It’s been an intense first week on the job for Kimberley’s new Chief Administrative Officer Scott Sommerville, newly arrived from Salmo.
In addition to learning the workings of a much larger municipality, City crews are being kept very busy with the heavy rainfall.
“We are having some issues,” Sommerville said Thursday morning.
First of those is a boil water advisory for all water users in Kimberley, both Matthew and Mark Creek systems.
“There has probably been a slide above the reservoir,” he Sommerville said. We are being preemptive. We haven’t quite met turbidity criteria and with the rain forecast to continue things will be stirred up.”
The rain is also causing local rivers to swell, and although Mark Creek is not overflowing its banks, it is running very fast and the City has issued an advisory that people stay away from it.
The Marysville Falls boardwalk has been closed as has the Lions Way trail, which follows Mark Creek from Kimberley to Marysville.
“It’s just a safety precaution because the river is so high. There is no imminent danger,” Sommerville said.
The good news for Morrison Sub residents is that the flood-prone subdivision is so far in good shape. Sommerville says that both Kimberley and Lois creeks are not rising too quickly and there isn’t too much more snow to melt out of those watersheds.
“Morrison Sub should be okay,” he said.
He also said that there were no areas of Kimberley in any flood danger but that city crews were filling sandbags and would provide them to anyone who needed them.
In the meantime, city crews were out monitoring water levels, watching for any blocked culverts.
“Our main concern is trees coming in and knocking out water and sewer mains,” Sommerville said.