Town of Drumheller

​Sun's Out Fun's Out is the spin-off outdoor camp brought to you by the team behind the popular Camp BCF. This camp was designed based around the rules and guidelines for summer day camps that have been created by the government of Alberta to help ensure the safety of all campers with regards to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Sun's Out Fun's Out summer camp will be entirely outdoors, located at the Newcastle beach area, where our camp leaders have planned an extraordinary summer of fun and friendships while maintaining our social distancing. So if your child has been stuck at home and looking for a great escape from quarantine, then this is the place for them.

 We hope you can join us for one amazing summer over at camp Sun's Out fun's Out!

 On July 6, 2020, Council approved the appointment of Rubydale Asphalt to complete the 2020 Street Improvement Program. This annual program implements the repairs and maintenance identified in the Town of Drumheller's Street Improvement Plan.

"The project has a total value of $1,044,674.86. $799,278 will be funded from the 2020 Town of Drumheller Street Improvement Project budget and the remainder will be funded by the Alberta Government if approved," outlined Dave Brett Infrastructure Director for the Town of Drumheller.

"Construction will start as soon as possible, once approvals are in order, with the majority of work planned to be completed by September 15, 2020, with final completion by October 1, 2020," added Darryl Drohomerski CAO of the Town of Drumheller. "Affected residents will receive information on the construction prior to any work taking place."

Areas of work include, 2^nd St Sw from Railway Avenue to 2^nd Ave (for Alberta Transportation if approved), repaving Cedar Crescent and resurfacing the parking lot by Shoppers Drugs Mart and some patching of road downtown. Maps outlining the areas of work is  below.

Dates of the different areas of work will be posted once known.

We ask people to take care in construction areas and follow all signage. 

July 6, 2020 

Bleow is the anticipated schedule for the annual hydrant flushing program.
 
July 6: Water Plant to 11 Street E.
July 7-10: 11 Street E to Greentree & 11 Street E to Willow Point
July 13-17: Hunts (Hwy 9 south to Centre St SE) & Riverside (10 Street E to 5 Street E)
July 20-27: Bankview & the Industrial & 5 Street E to 900 block of Newcastle Trail
July 28-31: 900 block of Newcastle Trail to 12 Street W & Newcastle Street NW to North Drum
August 4-7: Newcastle North & Newcastle south & Upper Midland
August 10-14: Newcastle South & Nacmine & Lower Midland
August 16-31: Rosedale to East Coulee

For any questions regarding the hydrant flushing schedule, please contact 403-823-1340.

June 29, 2020​

The Town of Drumheller now accepts credit card payments through OptionPay! These credit card payments can be made from the comfort of your home and schedule, or at Town Hall. Please see our examples below displaying the information required to pay Monthly Utilities Invoice, Pet Licence Renewal, Accounts Receivable, Property Tax Payments and Business Licence. 

Click here to pay via OptionPay.

June 26, 2020​

Why isn't the Aquaplex open yet?

Neither the indoor and the outdoor pool at the Aquaplex are currently open due to both construction and the current Provincial Health Guidelines.

• The Town of Drumheller, as well as many other municipalities across Alberta were not expecting recreation facilities to open any sooner than Stage 3, which was initially indicated by the Province to occur on September 1st when the relaunch strategy was published. In addition, temporary layoffs of all recreation staff occurred May 6th with the expectation to return September 1st.

• Construction in the women's change room has commenced to update plumbing, showers and accessibility. This project started when the province originally indicated that swimming pools were in stage three of the reopening, giving time to complete the work without interrupting the customer experience. We anticipate the project to be complete by September 1st.

• In order to remain compliant to the Provincial Health Guidelines, the facility itself does not meet the requirements to keep staff and users safe. The guidelines state there should be one-way traffic implemented for washrooms and change rooms. This is an extremely difficult measure to implement in our facility and is not a quick or inexpensive job.

