While Drumheller scrambled to get ready for the impending waters last week, Kneehill County too was on alert, and managed to keep its residents safe.
    On Friday June 21, the County was put on High Water Level alert. By Saturday evening the county issued an evacuation order for designated low lying areas. T
    his included a number of residences along the Red Deer River including homes in the Kirkpatrick area, the Bleriot Ferry campground, the Lions Campground and the Tolmen Bridge area.
    “We started off Saturday afternoon with a voluntary evacuation, just to let people know the waters were coming up,” said Kneehill Reeve Bob Long.
    “We had no one who actually evacuated, but we were down there with our staff, and residents signed releases. We just wanted them to know the information we were given and when the peak should be.”
    Residents chose to stay put and protect their homes, and Kneehill staff monitored the campgrounds to make sure there was no one in those areas. He said the ranch near Tolman Bridge began its own evacuation of people and animals in preparation of the potentially damaging water.
    “It got fairly close to their residences in 2005,” said Long.
    He says he whole operation was smooth.
    “We were fortunate going through this a few years ago, people were ready for it,” said Long.
    “If nothing else, it was a great practice run of our Emergency plan. We set up our Emergency Operations Centre and evacuation centre at Prairie Bible Institute.”

    The Area Structure plan for the Badlands Motorsports Resort passed its third and final reading, however the developer now needs to wait until December before proceeding with the project.
    The development has been in the works for a number of years and the Area Structure Plan passed its third reading with a vote of 4-3 by Kneehill Council at its council meeting on June 25.
    The process continued to the next step, which was the first reading of a land use bylaw to redesignate the land use from Agriculture to Direct Control. This too passed.
    The second of the land use bylaw readings, which requires another public meeting, is scheduled for December 4 and 5.
    Reeve Bob Long explains, while this is a ways further down the road, it is for a reason. Council has taken into consideration some of the parties involved who are farming or running businesses, by extending the schedule. One complication however is there is an election coming in October.    
    “The problem is once you start something you have to finish it,” said Long. “If we go to a public hearing, the same people who hear the public hearing have to vote on the bylaw. With the summer being busy with farming, from our council’s perspective as well as the people from Rosebud who are involved in agriculture, we didn’t want to get into a situation where we are rushed.”
    He does see the possibility of the issue becoming politicized, and becoming a ballot issue.
    “But I don’t suspect that will be,” he said, adding he has heard support for and against  both from within the county and outside the county.
    “Concerns are concerns and we have been committed to the process to allow everyone the opportunity to be heard,” said Long.
    He said it is an emotion issue.
    “I think some of the confusion has been a lack of understanding on the process, and there seemed to be a feeling that we were rushing into this, which is not the case, This has been on the table since 2007,” said Long. “So we thought let’s just step back and take a breath.”
    “This is a process we have to go through, we have to take these steps and have these public meetings to see what the concerns are.”
    He said there are many checks as the process continues from the Area Structure Plan, which is simply an overview of a potential developed without specific details.
    “There are a lot of things to be decided, there are still a lot of conditions that could be put on the development to address the concerns,” said Long.