Drumheller Town Council Meetings

Council Notes from the Regular Meeting of Monday, June 24, 2020

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Council Overview
Information from Drumheller
Town Council Regular Meeting
Monday, June 22, 2020

Mayor Heather Colberg thanked everyone who came out for the Father’s Day Drive-by Parade and congratulated all the graduates in the valley finishing up a very different school year.
She also noted the Canada Day Parade has been cancelled.
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Council adopted the minutes from the June 8 Regular Council Meeting.
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Council approved its summer meeting schedule, cancelling the Committee of the Whole Meetings for the remainder of June, July, and August.
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The Flood Mitigation and Climate Change Office presented its financial report as well as its semi-annual report. Bob Jenkins presented the financial report. He noted this is a six-year project and council has so far adopted the first year of budgeting. The major funding for the project is from the federal government of $22 million of the approximately $55 million project. $20 million comes from the province for land acquisition and a further $6.6 million from the Community Resiliency program. The Town of Drumheller’s cash contribution is $5 million, plus in-kind expense. The budget for 2020 is about $20 million and so far 1.411 million has been expensed. He noted as the program progresses, there will need to be interim borrowing as the federal grant money is only released as the project develops.
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Chief Flood Mitigation and Resiliency Officer Darwin Durnie presented the semi-annual report. The office was busy in the first half of the year working on a number of fronts from finance to regulatory and governance, convenience capacity, structural measures, and updating the Municipal Emergency plan. They have also initiated its communication and community engagement.
Looking forward to the remainder of the year, they will work on stockpiling rip rap and hardening beams, looking at stormwater management utility relocation and protection, work on flood inundation maps, securing fill, and work on the hoodoo and centennial park berms. It will also focus on its passive warning system and continued work on its urban tree strategy and finish up Newcastle beach, and also creating more boat launch areas.
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Council approved a motion to approve the renaming of the portion on 1st Avenue West from Centre Street West to 2nd Street West as Riverside Drive West.
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Director of Infrastructure Services, Dave Brett, brought forward a Request for Decision for some changes to the See Click Fix, Town of Drumheller app. There are concerns about a number of unacceptable submissions targeting administration and Drumheller Town Council. It provided some recommendations for council to consider, including changing some privacy settings and restricting the ability to comment on other submissions. Some categories will remain completely private such as COVID-19. They also suggested streamlining the number of categories to field complaints.
The final recommendation is looking at different ways to remove the ability of residents to make anonymous submissions. This is to create accountability for users of the apps. Options include; completely removing the ability for users to make anonymous submissions; asking for the name and contact details as part of the submission. This would be compulsory, but not visible to the public, but visible to staff and; or removing “guest” submission. This allows a person to post anonymous, but they would have to register with the app. This information could only be accessible to See Click Fix and could only be accessed by following the company’s terms and conditions. Administration took the council’s suggestions and will continue to work on a solution.
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Mr. Brett offers a proposal that would allow the town to open the spray park July 2. The area would be fenced off and there would only be 64 people allowed in the spray park, with hourly scheduled cleaning. This comes at an expense of $2,000 a week for staffing to open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found at
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.

Council Notes from the Regular Meeting of Monday, June 8, 2020

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Council Overview
Information from Drumheller
Town Council Regular Meeting
Monday, June 8, 2020

Mayor Heather Colberg opened the meeting by declaring June as National Indigenous History Month.
On behalf of Gen Now, the millennial committee, Councilor Kristyne DeMott spoke in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
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Council adopted the minutes from the May 25 Regular Council Meeting and adopted the minutes from the Special Council Meeting on June 1.
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Ryan Semchuk of Travel Drumheller presented on its activities during the COVID-19 response and looking forward toward opening. Its objectives are to support the town and help flatten the curve, protect the reputation as a world-class destination, and maintain its relationship with partners and ensure they have a DMO moving forward.
During the first phase, it produced three videos with the message to visitors to wait a little longer. During the second phase it sent the message the community is opening slowly. During the third phase, they are activating their digital marketing campaign.
Semchuk addressed its need for sustainable funding. Currently, the bulk of its funding comes from the Destination Marketing Fee from hotels, however with the slow down the note they are vulnerable. They are working on securing stable funding through the Travel Alberta Co-op program.
At the request of Semchuk, Council went in camera to talk more about funding ideas for the DMO.
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Council passed all three readings of its borrowing bylaw to allow the town to borrow from ScotiaBank up to $4 Million. In recent years the town has been drawing from its non-restricted reserves as bridge financing until tax funds come available. One reason for this is to demonstrate to other levels of government of the town’s expense incurred from its COVID-19 response. The town has have not used the line of credit for a number of years, instead opting to use unrestricted reserves. These funds could only be used until the beginning of September when tax revenues are available.
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Council heard a presentation from Darwin Durnie and Bob Jenkins on the COVID-19 response and financial summary. Durie shared the news that Drumheller was indeed COVID-19 free. The Chief Medical Officer of Health reanalyzed the addresses and the true location of the two cases attributed to the Drumheller area, and they have been reassigned to another geographic area. While the finances are not fully reconciled, the overall estimated expense for the COVID response is $2.433 million. Of these, about $1.228 million went to goods and services. The expense for the EOC response team totals about $500,500 Total personnel cost for COVID-19 response came to $704,700, the cost already budgeted for staff came in at $252,500, making a total additional personnel expense $452,200.
In taking away expenses that would have normally been attributed to normal operating, expenses incurred to bring facilities and systems up to standard, and accelerated expenses from future years, the expense for the Emergency response alone comes to $1.541 million, about $192 per capita. See story on Page 3.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found at
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.

Council Notes from the Committee of the Whole Meeting of Monday, June 1, 2020

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Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town
Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, June 1, 2020

Mayor Heather Colberg declared June 2020 as Pride Month in the Town of Drumheller and acknowledged June 1-7 as Seniors Week.
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Council discussed the Policing Committee. This is established by a bylaw. Its objective is to act as a liaison between the Town, the RCMP Detachment, Bylaw, Drumheller residents, and rural communities to foster responsible community action towards the creation of a safe, secure community. Annually they provide a survey on policing priorities and the council requested to have the Committee come and present this survey. They discussed the differences between the Policing Committee, the Citizens Advisory Committee, and Citizens on Patrol, exploring if there is overlap. Councillor Tom Zariski noted the importance of oversight the Policing Committee has over policing, with a public complaints director. Councillor Jay Garbutt noted each group has very different goals and requirements.
Council also discussed the Heritage Arts and Culture Committee and its policy. Councillor Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk explained the committee is working to find its focus beyond administering a matching grant for art and culture initiatives. Administration will reach out to the committee to come to council for a discussion.
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Council went into a closed session to discuss its COVID-19 response.
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Special Council Meeting, Monday, June 1
Council passed a motion to appoint CAO Darryl Drohomerski as Director of Emergency Management.
Council debated ending the State of Local Emergency (SOLE). Ending the SOLE would not change the Town’s current response to the pandemic. Council passed a motion to end the SOLE, with Councillors Fred Makowecki, Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk, Kristyne DeMott, Tony Lacher, and Mayor Heather Colberg voting in favour and Tom Zariski and Jay Garbutt opposing the motion. See story on Page 3.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found at
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.

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