Residents will get to have their say about a Blenheim stormwater masterplan thanks to a motion from South Kent Councillor Anthony Ceccacci.
“I know that this is coming soon, but this process takes a very long time, and any community input we can get ahead of time is beneficial for when we’re talking about staff and the consultants to look at methods to try to resolve some of these legacy and challenging issues,” said Ceccacci.
The ward 2 representative showed photos of some of the severe flooding taking place in Blenheim, which was the catalyst for him to bring forward the motion.
Councillor Melissa Harrigan echoed Ceccacci’s sentiments that public input is important for something like a stormwater masterplan.
“We’ve certainly had a better spring this spring because of some recent work that’s happened in Tilbury with the masterplan,” said Harrigan.
“And also, through my colleague here to encourage the community to remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint on the storm water side, but the more we can engage community members, certainly the better the masterplan will be.”
The motion was unanimously passed, with municipal staff saying the motion aligns with plans already in place for a Blenheim stormwater masterplan.
CK Director of Engineering, Marissa Mascaro Amyotte, told council that in Blenheim there is a mix of typical roadway sewer infrastructure and municipal drainage act infrastructure which are not connected and follow different processes.
“There is great importance to us to undertake a process here and receive the input from community members on where we’re experiencing drainage infrastructure challenges and develop short-term and long-term infrastructure improvements that we can put into place to update the infrastructure to current day standards,” Amyotte said.