Flooding this spring left the retaining walls at Cottonwood Park damaged and in need of repair. On Monday, Town Council gave pre-budget approval to $518,000 of repairs and upgrades. (Michele Weisz photo)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

Repairs to damage from floods this spring will cost the Town of Osoyoos over half of a million dollars.

At their Monday meeting, Council unanimously gave pre-budget approval to $518,000 of repairs and upgrades to the retaining walls at Cottonwood Park.

Emergency Management BC has committed to provide $281,565 for the repairs, and $276,435 will come from the Town’s funding reserves.

The repairs will include restoring the walls to pre-disaster condition, as well as improvements including additional wall stability, a storm sewer drainage system, reinforcement at the toe of the wall, reinstated landscaping and upgraded walkways.

During flooding, the existing retaining walls along the lake’s edge encountered erosion, director of operational services Jim Dinwoodie told Council.

As a result, the four wall sections now lean outward, walkways are sunken and landscape areas were damaged.

Council was also given the option to vote to restore the area to its pre-flood conditions without improvements, totalling $321,000.

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Mayor Sue McKortoff shared her concern that without the upgrades, another season of flooding could see even more damage.

“I’m a little bit concerned that if we don’t do some upgrades there, we understand the flooding situation and the high ground water could make it easier for floods to occur next year and I would hate to have this undermined again and then we have to start from square one,” she said.

“If it were to fail again, I’m pretty sure the wall would fall over,” Dinwoodie responded.

Council also voted to improve 10 existing decorative street lights in the park for an additional cost of $40,000. Without the upgrades, the lights would “look outdated,” the report to council read.

The funding for the lighting upgrades will be supplied from the Town’s waterfront improvement area of the Resort Municipality Funding.

Dinwoodie said tenders for the project would be put out within days.

Repairs are projected to start early spring next year and be completed by May 20, 2019.

In mid-May Osoyoos Lake hit 916.39 feet above sea level and Cottonwood Beach was completely under water. (Richard McGuire photo)