Flood waters may have receded at the Coyote Creek Golf and RV Resort near Sundre but frustration levels remain high.
General manager Bruce Johnson is looking at a cleanup bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — and believes it should have been prevented.
For years there has been talk of building a long berm to keep the Red Deer River from spilling over its banks. A pair of smaller berms have been built, but the province has not come through with the funding to extend the protective barrier.
“The province needs to get off their butts and get that thing in here,” said Johnson.
He expressed exasperation on Tuesday that the province’s most recent move, announced this spring, has been a promise to undertake a flood assessment in the area this year.
“The money they’re spending on the study, the berm could have been in and saved everybody,” he said. “It’s not doing us a lot of good right now.”
A study for Mountain View County from an engineering consulting firm backed the berm solution.
“It’s just a matter of the province coming up with some money to get the thing instead of having to pay this disaster relief,” he said.
About 60 residents of the 300-site RV resort had to evacuate when flood waters rose on June 20, eventually cutting off Airport Road, which is the only route into the resort, located about five km southwest of Sundre.
The road wasn’t open again to vehicles until last Wednesday.
Fortunately, residents’ homes were not damaged by this year’s flood and the restaurant reopened on Saturday.
“Nobody got any damage to the inside of their units. That’s a good thing. That saved a lot of money for everybody.
“But the infrastructure, roads and that kind of thing, took an awful hit here.”
It is hoped the first nine holes of the golf course can be opened by the weekend of July 13. Greens and tee boxes were largely spared but there is a lot of silt to be removed and washed-out paths to repair.
There was also money lost from 40 rental spots that had all been pre-booked for the Canada Day weekend but had to be cancelled because of flood damage and are still closed.
Further downstream, Gleniffer Lake was closed to boating over the long weekend because of the amount of debris, especially large logs, floating in it. Four provincial recreation area boat launches will be closed until further notice.
In Clearwater and Red Deer counties, road repairs are also underway.
Visitors to the West Country were warned to keep to campsites reached off paved roads and avoid some of the more remote locations.
Rocky Mountain House RCMP reported a busy weekend, but there were not any serious problems.
Clearwater County chief administrative officer Ron Leaf said there were some quad rollovers and a number of tickets were issued by peace officers and police for various offences.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com