The City of Pembroke wants to thank the community for their support during the spring flooding. On Thursday afternoon, a free community appreciation BBQ was held at the waterfront park in Pembroke next to the marina. Mayor Mike Lemay says when he saw the flooding at the waterfront in the spring, he was just about ready to move, but he had faith in staff and volunteers. Lemay says at the last flood meeting city staff had this year, they tried to figure out a way to thank the community for coming together and helping those affected by the flooding.
Lemay says while he wants to believe it will be another 100-years before we have another flood this bad, he’s being realistic. The city has filled out federal applications for government funding, but the Pembroke mayor says policies around erosion and landslides are iffy, even if the landslides are caused by flooding. Lemay hopes the special advisor appointed to look at flooding along the Ottawa River comes up with some solutions to prevent similar situations from happening again. The mayor says if flooding continues to be as bad as it was this year, Pembroke will lose some houses. He says luckily Pembroke wasn’t affected as badly as neighboring municipalities such as Petawawa, Laurentian Valley and Whitewater Region.