People along the shore of Lake Manitoba in the RM of St. Laurent are going to have a better view this summer. The return of the lake's level to the normal operating range means Council has approved the removal of super sandbags and Geotextile Tubes that were put in place during the flood of 2014. Reeve Cheryl Smith says it's something the citizens have wanted for about a year, and they're happy to finally see this moving forward. 

Reeve Cheryl Smith

"They've been wanting those removed for quite some time. Last year the lake level was just a bit too high and we didn't feel it would be a prudent thing to remove them at that time, but we were hoping this spring the lake would be at the point where we could do it, and it is. It's at about 812 feet, which is operating range, so we're going ahead."

She says not only is Council approving the removal of the temporary flood mitigation infrastructure, they're also aiming to do it as quickly as possible.

"The chair of transportation along with other Council members will be organizing the contractors to remove those quickly. Once they start, it's going to be divvied out to various contractors, so the whole thing is done in a one or two-week span, rather than it going on and on for four weeks. We want it done quickly."

Smith says the removal of the Geotextile Tubes and sandbags goes far beyond aesthetics for those along the lake, noting with the infrastructure out of the way, they can begin to put the challenges faced by flooding behind them.

"It's normalizing lives again. it's getting rid of that picture of super sandbags and Geotextile Tubes that remind us so much of the flood. It's basically a nice clean up of everything, and the dead trees and everything that is there at the moment will be cleaned up."