The Drumheller Mail is continuing to share New Year's wishes from Mayors and Reeves in the area. This week, the Mayors of Carbon and Hussar, and the Reeve of Wheatland County give their thoughts on 2012 and what’s in store for 2013.

Carbon

Valorie Reed, Mayor of Carbon

    “On behalf of my council I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year.  I wish health, happiness and prosperity for each and every one of you.
    We had a very busy 2012 in Carbon. We celebrated our Centennial in fine style in August. We had hundreds of former Carbon residents come home to see family and friends and had many great visits. The weekend was full of fun for all ages. The Carbon Lions spearheaded the Carbon Lions Centennial Park and hundreds of hours of volunteer labour went into this massive project. It is so beautiful with the engraved bricks, park benches, tables, trees, and shrubs. It is a wonderful legacy for the residents of Carbon and area. There is still some work to be done and that will happen this spring and summer.
    Our 2013 will be busy as we work toward our plans for a new fire hall, as we have out grown our present space. Our new subdivision is open and we have sold two lots and hopefully we will see some more dwellings built this year. Our campground bookings have already started, so it looks like another busy year for our village.”

Hussar

Bruce Kaufman, Mayor of Hussar

    “Happy New Year and have a safe and successful one. I would say the highlights for 2012 were cleaning up the village, making it much more attractive, a lot of trees were planted, and we’ll be doing even more this year.
    We have the funding approved to upgrade our streets and ongoing funding to upgrade our pump house down the road.
    The lift station is up and running and we just completed an upgrade to that to take away any possibility of any future flooding.
    This year, we hope to start early in the spring to upgrade Centre Street with pavement, curbs, and gutters. We’re working on getting quotes on 2nd Avenue. We also have the funds in hand to repair a bunch of water leaks on the sidewalks and roads.
    We’re doing very good and have come a long way. It looks very bright for the future.”

Wheatland County

Glenn Koester, Reeve of Wheatland County

    Happy New Year from everyone at Wheatland County.
    One of the highlights for me was we handed out the first of our Community Enhancement Grants. I’m looking forward to keeping it going and helping more projects through it. People really appreciated the funding for their communities.
    For 2013, we’ll be continuing with our road plan and paving more roads. The bridge in Redland is being worked on and it will be nice to see that back up and running at full strength again.
    We helped the new fire hall in Rockyford and it’s a very nice hall.
    We got our Municipal Growth Study done last year. We’ve started the process for our new Municipal Development Plan last year. Hopefully we can get it done in the spring this year."

    Drumheller is looking to rock with the Big Valley Jamboree in the spring.
    It was announced recently that the Big Valley Jamboree will be holding its second Small Town Saturday Night contest. The community that wins will then host a concert featuring many of the stars who will be headlining the Jamboree.
     “We’ll definitely enter. Especially with our centennial year, we’ll put something together and get on this,” said Bob Cromwell, Economic Development Officer for the Town of Drumheller.
    To enter, communities must put together a two-minute video that showcases local events and attractions, shows community spirit, shows a love of country music, and, most importantly, is creative. The goal would be to explain why the show should come to town.
    Last year, the small town of Legal, 50 kilometres north of Edmonton, won the contest and hosted the first ever Small Town Saturday Night.
    A group had been working to enter a video last year.
    “Last year, it was an incredible video who won it,” said Cromwell. “We put a team together last year, came up with a concept, and tasked a few things out, including animation, but things just seemed to fizzle and we didn’t submit.”
    The final day for submissions is February 28. Afterwards, the judges choose the top ten entries and then online voting begins to determine the winner. The winner is announced at the end of March and the concert will be held on April 27.
    Anyone with ideas for the video or who wants to become involved can leave their suggestions on the Town of Drumheller Facebook page.