When Hussar School closed its doors for the last time at the end of June, the Hussar Municipal Library marked the end of a chapter, and the small community is temporarily without most library services.

The consolidation of Hussar School into the new Wheatland Crossing School has left the Hussar library without a home.

“The library board didn’t feel that sustaining a library in a school that’s not being occupied and needs repair would be a financially viable option,” said Marigold Library Services CEO Michelle Toombs. 

“We can’t afford a facility,” said board member Kathy Dundas. “And there isn’t a space available to use right now.”

Golden Hills School Division had offered sale of the building to both the Village of Hussar and the community and both declined to purchase the building due to overhead costs and maintenance, said library board member Wendy Kaiser. 

The building will likely be put up for sale by the school division, but if there are no buyers, it may be demolished. 

Kaiser said there has been discussion with the local ag society about potentially adding onto the Hussar arena a smaller library, reading rooms, and village office space.

In the meantime, Dundas said the library will continue to offer the summer reading program until fall but the fate of future library services is still uncertain as the board discusses options, such as continuing to facilitate memberships for the community, maintaining a best-seller rotunda at some location in Hussar, and even the possibility of purchasing a “smart locker” storage unit, which would have members scan their membership cards in order to gain access to books they’ve requested for delivery. 

“It would really be a neat concept that I know would work here,” said Dundas. “But it’s up in the air right now.”

Marigold recently launched a locker in Airdrie and has been looking at the possibility of opening more in other communities, said Marigold CEO Toombs.

Members can continue to order books for mail delivery, access Marigold’s ebook library and online services, and can still access services from nearby Marigold libraries such as in Drumheller. 

But the closure of Hussar’s library is still a loss for the community says Dundas.

“Our library had a very strong membership and was used quite extensively. It was busy. We had after school programming, quite often people would use the public access computers for going online and printing.”

Municipalities are responsible for their library services, required to provide the location, staffing, programs, front-line service, and operated by an autonomous board. Library funding comes through council allocations and provincial funding, as well as local fundraisers. 

Marigold provides these libraries with services such as IT and technical support, catalogue services, professional consultation, deliveries, and purchases materials for placement in the circulation catalogue. Marigold also gives some money back into local libraries to allow resource sharing between member libraries throughout the province.

The library’s book collection has not been disposed of yet, but the board said they likely will be in the future. 

Drumheller RCMP has concluded their investigation into reports of attempted child abductions in the village of Carbon late last month and want to reassure parents in the community they believe there is no further threat.

Reports of three Carbon youth being approached and lured by two men in a vehicle were made to RCMP on June 29. After investigating and interviewing a male individual who was positively identified by RCMP, police feel the suspect holds no threat to the community and the reports may have resulted from both fabrication and fear from the three youths involved.

Drumheller RCMP Constable Jason Gerard tracked down the individual and the suspect vehicle, but after interviewing him, felt the individual was incapable of the crime due to a mental illness related to an accident.

“Judging from the stories from the three youths involved the stories and descriptions of the male didn’t fit in. The descriptions range all around,” said Cst. Gerard. 

Cst. Gerard said the man lives just outside of Carbon and is frequently in town.

“I guess this person usually sits in town and uses the WiFi in one area of town, and he’s one of those people that park in town and who people look at and think there’s something weird about him. Stories can get blown out of proportion.”

Reports of two males in a van luring children to their vehicle were posted on Facebook shortly after it was reported to police, causing a sense of worry throughout both the Carbon and Drumheller communities.

“Within an hour it was already on Facebook. On social media, people hear something and they plop it on without going into facts. I’ve been through a child abduction case in Sterling a couple years ago that fit the same, and you had people on Facebook popping up, and at the end of the investigation we found out it was an autistic boy who made up everything and people started coming to their own conclusions,” said Cst. Gerard.