The Village of Rockyford is spending $280,000 this year as part of its street improvement program.  This year’s work will have gravel streets throughout the village completely resurfaced, though not paved. Council aims to revisit the issue in the future.

    The Village of Rockyford is moving ahead with some major road repairs now that the annual Rockyford Rodeo has come to a close.
    Starting soon, gravel streets throughout town will be given an overhaul. However, they won’t be paved quite yet.
    “We’re going to see some extensive roadwork across the village. We looked at doing some paving this year, but it would have used up all of the funding available for dust control. We thought it would be better to start with this project. In future years, we can budget for paving those three blocks,” said Mayor Darcy Burke.
    The Village has set aside $280,000 for the street improvements this year.
    The plan is to resurface the gravel roads, albeit with gravel.
    “We’re going to excavate 100 millimetres off the top of the street, then bringing in some road crush, packing it, and then adding an oil surface on the top,” said Burke.
    The resurfacing will be done in such a way to help facilitate any future plans to pave the streets.
    “The reason Council chose to go this way was we did three blocks of underground infrastructure in 2011. This will be the first step in getting those streets paved,” said Burke. “With the base done, paving can take place sometime in the future.”

The front counter at the new Town Hall. Town Administration has set August 12 as the date for the new hall to be operational. Staff will begin moving smaller items over the next two weeks. On Friday, August 9, the old Town Hall will close, and staff will move everything over the weekend. It is expected the new hall will be up and running on the following Monday.

    At the meeting of Town Council on July 29, Administration set the date for the new Town Hall to come online.
    Everything is expected to be ready on August 12.
    “On the 12th (of August) we should be up and functioning. We’re going to close Town Hall on the preceding Friday,” said Allan Kendrick, Director of Infrastructure Services for the Town of Drumheller.
    Over the next two weeks, staff will gradually move smaller items, such as boxes and furniture, over to the new Town Hall in the Drumheller Civic Centre.
    “The intention is, as we have rainy days, to get staff to move as much over as possible over the next two weeks. There will still be a big push at the end with the computers and getting everything hooked up,” said CAO Ray Romanetz.
    On Friday, August 9, Town Hall will be closed, though the 403-823-6300 number will still be working, and staff will begin the process of moving everything left in the old Town Hall.
    “We will still have the emergency numbers functioning. There will be limited services through Town Hall that day,” said Kendrick.
    The new hall is largely finished, though crews are working to correct several minor deficiencies.

    Earlier this year, projections were that the moving process would begin in June. Minor delays and the flood pushed back the timetable.
    Council made the decision to move early in 2012 after $1.5 million in grant money from the province was secured. It was felt Town Hall should be in a central location and brought up to current building codes. It was felt renovating the old Town Hall would prove to be far more expensive. In total, the renovations and move will cost roughly $2 million.