Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorez took the opportunity to thank everyone who assisted during a major snow event, which prompted the mayor to call a state of emergency in her municipality.
She said Muskoka Paramedics, using their new remote response vehicle, were able to remove people stuck on the highway and take them to a warming centre. “We did have, I believe, a couple of people that had to be extracted, so thanks to Paramedic Services for that.”
Lorenz also thanked District staff. She said a plow hit a hydrant and knocked out water to an entire neighbourhood but District staff were promptly on the scene and managed to get water flowing again. “I just want to also say, as great as people are, there was a bit of a rumour going around that our wastewater plant was going to be not working and so District did take the opportunity to fact check that information. And while we don’t usually like to run on rumors or correct rumors on social media, we just thought that was far too important, so District was really helpful with that, so we thank you.”
She also noted that District Community Service staff assisted a seniors’ building at Lofty Pines that was out of power for three days. “As you can imagine, just from these stories, it’s been quite harrowing… it was just one thing after the other, what could go wrong did go wrong, starting with Saturday night, and it started to ease off Monday once the highway was opened,” said Lorenz. “We appreciate you. We appreciate our colleagues around this table and appreciate the staff and the District… there are lots of people to thank, but I’m just going to focus on you folks today, so thank you very much for all your support in Gravenhurst,” she told all those present at the District Council chamber on December 16.
District Chair Jeff Lehman also thanked the engineering and public works staff for protecting water supplies and wastewater systems and working in difficult conditions and thanked staff in other divisions and departments as well. “Got a really interesting lesson in hybrid vehicles. You can use them to provide power to a building. We found that out with two of our electric trucks that were actually used to provide a little emergency power at Lofty Pones. Very creative solution from the guys in the facilities department. So really a remarkable effort across our organization and across a number of organizations.”
Lehman said it was an unusual weather event, and they’re occurring more frequently. “Whether it’s heavier rain in a shorter period of time and thunderstorms in the summer, heavier snow in a shorter period of time because of warm lakes in the winter, this is part of change, and we are going to have to adapt to it and mitigate it and do the best we can to cope with more of these extreme events, but it is only because the efforts that were taken to prepare that I think we are able to manage it as we were,” said Lehman.
Lake of Bays Mayor Terry Glover also pointed to the communication put out by the Director of Engineering and Public Works during the event. He said it was good to know what was going on. “I just wanted to point out how important it is to communicate these things because all the rest of us get questions,” said Glover. “It was really extraordinarily well done, the communication that I received, and I believe all of District Council did so thank very much sir,” he told Commissioner Steel.
You can read more about the sequence of events during the weather event from the Town of Gravenhurst’s perspective HERE
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