A dairy and grain farmer who operates from Ekron-Oswald Road in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie says the poor road conditions are a problem year after year.

Brent Oswald from Cottonwood Holsteins says his great grandfather built Ekron-Oswald Road in 1948 by laying down trees, covering the trees with dirt dug up to make ditches, and then covered with gravel. He notes the standards to which the road was first constructed don't hold up anymore.

Oswald notes he has been active in helping with roads and drainage in his area since the flood of 1997 and can't remember a single year where there wasn't a problem which, he says he feels could have been prevented with better planning and foresight. He adds year after year the problems persist and poor road conditions have continued into July and sometimes August.

"It's just real frustrating when we have to pay high taxes compared to neighbouring municipalities and we're still doing a lot of the work ourselves after paying those taxes."

positive and we made sure that no one was going there just to moan and complain. The rules were set forth at the beginning that if you're not here with constructive criticism and prepared to come up with a solution to the problem, maybe just don't come at all," says Oswald. "My suggestion is that they rely on some of the residents that have lived in the municipality for 20, 30, or 40 years and allow those people to come up with a 12-month plan, 3-year plan, or 5-year plan. It will still be up to council to vote on whether those projects go ahead, but at least help the public works supervisor whose plate is probably overrunning."

Reeve Lewis Weiss says the idea of a citizen task force is a good idea and is looking forward to discussing the topic further on April 12 with the rest of council.

"People from the rural communities who have known the area for many years, who understand the water problems, the drainage problems, the flooding problems, and the road problems. They would kind of be our watch dog and inform us what's going on in what season."

Oswald says, as a business owner, poor road conditions can also have an effect on his day-to-day runnings.

"I made the comment to Lewis; if the infrastructure was so horrible with, let's say, the City of Steinbach and was affecting a business, say Loewen windows. The city would eventually jump up and fix the situation because they couldn't let their business not function. At this point, the roads are so poor in La Broquerie, in most areas, it affects day-to-day business. On our own farm, we struggle getting trucks in and out with feed and fertilizer and milk. Milk is a perishable item and that truck has to roll."

He adds on the milk board with the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba they have implemented a similar structure, which has worked well, where a task force was assembled to assist the board members in providing information, submitting organized plans for the future, and giving suggestions.

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Photos of Ekron-Oswald road after the warm weekend of March 18/19, 2017
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