One of Drumheller’s close neighbours is marking a milestone this year, celebrating 70 years.
    Kneehill County was formed on January 1, 1944.  This was not the first local government in that area. The MD of Carbon was formed in 1912, as was the MD of Ghost Pine (originally the MD of Roach) with its office in Trochu. The MD of Norquay was organized in 1918 and held its office in Acme, and the MD of Stauffer was formed in 1918 and originally held is offices in Sunnyslope.
    These four municipalities were dissolved in 1944 to make way for the new municipality. This wasn’t a popular move and was met with opposition, but the province persisted and for the first two months the new Municipal District of Kneehill No. 278 was managed by a government appointed administrator, with secretary treasurers from each of the former separate areas.
    Before the formation, each municipality in the area had six councillors. This was replaced  by one council with seven councillors to serve the entire area. The first election was held on February 22, 1944 and its first council meeting was March 7.
    John Olson was elected for Division 1 and John Ohlhauser was elected for Division 2, Matthew Schmaultz was elected for Division 3 and Fred Peterson was elected for Division 5. George Walker was elected for Division 6, but only served for about a year, to be replaced by Stan Schmelke, and Clayton Campbell was elected to Division 7.
    Hugh Parry of Division 4 was the first Reeve and he served until 1955.
    The first order of business for the new council at its inaugural meeting was to find a location for its office. They selected the former MD of Stauffer’s offices which were located in Three Hills since 1939. They used this office until 1961, when the county moved into its new office on Main Street in Three Hills
    About a year after the first council meeting, the District was renamed to the Municipal District of Kneehill No. 48, named after a group of hills about 12 miles west of Three Hills. It kept this moniker until 1998 when it officially became known as Kneehill County.

    The area has seen great prosperity as well as challenges over the years.  It was also served with consistent leadership.  Ralph Brown served as Reeve from 1961 until 1980. Gordon King served as administrator for 23 years; from 1955 to 1978, and was followed by John Jeffery who was administrator from 1979 to 2000.
    As of the 2011 census Kneehill County had a population of just over 4,900 and covers 3,380 square kilometres.
    Reeve Bob Long says the county is planning to mark the 70th anniversary.  Already they have completed a vehicle wrap of one of their vehicles and Long says this will be featured in parades this season.

Mayor Terry Yemen and CAO Ray Romanetz at Drumheller Town Council.

It appears the Town’s estimates for its Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) Grants were in line with its estimates used for budgeting.
    MSI is one of the major funds from the province for municipalities. It is comprised of capital funding, the Basic Municipal Transpiration Grant (BMTG) and operating funding.
    Mayor Terry Yemen received a letter dated April 7 from then Minister of Municipal Affairs Ken Hughes outlining what the town would be receiving.
    According to the letter, the MSI capital component is $1,496,922, about $60,000 more than the town budgeted for in its 2014 Capital Budget.
The town was expecting  $480,000 in is BMTG funding and learned it would be receiving $481,740.
    On the operations side however, the town saw a decrease from the figure it budged for of $126,200, and will be receiving $69, 176.
    This year’s total MSI funding is$ 2,047,837.
    In his letter, Hughes explains what MSI funding is based on and how the allocation may change each year.
    “Changes in allocation amounts are mainly due to the shifts in each municipality’s proportion of population, education tax requisition, and/or kilometres of local roads compared to the provincial total, combined with a reduction in the MSI Operating budget,” it states.
     One major change all municipalities will see in the future is the elimination of the operations funding from MSI.
 This will continue to decrease to $15 million province-wide in 2015, and then eliminated in 2016.
    The funds from the operating will be realigned to encourage collaboration with other municipalities with the Alberta Community Partnership Program.
    Hughes did say he is hoping to lessen the impact to municipalities for this major change. 
“While we continue to realign MSI Operating funding to encourage transformational change, $25 million in additional capital funding will be provided in 2014 to lessen the impact of the phased elimination of the MSI Operating program,” states his letter.
    Since the letter from the Ministry was drafted, Hughes announced he has resigned from cabinet and would be running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.