What? Another town built upon a flood plain? For thousands of years Waskasoo Creek and it's flood plain have periodically flooded when conditions were right.
The town of Penhold was formed many years ago and the present council has just realized that a flood plain does just that, floods when there is an excess of water.
The current mayor Dennis Cooper and the council have just four choices ahead of them.
(1) Continue to plead ignorance and declare that they are working towards a permanent solution and pass the problem along to the next council.
(2) Since past councils have approved all building plans and rendered the town liable for their actions, they can approve and pay for all flood damage from now on.
(3) Because the groundwater table is so close to the surface the town can take steps to raise the level of all buildings a foot or more above where they are now. Raising all structures would permanently solve any flood problems now and in the future.
(4) If the creek were dredged and widened a few feet surface water would drain away rapidly and there would be no fear of the plain flooding. This measure would also permanently solve the problem.
The mayor and council should have known about flooding problems even before they were elected, or don't they live in Penhold?
Why now is the mayor saying, “I don't know if we have a plan in place to deal with the flooding."
He should know the problem has been around for a very long time. Indeed, to say that the town has been working to alleviate the flooding problems for the last few years is just adding whitewash to the water.
The town is liable for all damages caused by flooding; after all, they approved all the building plans.
How long does council expect to keep on 'looking at a plan' to deal with flooding? It is time to be done with ' looking' and start acting.
Oops, there is another option. The whole town could move to higher ground, couldn't it?
I think the main problem here is that the only qualifications for council positions is popularity at the polls.
Frederick Peitzsche
Innisfail
