Five days before this was written, Cypress County council directed staff to start drafting a request for proposals on a twin-ice arena with room for up to six curling sheets, budgeted at $65 million, slated for a stretch of land called Dunmore Junction just east along Highway 1. It is the kind of headline that makes a hamlet of roughly a thousand people feel like it is finally getting noticed.
But anyone who has stood in the outfield at Sunrise Park while a HALO Air Ambulance helicopter set down for a fundraiser, or watched Cypress County Fire Services turn a hose on a field full of kids, already knows Dunmore did not wait around for institutional money to build a community. It built one out of folding tables, borrowed benches, and a volunteer list that keeps showing up year after year. The $65 million isn't creating Dunmore's civic life. It's catching up to it.
The rec centre nobody had to build to have a rec centre
Dunmore Days started, like a lot of hamlet traditions do, as something small that a handful of people refused to let die. Over the years it has turned into the kind of event where Cypress County councilors flip pancakes for about 150 people, Reeve Dan Hamilton personally donates the bouncy castles kids look forward to every summer, and a car show organized by Trevor Eichelbaum and Valerie Wickenheiser gets praised by the Dunmore Community Association as the best one yet, right down to the improved location and the door prizes lined up for participants.
This year's edition lands on August 30 at the Sunrise Park Baseball Field, with the car show itself running from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., open to vintage classics, muscle cars, and custom builds. That park has its own small origin story worth knowing. It used to just be called West Side Park until the DCA ran a naming contest and the community voted it into Sunrise Park, a decision announced right there at Dunmore Days in front of the people who use it.
None of this happened because a government body funded a facility. It happened because 60-plus volunteers gave up four months of their time to build the park in the first place, and because local businesses like Hranco Industries donated equipment and dirt to clear out an old skate shack and regrade the parking lot as a bonus nobody asked for. The HALO ball drop fundraiser alone pulled in $3,870 in a single afternoon, split between the air ambulance service and the DCA, with one lucky entrant walking away with $1,290 for landing a ball within four inches of the bullseye.
That is the infrastructure the county's rec centre proposal is now trying to formalize in concrete and ice.
What the county actually voted on
The $65 million project is still a request for proposals, not a shovel in the ground. County manager framing has been consistent across recent coverage: the goal is to understand what can be delivered within that budget before locking in a design. The facility could include two ice sheets and up to six curling sheets, along with supporting amenities, positioned as a regional draw rather than a Dunmore-only amenity.
Cypress County's own project page is direct about why this is happening now rather than later:
"The proposed twin ice and curling recreation facility in Dunmore is more than a place to recreate, it is an anchor for future development, community connection, and regional growth."
The county's stated logic is that a meaningful share of its current revenue base is expected to disappear over the next 15 to 20 years, and a facility like this is meant to anchor new growth around Dunmore Junction before that happens. It is a bet on Dunmore's future relevance, made with the same kind of long-view thinking that pushed the DCA to spend four months building a park by hand instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
Funding is expected to come from a mix of municipal reserves, debentures, grants, and sponsorships, with the county pursuing provincial and federal money specifically to avoid pushing the cost onto residential property taxes.
The fine print current residents should actually track
Two details in the county's own FAQ matter more to people living in Dunmore right now than the arena renderings ever will.
First, wastewater. Existing Dunmore homes on septic systems are staying on septic. The new facility and any new construction east of Eagleridge, including future businesses, will run on a separate new wastewater system built for the project. That distinction has been a live point of friction regionally. Cypress County has been negotiating with the City of Medicine Hat over a potential sewer agreement to serve the broader Dunmore Junction commercial park, and the county has floated building its own sewer line or expanding lagoon capacity in Irvine if a deal with the city doesn't land on the county's timeline.
Second, ice time. County user groups in hockey, curling, and skating get priority over users from outside the county. The facility is explicitly built as a Cypress County asset first, meaning the residents who already fill Dunmore's calendar with volunteer-run events get first claim on the calendar of the building meant to formalize that same spirit.
The kids already running the informal version of this
While the county drafts its RFP, the Dunmore Equestrian Centre has been quietly running its own version of civic infrastructure for years through its Rodeo Royalty program. This past week, 13-year-old Jasie Drake was crowned the 2026 Dunmore Equestrian Miss and 11-year-old Kimber Moch became the new Sweetheart, taking over from outgoing title-holders Lyla Isberg and Josie Pancoast after two days of competition at the Dunmore Indoor Arena.
Moch lives just outside Dunmore and attends Irvine School. She has been riding since she was three, competes in barrel racing, and plays ringette in the winter. Drake attends Seven Persons School and is a member of the Saddles and Spurs 4H Club. Isberg, the outgoing Miss, plans to pursue welding after graduation but hasn't ruled out running for Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede Queen down the road.
It is a small program by dollar figures, nothing like a $65 million facility, but it does the same work the arena is meant to do. It gives kids from Dunmore, Irvine, and Seven Persons a reason to show up, compete, and represent a place that doesn't have a population big enough to support a municipal recreation department of its own.
Winter runs on the same volunteer engine
The pattern holds when the snow flies. The DCA's Merry & Bright Festival brings out live music, a bonfire, family skating when ice conditions allow, and sleigh rides, with the Eagle Butte High choir returning each year to lead the crowd in carols. There are goodie bags, hot chocolate, cider, and a community tree that residents are asked to bring an ornament for. None of it requires a twin-ice facility to happen. It has been happening in whatever space the community could put together, the same way Dunmore Days happens on a baseball field instead of a purpose-built venue.
The DCA has even paired with Eagle Butte High on an intergenerational skills program, funded in part by a $2,000 grant from EDF Renewables, running sessions on things like German cooking and Instagram basics for adults. It's a small, specific example of the same instinct: when something needs doing in Dunmore, the community builds it before waiting for someone else to.
What this adds up to
Dunmore's calendar was never empty while it waited for infrastructure. It has run for years on a small, consistent group of volunteers, a handful of generous local businesses, and a Reeve who shows up to donate bouncy castles in person. The county's $65 million proposal at Dunmore Junction isn't inventing that culture. It's placing a bet that the same energy that fills a baseball field for a car show and a rodeo arena for a crowning ceremony will fill twin ice sheets and six curling lanes once they exist.
Whether the RFP process delivers a facility that matches that ambition is still an open question. What isn't in question is that Dunmore already knows how to build something out of nothing. The county is just trying to give it more room to do it in.
If you're watching how Dunmore and the rest of Cypress County are changing and want a local read on what it means for property values, growth patterns, or timing, Bob Ruzicka has been tracking this market from the ground up. Reach out any time to connect on exclusive listings and a free home valuation.
