As with most years, the Village of Hussar looks to maintain a balance keeping costs down for residents while also maintaining services.
As we look back on 2023 Mayor Les Schultz, Deputy Mayor Coralee Schindel, and Councillor Tim Frank reflect on the year behind us.
The village council held a public meeting to gather input from the community to help shape the 2023 budget. Following the public consultation, the council passed the 2023 budget in May and were able to reduce residential taxes slightly.
In late spring, the Village along with the Hussar Fine Arts Society began the construction of our new Celebration Gazebo. We held the grand opening on September 24, 2023. There was music, entertainment and food. We thank the Government of Canada for funding this Celebration Gazebo. It was built in commemoration of the history of the Village of Hussar in Canada and to support the revival of local economies through in-person events. It will stand as a reminder to our residents of the remarkable community and country we live in.
In June 2023 the Village SummerDaze committee was able to host its annual SummerDaze event; the event was a great success with the annual slow-pitch tournament being held, with music, entertainment, and dancing. This event is a great success every year.
We began the upgrade of water and sewer infrastructure on 1 Avenue West between Centre Street and 1 Street in July of 2023. The project was completed by September 2023, which was about a month over our quoted time but did manage to come in under budget.
Village council and administration passed our Urban Hen and Quail bylaw March 9, 2023. To date, we have not yet received any applications, but we have had some interest shown.
The ninth annual Light Up the Night event was held on December 3, 2023. The campsites and trees at the campground are decorated in honour of loved ones who have passed. Funds raised from this event help support the Hussar Crisis Fund.
As we look ahead towards 2024 we welcome the new challenges and celebrations that the new year will bring to our Village.

With the Drumheller Fire Department receiving over a call a day in 2023, there has also been an increase in false alarms.
East Coulee, Rosedale and Drumheller Departments had a total of 378 calls last year, up from the 198 calls in 2021. About half of these calls have been false alarms, and according to Drumheller’s Fire Chief, Derian Rosario, this is a serious issue.
“There’s a multitude of reasons. Some of these are due to commercial structures that have issues with their systems. Not all of them are habitual. Steam from the shower, or cooking, or a couple have been from AirBnb’s where people weren’t shown how to use the alarm systems properly,” he said, “There have been installers who haven’t been bothered to show customers how to properly use their systems. The installers could do a little bit of a better job and be more diligent, instead of taking the easiest path.”
Chief Rosario also explains that the best time of the year to check the batteries in your home’s smoke detectors is with Daylight Savings.
Homeowners can do things to lower the risks of setting off false alarms. Such as, if cooking in the kitchen, turn on the exhaust fan. If in the bathroom showering, turn on the fan or open a window to get the steam out.
“If we can start mitigating some of the reasons why we (the Drumheller Fire Department) go out, that would be great. There’s a definite expense to that everytime. We spend about $600-$800 everytime we get an alarm call to go out in wages and use of trucks,” says Rosario, “This cost is paid by our taxpayers.”
A full roster of 43 firefighters in all three stations in East Coulee, Rosedale and Drumheller, has an average of 12 firefighters attending per call, is enough to populate the engine in a rescue. If there’s a structure fire, there will be more to respond. These team members also carry and are trained in Naloxone, a lifesaving intramuscular injection that can reverse an opioid injection. They have administered it a few times in 2023, all of which were successful.