Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Council Meeting
Monday, September 19, 2022
Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting and announced flags will be at half-staff on September 25 and September 30 for Alberta Police and Peace Officer Memorial Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation respectively.
There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the Flood Mitigation Newcastle berm at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27.
She thanked members of the Flood Mitigation Citizens Advisory Committee for arranging the tree carving at the Downtown Plaza on Friday, September 16 and Saturday, September 17.
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Council unanimously approved a request to extend the Leave of Absence for Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk for an additional eight weeks for medical reasons.
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Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski presented council with a request to appoint two members to the CN Trail Fundraising Task Force. Two applications were received from community members, Jason Blanke and Madison Colberg, and CAO Drohomerski noted anyone interested can still submit applications.
Mayor Colberg added the task force will hold a meeting at the Badlands Community Centre (BCF) on September 28 and anyone interested in being part of the task force is welcome to attend.
Council unanimously approved the appointments of both Mr. Blanke and Ms. Colberg.
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Flood Mitigation project director Deighen Blakely presented council with a request for decision to begin the expropriation process for two properties in Newcastle. Ms. Blakely noted the Flood Mitigation Office has been working with the landowners to purchase two portions of the parcels under the flood program needed to complete construction of the berm. However, the landowners have declined every offer to this point.
With the reduction in the top width of the berms, Ms. Blakely explained the amount of land required for purchase was reduced significantly, and the number of impacted landowners was also reduced from three to two.
Council unanimously passed the motion to begin the expropriation process for the two parcels.
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Director of Infrastructure Dave Brett presented council with a request to cancel the tender for the Highway 10X Bridge 11 replacement project. A total of $3.2 million was budgeted for the project, with the Alberta government covering 75 per cent of the costs, and the Town of Drumheller and Wheatland County are contributing 21 per cent and four per cent respectively for the municipal portion.
Mr. Brett explained bids came in significantly above the $3.2 million-the lowest bid coming in 2.5 times higher than this amount-and it was recommended to cancel the tender to allow the Town and Wheatland County to explore potential redesigns and efficiencies and retender the project in early 2023.
Council unanimously agreed and directed administration to look for efficiencies to reduce costs and retender in early 2023.
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Manager of Recreation, Arts, and Culture Darren Goldthorpe presented council with a briefing note on the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. This is a very high strategic priority for the Town and will help assess the status of recreation and parks, and develop a plan to meet the future needs of the community.
A request for proposal was advertised in June 2022 and a total of four proposals were received. Administration evaluated these proposals, and awarded the proposal to RC Strategies of Sherwood Park in the amount of $70,494 for services; administration met with RC Strategies in late-August to begin the project.
It is expected the engagement plan will come before council in October with public engagement to held shortly afterwards; Mr. Goldthorpe noted he expects the Parks and Recreation Master Plan will be completed in spring 2023.
Complete minutes from council meetings can be found on www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.