The Drayton Valley Western Review

Offer made to purchase former Valley Power building and land Cathy Weetman A local businessman has offered to purchase the former Valley Power building and land. At their February 3rd Governance and Priorities meeting, Drayton Valley Town Council met with business owner Brock Hutton to discuss the topic. ... Hutton, who’s been a resident of Drayton Valley for the past eight years, said he’s been looking at the former power plant for the past year, and if he’s successful in purchasing it, the building would come down right away and the material would be taken out of it and dried. Drayton Valley Mayor Michael Doerksen noted that no tax revenue has been coming in from Valley Power and possibly in the near future, once the land is subdivided, taxes would be coming into the community. Hutton said it would probably take somewhere between four and five years for the land to be completely cleared. History of Valley Power Drayton Valley Power was a 12MW biomass electricity generating station near Drayton Valley. The facility was operated by Algonquin Power, and usesd wood refuse from the nearby Weyerhaeuser sawmill. This facility is constructed of equipment that was originally located at North Fork, California. It was moved to Alberta in 1996 when logging near North Fork was prohibited to protect spotted owl habitat, thus ending the plant’s fuel supply. Operations on the current site commenced in 1997, after the plant was re-commissioned by Yankee Energy for Drayton Valley Power Ltd. It was the first facility of the Drayton Valley Power Income Fund, See more

Season over for skating club, minor hockey Cathy Weetman The season for figure skating and minor hockey is now over. Both the Drayton Valley Skating Club and Minor Hockey League have both declared their seasons to be over because of continuing closures of the Omniplex due to COVID-19 restrictions. Acting CAO Annette Driessen told council at a recent Governance and Priorities meeting that both groups notified her about the cancellations of ice time.... While the Minor Hockey League has shut down, Alberta Junior Hockey League representatives said four out of eight teams have opted to continue playing this season with regular games and no play-offs. The Drayton Valley Thunder has opted to continue playing and have an upcoming game against the Grande Prairie Storm on February 26. Starting at 7 p.m. Following those announcements, Driessen said after speaking with the Omniplex manager, one rink will remain open for the rest of the season. See more

Cathy’s Column: Beware of innocent looking red peppers Now that I’m getting up in years, I have a fairly good sense of what my mouth and stomach can tolerate in terms of food products. A hot pepper is definitely not on my Safe to Eat list, as I accidentally found out a few weeks ago. I had purchased a chicken pho bowl from one of the local grocery stores recently and at first glance, the meal looked rather innocent, with tender pieces of chicken, noodles and broth and what ...I took to be a red bell pepper. I powered my way through most of the meal and even consumed a piece of lime, which I found out later, was supposed to be squeezed into the bowl. The last item to eat was the’ red bell pepper’. I chewed part of it down before a burning sensation took over my tongue and the roof of my mouth, increasing in intensity second by second. I gulped down a glass of cola, which didn’t quench the burn, followed by three glasses of milk and a bowl of yogurt. I can’t accurately describe the pain I was going through, but I can tell you it was worse than delivering a baby, I kid you not. It took more than half an hour for my mouth and tongue to return to some semblance of normal, and I think some skin on the roof of my mouth peeled off as well. I checked the label on the bowl later on, and it didn’t seem to come with any warning label about how hot that pepper was. So I have now learned another life lesson this year, and that is to check the ingredients on ALL food packages before indulging. By the way, The Scoville Scale is a measurement for checking the ‘heat’ or spiciness of peppers, beginning with bell peppers. Best to check it out some day before a pepper sets your tongue, mouth and ears on fire. See more

Status of Rotary Library presented to town council Cathy Weetman The status of the now-closed Rotary Library in Drayton Valley was presented to town council at their Governance and Priorities meeting February 3rd. Library Director Doug Whistance- Smith said the library board and staff needed to look at some drastic resolutions because the libraries were too expensive. We looked at what would happen if both libraries were combined into one. ..If we didn’t we could look at... a forty to 50 per cent reduction (in the budget). The board made a decision that the only way we could reduce expenses was to close the Rotary Library to reduce expenses by 30 per cent, explained Whistance-Smith. Seventy-five per cent of an operating budget is personnel, said Whistance-Smith, adding that two staff members were let go. A library board decision was made on November 23 to close the library on December 31 of 2020 and to move the Rotary book collection to the municipal library. It took six weeks but we got it done. We’re so jammed there’s no place to sit because it’s full of books. How do we open and maintain that aspect of the library? Whistance-Smith asked. When asked what the square footage of the municipal library is, Whistance-Smith replied it was 662 square metres while the Rotary Library was 442 square metres. Whistance-Smith also reported that as a result of two closures because of COVID-19, the library lost a lot of patrons but a side service was put in place that saw library staff deliver books to its patrons by starting curbside and home delivery services. In addition library staffer Verna Wicks began using social media to introduce readers to various topics such as science. Having one library as opposed to two collections was the right way to go, concluded Whistance-Smith. See more

Alberta RCMP capture wanted man EdmontonRCMP are advising Stuart Kevin McMillan was located and arrested on Feb. 3, 2021, by Edmonton Police Service. His warrant was executed and he was conveyed by EPS to the Edmonton Remand Centre. The Alberta RCMP would like to thank the media and the public for their assistance. Further details of the arrest are not available by the RCMP. Questions regarding McMillan’s arrest will need to be directed to the Edmonton Police Service. No further updates are anticipated.

Land use bylaw passes second and third reading At their January 20 meeting, Drayton Valley Town Council passed second and third reading of Land Use Bylaw 2020/12/D. The bylaw was given First Reading at the regular meeting of Town Council on October 28. Prior to the First Reading, Council requested changes to some of the sections, including Stop Orders, in Section 1.17, Section 2.4 and Section 2.15. After it received First Reading, it was then circulated to the County and ...various agencies such as Alberta Municipal Affairs, Alberta Parks, etc.. A Public Hearing was advertised through the media to take place on October 25, but with the high number of Covid-19 cases in the area, the Public Hearing was postponed until January 20. The Public Hearing took place prior to Council’s regular meeting on January 20 with no objections submitted either by written comments or video. Town Senior Planner Matt Ellis took time to go through the lengthy document (reaching some 80 pages) before Council passed Second and Third Reading. The Land Use Bylaw was prepared with three goals in mind. Goal one several of the regulations contained within the proposed Land Use Bylaw aim to reduce economic impacts to business owners/developers and support entrepreneurship through streamlined regulations for home offices and home-based businesses. New land use definitions such as Alcohol Production and Cannabis Processing (Micro) aim to diversify our economy by allowing businesses in these sectors to locate where appropriate within Town boundaries. Goal Two Proposed LUB 2020/12/D by providing more clarity and consistency in land use definitions and regulations- less time is required by all (including Administration, for interpretation. This allows residents/business owners to more easily decide how a given property can/cannot be utilized and results in a more efficient use of staff time which improves customer service. Goal Three Proposed LUB 2020/12/D has been completed with input from the community and includes regulations that foster inclusivity such as required bicycle spaces for commercial developments and allowing secondary suites (external). Residents can view the document online or pick up a copy at the Town Office. See more