Neepawa Town Council Confirms Plan for Park Lake Flood Recovery

On Canada Day 2020, prolonged heavy rainfall caused a dam breach on Park Lake in Neepawa, flooding a swath of the east side of the community. Homes were damaged, roads and bridges were washed out, and the man-made lake, originally constructed in the late 1800s as a water source for the town and now a recreational area, was completely drained.

A year later, after much speculation from the community as to how the area would be revitalized, the Neepawa Town Council addresses questions about the future of the site and confirms plans to resurrect it.

In the short term after the flood, dikes were constructed to protect nearby developments from rising waters, and those are now a permanent feature. A temporary culvert system installed at Park Lake to regain access to the area will eventually be replaced by a new bridge. The pedestrian bridge, paths, and access roads will also be addressed. This fall, work will begin at the golf course to replace a washed out bridge there as well.

One of the biggest questions people had was whether the lake would even be replaced at all.

“It was always our first option,” says Mayor Blake McCutcheon. “In fact, I don’t think we even had a second option, did we?”

CAO Colleen Synchyshyn adds, “Under the [Disaster Financial Assistance] claims, what happens is, you have the ability to restore to a pre-disaster state. That is our pre-disaster state.”

In many ways, restoring the lake and surrounding site will actually improve it as all the replacement structures will be built to current code and standards.It will cost between 10 and 12 million dollars to completely restore the site, which is entirely covered by Disaster Financial Assistance.

The town hopes to have the roadwork done and the lake replaced by fall of 2022, though there will still be work to do on restoring the site to its former condition.