The Mare is busy sipping his martini's and dosent have time for ordinary folks.

Cheers

I agree Ben...this is crazy and somebody should answer for it!!!!

I complain about the flooding due to ice jamming because something could and should have been done about this for decades. Council after council, mayor after mayor, city manager after city manager, and even provincial government after provincial government could have done something but chose to ignore flooding after flooding and sat on there butts instead.

Today�s mayor and council are just in a long line of those who have done nothing. How many more of these will it take?

We know what a few people are doing. For those who go to the river might be able to see some of them working. They are typically anonymous and working as best as they can to deal with a situation they have not been taught to deal with.

We see those who are in front of the cameras but do we really know what they are doing? As John Brinks so aptly asks, who is making the decisions? Who is in charge? That is the person I want in front of the cameras, with credits on the screen showing his/her title and how it relates to this disaster, telling us what is being done to reduce the impact that has any meaningful effect.

The mayor? Sure, he is likely on the phones to people who may be able to help because he is the one talking. But why should he even have to do that? Surely these types of situations are not dependent on a call from a political head!

So he does not get in front of the cameras. So what? I know if a Rudi Giuliani type was our mayor he would have been all over this for personal aggrandizement. He is the type of mayor who certainly knows how to take advantage of disasters to improve his public image. Do we need a Giuliani for a mayor? Not as far as I am concerned.

So, what does Brown advise the mayor to do? Support the troops certainly. Strike a mayor�s ice jam task force and put Jago in charge? Thanks, but no thanks. Whatever it is, what I am looking for are some words about fixing the flooding problems for good and some meaningful action shortly thereafter that does not drag out year after year after year.

BTW, even if the water were to go down shortly, I doubt it will warm up enough to get rid of the ice. So, we will continue to have a threat of continuing problems until the winter is over. This is not a spring jamb. This is a fall jamb!

What are we doing to reduce the risk of this continuing to threaten properties for the next 3 months? There is the mayor's immediate talking point I want to hear.

Speaking of Jago and organization that should be involved in such problems from a higher level and making sure something is done about them, he is the chair of the Fraser Basin Council thst should be aware of some of the problems on the river, such as ice daming.

There does not seem to be any mention of such problems on their web site.

http://www.fraserbasin.bc.ca

It says: "The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is actively involved in resolving some fifty issues throughout the Basin that affect the well-being of people who live here"

On their flood site they identify the following:

Local flood risks: Communities can face floods from smaller streams and rivers overtopping their banks, and from drainage systems such as storm sewers, reaching capacity. This type of flooding can result from heavy rainfall events.

Spring flood risks: The most significant flood concern on the Fraser River comes from high water during spring snowmelt (also known as spring freshet). The flood of 1894, in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland, is largest flood of record. It is considered the "design flood" on which flood protection and floodplain management is based. The second largest Fraser River flood was in 1948.

Winter flood risks: For those communities of the Lower Fraser that sit along the coast, the dominant flood risk is a winter storm surge originating in the Strait of Georgia. The estimated 1-in-200 year storm surge is considered the design flood for communities and dikes downstream of the Alex Fraser Bridge.

Tsunami flood risk: If a Tsunami (large waves following an earthquake) were to occur off the coast of BC, there is also potential for flooding in coastal communities of the Lower Fraser.

.... winter flooding due to ice does not seem to be one of them. Why should it be? After all, we live north of Hope.

Too early to blame global warming?

Maybe hizzoner can check with his travel agent, get a flight to Bangladesh, where flooding is flooding, then come home here to PG and let us know how much he learned about floods and show us how he would deal with it.

Careful! What is hizzoner going to do if he would accidentally drop the scissors during the ribbon cutting ceremony and they disappear in the murky waters???

Im sure that once the Mayor has all the information from the effected business's, John Les, Schaffer, Fire Department, City Maintenance etc; he will get in front of the Cameras and give us an update. He never misses an opportunity to get some publicity if it works in his favour, ie: Kin Connector, Replay Board at the Multiplex, Grand Opening of the Sportsplex, which I might add has very little people using it., the Grand Opening of the CN Intermodal Terminal, which I might add has been open for two months and at best has loaded out 2 Containers. The hairbrained beginning of the expansion of the runway at the Prince George Airport. So when there is money being spent, and credit to be taken, the Mayor is somewhere in the crowd.

This River flooding could very will become a **REALLY** serious thing if it continues to rise from the East End of 1st and 2nd Avenue, west towards Queensway and then we get extremely cold weather again. This would mean that the whole area will be frozen solid until spring.

This problem should have been dealt with years ago, and probably would have if we hadnt got into this stupid (I repeat) stupid business of ass kissing different levels of Governments for matching grant money,to build stupid(Theres that word again) unnecessary, underutilized buildings, which at the end of the day are only a benefit to the contractors who built them.

The primary responsibility of the Municipal Government is to ensure that we have the best infrastructure to support the City, and to have this available in a fiscally responsible manner. What we now have is a City up to its butt in debt, with increases in taxes, garbage costs, road repair costs, etc; while they hop nob with Contractors, and Casino Operators, to come up with more foolish spending of money, such as the Performing Arts Centre, and new Police Station, to name a few.

By this time next year the the $33 Million on the Airport Expansion, will be paid out to the Contractors, who will be sitting in a lounge somewhere sipping a rum and coke, with their feet up congratulating themselves, and counting their money. Us (The local yokels) will be looking skyward for the arrival of the first wide body cargo jet, which will probably never come. Much like the loaded containers from Prince Rupert. We have had approx 18 Trainloads through Prince George (Approx 5500 loaded containers) since the port opened, and these trains whistled through Prince George in the dead of night and were seldom or never heard or seen.

We have some pretty good examples of the old adage (Bull---t) baffles brains in this town. The thing that baffles me is that the voters keep going back for more. Whats with that????

"This problem should have been dealt with years ago"

Exactly!!!!!!! as in about 78 years ago when the Nechako River Bridge was taken out by the river ice and it had to be replaced.

"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."---George Santayana

Funny how they know exactly when to make an appearance and when to stay away!