A municipal sandbag program in Chatham-Kent will be a topic of discussion during Monday night's council meeting.
The idea was initially brought up at a May 2019 council meeting, when Ward 2 Councillor Anthony Ceccacci brought forward a successful motion requesting that administration staff prepare a report detailing the cost of initiating a sandbag program for Chatham-Kent residents who experience extreme flooding.
The report is now ready and looks at three different options to consider: keeping the status quo where the municipality directs residents to local businesses for supplies or filling of sandbags, developing a municipal sandbag program or establishing a contract with a local supplier to include a set price through a request for proposal process.
Ceccacci brought forward the motion after seeing first hand what residents across the municipality have gone through in dealing with the record high water levels this year.
"Having some type of sandbag program that helps protect people during high waters is something that is essential to our community," he said. "Here in Ward 2, I have so many different communities that are on the water's edge that I think we have to do something."
The report details the pros and cons of all three options. Implementing a sandbag program would have a budget impact of about $200,000 a year in overtime costs and supply costs. Although it notes that a program would help residents who are unprepared for a flooding event, there is also worry that the first come first serve style of the program could lead to unfair distribution. Fear of the sandbags being collected and then resold for profit was also listed as a con.
Ceccacci admitted he was surprised by the high price tag but is hopeful council can come to a reasonable decision. He also acknowledged that there are many residents that live in areas where the sandbag program would never be used, which poses another difficult decision.
"The unfortunate part is that there is a cost associated with it, just like any service and some people are never going to use the sandbag program. It's just trying to find something in relation to the cost that makes sense to everybody in the community. That's where it's very difficult from a councillor perspective," he said. "You're representing both those people. You're representing the people that are in Chatham proper that will never have to utilize the sandbag program. I've heard people that say, when people are flooding, 'well they chose to live there' but the problem is, these are community members. These are our friends these are our families. I still think we need to do something."
Ceccacci said that he expects some hearty discussion when the topic comes up on Monday night. Currently, communities such as Lakeshore, Leamington and Essex have a sandbag plan in place. According to Ceccacci, he's heard from residents in his ward who question why a program hasn't been put in place for Chatham-Kent yet.
"A lot of people in the surrounding areas that are struggling right now with these high water levels do have sandbag programs. A lot of our residents in the troubled areas here reached out to us and say 'why do they have something and we don't?'," he said.
If a sandbag program is put in place, Ceccacci notes that at any time in the future, a councillor can put a motion forward to change it or take it out of the budget if the municipality finds the program is not working well.
"It could be one of those things that we budget for three years, only use three or four times then we could have a surplus. It could end up being a reserve eventually. Or it could be something where we don't see any break in high water for quite some time. So it's really hard to predict," he said.
Depending on how the discussion goes, one of the three options could be put on the table for council to vote in favour of. Ceccacci also said, now that he's seen the pros and cons of all three options, he plans to present another solution during Monday night's meeting.
To read the full report, click here.
