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.

    The heat was blistering, but that didn’t stop Drumheller from celebrating our nation’s birthday on Canada Day.
    The morning was off to a great start with the Canada Day Parade. Over 120 floats came out for the parade, with many going all out to recognize Canada’s birthday and the Drumheller Centennial.
    In the Community category, the Drumheller Public Library took the top spot, followed by the Starland County and Badlands Gals floats.
    Drumheller Minor Soccer placed first in the Sports category. The Titans Cheerleaders took second and the Drumheller Dragons came in third.
    The Drumheller and District 4-H Club placed first in the Youth Category, followed by Puppet-Up and the Drumheller Scouts.
    In the Commercial category, the Royal Tyrrell Museum placed first. ATCO and Riverside Value Drug Mart were awarded second and third, respectively.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum won first
in the Commercial category.

    In the Antique category, the Al-Azhar Shiners were awarded first place, followed by Bumper Boat Amusements and the Homestead Museum.
    The Niklom Group were awarded first in the Equestrian category, followed by the Verdant Valley Ag Society and Homestead Museum.
    When the parade was over, residents flocked to the Rotary Spray Park for the remainder of the Canada Day celebrations. Kids packed the inflatable rides, mini-golf, dunk tank, and fountain, while adults tried to beat the heat in the shade and listened to some great music on stage.
    At 6 p.m., everyone stopped and proudly sang O’ Canada. Then, attendees were treated to two huge Canada Day/Drumheller Centennial cakes.
    The music picked right up again and the celebration continued. Then, at 11 p.m., the fireworks ended Canada Day with a bang.