Council Notes
Drumheller Town Council
Committee of the Whole Meeting
Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Mayor Heather Colberg thanked those in the community who participated in the 20/20 challenge and also invited the community to The Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce’s Spring Expo on Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27. Mayor Colberg sent thoughts and prayers to those affected by the bombing in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.
Mayor Colberg proclaimed National Day of Mourning in Drumheller on April 28.
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Council welcomed a delegation of Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation DDSF made up of CAO Glenda Youngberg and Councillor Tom Zariski. Ms. Youngberg introduced herself and described her experience. She has been with the foundation since October. DDSF has units in Drumheller, Morrin, and Delia with 191 suites in total. In Drumheller, they operate Sunshine Lodge, Hillview Lodge, Manors 1 and 2 and six Riverview Villa suites. Drumheller is the largest contributor to the budget with $536,726.50. About 50 per cent of the budget goes to repay debt from the 2004 Sunshine Lodge renovation and construction of Hillview in 2009. Friends of the Sunshine Lodge is an incorporated Society with a mission to raise funds for projects and activities to enhance lives of the seniors in the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation. She discussed raising rents in some units due to upkeep and cuts in funding. One challenge is vacancies in Sunshine Lodge. In wings 400 and 500 of the Sunshine Lodge rooms are very small and not in demand. They propose to take two units and make them adjoining suites, however, they need funds to make it happen. She said Drumheller is on the Province’s high priority list for new Level 4 facilities, that provides the highest level of care.
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FCSS coordinator April Harrison presented a Request for Direction on Amendments to the Recreation Fee Assistance Policy and other Support Services. Poverty reduction is a priority of council and takes a two-prong attack; addressing the causes and provide services to those in poverty. The current policy does not meet current needs, doesn’t take into consideration various factors such as household makeup, and doesn’t align with other town programs. It was suggested that qualifications be based on household income and makeup rather than what support programs and benefits they are already receiving. Council went in camera for part of the discussion.
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Councillor Jay Garbutt noted while they would like to see the program continue to evolve, the policy needs more work and discussion.

Council Notes
Drumheller Town Council
Regular Council Meeting
Monday, April 15, 2019

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Council approved a request for decision for the 2019 Capital Budget and the five-year capital plan. Council previously held discussions but reviewed a couple new changes to the budget, not all noted here. An addition is a budget for work on the former Elks building site for the downtown plaza this summer, including washrooms ($50,000 for 2019 and $100,000 in 2020) and sound system equipment ($10,000) . A town app will be developed with a budgeted cost of $15,000, with operating expenses planned for the
2020 budget. Fifty-thousand dollars has been budgeted for a new truck for the Drumheller Fire Department Chief. Fifty-thousand is budgeted for the spray park and fountain for 2019 and $250,000 in 2020 to find out whether its leaks will be repaired or replaced.
The 2019 Capital Budget equates to $21 million, of which $12 million are funded projects carried forward from 2018, $1.17 million are unfunded projects carried forward ($142,000 for airport runway and $975,000 for repairing bridge 11 in Wayne) and $1.76 million being new, unfunded projects ($265,000 for bridge 11 and $1.5 million to assess and repair the Nacmine force water main, grant depending). The budget includes new capital requests of $6,471,900 for 2019.
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Council unanimously approved a resolution to lobby the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association about “inequitable” electricity price imbalances for the transmission and distribution charges on customer’s electricity bills. Council hopes the presentation of this resolution to the AUMA will cause other municipalities to begin their own lobbying efforts. See story on front page.
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Council heard a plan is being developed on what will be built for the downtown plaza site this summer, which will be brought to council by infrastructure services this month. The target opening of the plaza is mid to late June, and will be developed to be operational year-round.