May 2, 2012
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Issue 52
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One year after Lampman was threatened by a flood, much of the water remains to the north and west of the town in what has become known as Roy’s Lake.
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through a dry waterway that begins around Griffin. Unfortunately for many homeowners in the area west of Lampman, what has become known as Roy’s Lake has reportedly not decreased in size and there are concerns it won’t for quite awhile. “The water has not gone down here,” said Greg Wallin, the administrator for the Town and RM of Browning. “It’s as high as it was last year. It may have dropped a little bit in the spring, but with the little bit of thaw there was, it’s as high here as it ever was.” Wallin added that roads in the RM are also taking a beating due to the combination of water and high winds that have whipped through
the southeast this spring. “We built up the 605 north twice again this year from the wind. CN I know has trucks and loaders going, it was washing their track out.” Last year’s flooding forced the town to enlist an army of volunteers who assisted with building dikes and filling sandbags to keep the water out of Lampman. Wallin said the focus this spring is to maintain the dike located on the town’s northwest edge. He added they also partnered with the provincial government on a dike and lift station that will help keep the water out of their storm sewer system. The cost of that project was $500,000. “If the dike wasn’t
there and (the water) started backing up through the storm sewer, there would be three feet of water in town,” he said. “The water out there is three feet higher than the lowest point in town. A lot of the town would be under water if that dike failed. There are some fail safes there, it’s not going to fail unless something very drastic happened. It’s got to get pretty high before it would ever come over, and if it does that, we’re all in trouble.” As for the long term, Wallin said a solution will have to be decided upon by all the parties involved. He noted the water is flowing slowly from Roy’s Lake towards Alameda Dam through Moose Creek but
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Two years ago, if someone had asked if you wanted to purchase lake front property outside of Lampman, you likely would have had a good chuckle and sent the person on their way. Two years later, that lakefront property is no longer a joke. It’s an unfortunate reality that’s continuing to cause headaches for numerous people in the area. A byproduct of last year’s unprecedented flooding throughout southeast Saskatchewan, a lake of water remains just outside Lampman and has forced officials in the town and RM to remain on high alert. Although opinions vary, it’s believed the water flowed to outside of Lampman
not fast enough for their liking. “The long term solution is the government would have to step up and build a government ditch,” he said. “They keep saying that you have to form a watershed association and we are in the process of doing that but it is held up in the government right now. “Once (it is established) then we will sit down with the municipalities right from Fillmore to here to see what we can come up with and what we can deal with the government on. There are other options too as far as pumping it part way until it won’t run and having different lift stations along the way to get it to the dam.”
Woodlawn Regional Park, one year later
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WEATHER & INDEX
Water woes continue in Lampman
It will take years of restorative work to bring Woodlawn Regional Park back to a semblance of a pastoral getaway spot, but there is some major resurrection work underway. Much of the park was totally washed away by last summer’s raging river waters that overflowed the natural banks, swept through the tree line, gobbled up most of the Woodlawn Golf Course’s back nine holes and left the park as a muddy, silt-ridden land mass with a major gorge where a small river used to flow. The floods were devastating and Mother Nature took her toll, but now it’s the people who have their turn,
Only a deep gorge remains where a number of camping sites used to exist in Woodlawn Regional Park. attempting to restore some of the park’s grandeur, albeit on a now much smaller scale. “We could have between 50 and 60 camp sites
ready to go this year,” said David Hoffort, one of the volunteers who showed up for a restoration work bee last Wednesday and Thursday.
Nathan Puffalt, park manager, noted that the goal is to regain 100 camping spots in the two regional parks, if weather permits. In the meantime, the local
corporate community and its personnel showed up to perform some minor miracles of restoration. “We had the City of Estevan and RM of Estevan crews out here. Supreme, McGillicky and Allied Cathodic, who reburied some lines for us. They came with some unbelievable help with tandems and backhoes, skid steers ... all kinds of equipment. We got a lot cleared out,” said Hoffort. The goal now is to make the park entrance more appealing for visitors. A lot of restorative work happened in and around the Souris Valley Theatre/Frehlick Hall last week and now attention is turning toward clearing the debris out of the tree groves and removing the silt. ⇢ A2
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