Cleo the Chasmosaurus Skull is now on display at the Cypress County office in Dunmore.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Cypress County’s Walsh Welcome Centre has closed due to the property being sold by the provincial government.
While the timing was a surprise, says county Reeve Dan Hamilton, they expected that this was an eventuality.
“We knew when we had the lease that it was just year to year. So if something like this happened, we would be out. We just weren’t quite expecting it for this year,” said Hamilton. “We knew there were some people out kicking tires, but we didn’t know this was happening until all of a sudden it did.”
Overall, Hamilton expressed that he believed this was a good development, to have someone coming into the space and bringing something new to the Walsh community.
In the meantime, the core services of the Welcome Centre are all available at the Cypress County office in Dunmore for those who may have need of them, and the county isn’t hurting for the loss of the building.
“We did a lot of stuff through grants, so it didn’t hurt the county for losing it. We did have three people that were hired for this year, but we were able to move them around and move them to other positions, so we held up to our word that they would have a job this year,” said Hamilton.
He expressed confidence that there would still be ample draw for tourism, and that there is still plenty to do in Cypress County that visitors can be pointed to by the brochures now found at the county office, as well as by staff or online on the Cypress County website.
The Chasmosaurus Skeleton, known as “Cleo,” has also found a new home at the Cypress County office, as Hamilton said the discovery of the dinosaur species just outside Irvine remains a point of importance for the area.
“We did what we could with the space. That option is now gone, so we’ll see what the future brings,” said Hamilton.
