New Maryland residents criticize village over flood

Some New Maryland residents are blaming the village for damage sustained to their homes after water backed up suddenly last week.

Six basements in the Applewood Acres subdivision were flooded when water from Baker Brook backed up and the ground above it caved in.

Most of the basements flooded with sewage.

Dwayne Parsons, a village resident, told a public meeting on Tuesday night that the village council let them down.

"To me, it was almost a case of fiddling while Rome burned,” he said.

He said requests last year to clear debris from Baker Brook were ignored, which likely helped to block culverts.

And, he said, there was little warning to residents about the potential for flooding and major damage.

"There was nothing on the New Maryland website. There was nothing on the Facebook site,” he said.

“There were no personal calls, there were no emails, there was no knowledge. Up until the homes flooded, correction, after they flooded, there was still no communication."

Parsons said village councillors have a moral obligation to help homeowners with repairs after the flood.

"It's easy to go back and forth between insurance companies and lawyers and legal questions. But I believe with any community that there's an obligation between its citizens, its residents and council to do ultimately what is the right thing,” Parsons said.

New Maryland Mayor Judith Wilson-Shee said council will go over the concerns raised by the flood victims and call another public meeting to discuss what has been decided.

“We are going to sit and we are going to discuss the comments that were made tonight,” Wilson-Shee said on Tuesday.

“We are going to do some homework and then we will have a face-to-face meeting with the residents that were affected.”

The mayor said there is no time frame set for when the meeting with homeowners will happen.