Frustration flows in La Broquerie

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This article was published 20/07/2019 (1741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A La Broquerie resident says he is sick and tired of the flooding that has been taking place in front of his home for more than a decade, and he wants his local council to step up and fix the problem.

“I’ve literally been calling council for 11 years about this and they have done nothing,” Chad Whitham said Tuesday, while standing in front of his home at the corner of Des Pignons Street and Choiselat Street in the LUD of La Broquerie.

“It’s just been a constant frustration, and I don’t feel we are any closer to a solution than we were 11 years ago when I built this place.”

On Tuesday morning the last remnants of standing water in front of Whitham’s home were still draining from a major rain storm that took place last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Although the water was not very high on Tuesday, Whitham said that immediately after last week’s storm that water was more than three feet high directly in front of his home, covering half of his lawn and driveway.

He said the flooding happens after any major rain storm and also every spring when the snow is melting. The problem can be so bad that he and others nearby can’t even get their vehicles out of their own driveways unless they are driving a truck.

“It just sits like it’s in a pool,” he said. “It more than three feet of water, and I can’t even use the front yard or even pull out of my own driveway.”

Whitham added he has watched for years as cars have died directly in front of his home after trying to drive through the pool of water that sits after storms or during the spring melt.

“Just last week a car died in front, and a lot of times cars are avoiding the high water by just driving and spinning out right over my lawn,” he said.

Whitham said he would like to pack up and move, but because of the flooding he can’t see anyone even wanting to purchase his home.

“I want to get out of here, but I can’t sell this place because everyone knows the issues so it’s just eroded any property value.”

He added he is “extremely frustrated” with council.

“The repaved the (municipal employee) parking lot just recently and I’ve seen other projects going on, so why can’t they fix this?”

La Broquerie reeve Lewis Weiss said he understands why Whitham is so frustrated, and said council is now looking at finding a long-term solution for the drainage problems in the area.

“The RM definitely knows it’s a problem and we know from the information we have received that it is an engineering flaw that is the cause of the problems,” Weiss said.

Weiss added that council does not at this point have any concrete plans to try and fix the issues in the area, but he assured residents it is something they are looking at very closely.

“We are hoping to get some new engineering idea into there at affordable costs so we can do some repairs and the water doesn’t have to sit there every time it rains,” Weiss said.

“There have been discussion in council, we know that it’s a problem and we are working on it right now.”