• Maintaining 2m physical distancing at all times, which drastically limits capacity; adjusting the width of swim lanes to enable physical distancing. This would include alternating lanes, for example, having one-way swimming per lane (e.g., swimmers use middle of the lane only and return by the adjacent lane).

• Under the current guidelines, the steam room and hot tub are closed.

• General pool use would only permit cohorts groups in restricted sizes, with 2m spacing between cohorts, with restrictions of other cohorts mixing.

• We are keen to invest time and effort to improve our digital management system for forms, waivers, lessons etc. to eliminate paper and this is a great time to do so.
• Staffing levels would have to increase significantly to meet the guidelines, which contributes to capacity allowance, but ultimately would also be an additional cost. Alternatively, if the staffing levels are not increased, the hours of operation would have to be significantly reduced in order to provide time for proper sanitization of the facility.

• Increased cleaning and sanitization results in an increase in staffing levels to meet these guidelines.

We are currently planning to open the Aquaplex for Stage 3 in hopes there will be fewer restrictions in place to provide the best service and experience possible. We want to remain compliant with the guidelines keeping our staff and users safe.

Click here to review the COVID-19 Relaunch Guidance for Swimming Pools and Whirlpools

There are many complexities in opening this facility safely during Stage 2, all of which have significant costs associated with them.

• The Town of Drumheller, as well as many other municipalities across Alberta were not expecting recreation facilities to open any sooner than Stage 3, which was initially indicated by the Province to occur on September 1 when the relaunch strategy was published. In addition, temporary layoffs of all recreation staff occurred May 6th with the expectation to return September 1st.

• The guidelines set by the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) indicate users of cardio equipment must be 3m apart while all other users must maintain 2m distance. Due to these guidelines, the capacity would drastically reduce.

• The CMOH recommends that facilities close off access to change rooms.

• The running track would be unavailable, otherwise limited to two runners at a time with staff member posted to monitor capacity and enforce physical distancing.
• Staffing levels would have to increase significantly to meet the guidelines, which contributes to capacity allowance, but ultimately would also be an additional cost. Alternatively, if the staffing levels are not increased, the hours of operation would have to be significantly reduced in order to provide time for proper sanitization of the facility.

• We are keen to invest time and effort to improve our digital management system for forms, waivers, lessons etc. to eliminate paper and this is a great time to do so

• To mitigate "spray", power racks would be unavailable and heavy lifting would be discouraged.

We are able to provide tours to clients for the banquet side of the facility on an appointment only basis until we reopen. Click here to review the COVID-19 Relaunch Guidance for Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation

When the doors closed to our facilities on March 17th, the Town announced that memberships would be paused and extended according to membership type and duration of the closure, and no membership fees incurring until the facility reopens. This remains the same and will do so until the facilities reopen.

The Spray Park is opening for use on July 2nd, with restrictions. From discussions with Alberta Heath, the Town has determined that we will use a value of 10sq.m per person in order to determine occupancy limits that meet social distancing guidelines. That total is 64 including staff. Due to Alberta Health restrictions, sanitization occurs hourly and attendants will be present to monitor occupancy levels and enforce physical distancing among users.

The Spray Park and outdoor washrooms will be open from 11:00am – 6:00pm, with sanitization occurring every 50min. During the sanitization process, users must safely leave the facilities for attendants to sanitize the Spray Park & washrooms:

11:00am – 11:50am

12:00pm – 12:50pm

1:00pm – 1:50pm 2:00pm – 2:50pm 3:00pm – 3:50pm 4:00pm – 4:50pm

5:00pm – CLOSE (6:00pm)

Not yet.

An audit is in progress and the work will be complete by a local third party agency. When completed, The Town of Drumheller will share this information to the public at a Council Meeting. There is no scheduled date as of yet, as the magnitude of this project requires time. When this information is prepared and ready to present to Council, we will update on our website and social media pages.

The public is not able to access the Library as the Badlands Community Facility is closed, however will be providing curbside pickup starting July 13th.