Alberta including Drumheller, Three Hills, Lethbridge, among other communities.
***
Drumheller Public Library Executive Director Emily Hollingshead and Board Chair Samantha Haddon reported on behalf of the library and board. Ms. Haddon gave a recap of services provided in 2021, such as printing, genealogy, and technology tutoring.
In the last three years, the library has begun offering free library cards and has partnered with Greentree Elementary School to secure a $15,000 grant to update the school library’s collection.
The library focused on adapting services to the COVID-19 pandemic, including curbside pick up, in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected user numbers, however, these began recovering through 2021 and hope to continue climbing into 2022.
Looking ahead to 2022, the library is hoping to rebuild programming. 2023 will be the library’s centennial year, and a special projects committee will be launched for this. Ms. Hollingshead shared they would like to offer teen programming and, in January they are hoping to expand hours to three evenings per week and full days on Saturdays.
***
CAO Drohomerski brought back an amendment to the board and committee appointments. Following a discussion with Travel Drumheller, it was recommended the Economic Development manager be appointed to the board rather than a member of council.
***
Council passed second and third reading of the 2022 Utility Rate Bylaw. The utility rate bylaw will see water and wastewater services increase by five and two per cent respectively.
***
Director of Corporate Services Mauricio Reyes brought the 2022 Service Fee Schedule back to council for approval. There were some amendments following feedback from council, including a $5 youth drop in rate at the Drumheller Memorial Arena and Badlands Community Facility (BCF).
Council moved to approve the 2022 Service Fee Schedule with amendments changing the activation fee to $20 and to waive the activation fee for existing members signing up for the new membership model, provided their membership is continuous.
***
Communications officer Erica Crocker presented council with the Drumheller Citizen Budget 2022. A budget simulation exercise was conducted between November 1 and 21 by Ethelo as part of the 2022 budget consultation to gain input from Drumheller residents to identify priorities for town spending. Overall the best scenario which would be widely approved by participants would be to see a two per cent decrease in general government, a five per cent increase in Family Community Support Services (FCSS) and keep funding the same for public works and transportation, garbage collection and disposal, economic development, recreation, parks, arts and culture, and protective services.
***
Director of Infrastructure Services Dave Brett presented council with the 2022 Community Clean Up report. The 2021 Community Clean Up was carried out in three components-providing disposal vouchers, the public Kick It to the Curb exchange the weekend of September 10 to 12, and a two-week community clean up by Town staff between September 13 and 24.
Clean up crews noted there appeared to be less material and they were able to complete assigned daily sections early each day. Mr. Brett expressed communications to the public could be improved. The public is also not aware of what items are accepted at no cost at the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association (DDSWMA). Despite these challenges, the voucher system appears to be working well considering 2020 was the first year they were introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Council went with the recommendation to continue the same program in 2022 with the Kick It to the Curb program to be the weekend of September 9 to 11 and the Community Clean Up collection to run between September 12 and 23.
***
Director of Protective Services Greg Peters presented council with the Police Advisory Committee’s terms of reference. The Drumheller Policing Advisory Committee (DPAC) was established by council to receive input from the community regarding public safety and priorities. Any organizations or individuals who wish to voice their concerns about policing are encouraged to contact and present to the DPAC for support, information, and input.
Mr. Peters explained the DPAC will need a maximum of seven citizen members from various entities such as school representatives or trustees, business community representative, youth representative between the ages of 16 and 18, a senior representative 55 and older, and representatives from all ethnicities and minorities. The Drumheller RCMP Detachment Commander, Drumheller CAO, and a recording secretary would be non-voting permanent members of the committee.
***
Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request to approve Alchemy Communications to continue the communication and public engagement contract. Alchemy took over communications in June 2021 on an urgent basis following a change in communications and project management. A Request for Proposal was posted and received four applications prior to closing on November 29. The four applicants were scored based on project understanding, key staff qualifications, relevant project experience, budget, and proposal organization.
Council awarded the 2022 Communications and Public Engagement contract for the Drumheller Resiliency and Flood Mitigation to Alchemy Communications Inc. for the amount of $330,000 (excluding GST).
***
Councillor Lacher moved for council to move into closed session and adjourn the meeting.
Complete minutes from council meetings can be found on
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.