Left to right, Trey Winfree, president and CEO of environmental contractor Alliance Integrated Solutions; Brianna Goodwin, executive director at Robeson County Church and Community Center; Roland Mayor Robert McDougald and retired Town Manager David Townsend, spend Wednesday morning looking over flood mitigation efforts on Roland’s East Church Street Canal.
A floating excavator from Alliance Integrated Solutions removes storm debris recently from a canal in Rowland.
Roland Mayor Robert McDougald, right, and retired Town Manager David Townsend, examine a flood diversion ditch on Rowland’s north side.
ROWLAND — The downed gum trees are gone and the beaver dams have been removed from the irrigation canals around Rowland.
When the heavy rains come in the spring and summer (and fall and winter), Rowland residents should feel some level of comfort knowing town leaders have done what they set out to do months ago to help channel floodwaters away from homes and farms and into several swamps in the immediate area.
The last big flood event to hit Rowland, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Debby in August, saw water around the town’s network of diversion ditches fill and overflow primarily because of debris and, in at least one location, a bamboo forest.
On Wednesday Rowland Mayor Robert McDougald, accompanied a small team of key people that helped with the cleanup of clogged ditches and beaver dams around the town.
Accompanying McDougald, were recently retired Town Manager David Townsend, Trey Winfree, president and CEO of environmental contractor Alliance Integrated Solutions, and Brianna Goodwin, and, which helped Rowland obtain grants to help offset the expense of the massive project.
As reported in an earlier report in The Robesonian, RCCC spent $250,000 for flood mitigation in a 20-mile stretch of Back Swamp Drainage District, which spans the Maxton, Pembroke and Rowland areas along the Lumber River. The project, which cost about $1.2 million, was expected to restore the flow of water in canals that lead to the river by clearing debris.
A short tour of the area included inspection of the newly cleared waterways that now flow freely into Mitchell, Persimmon and Bracey swamps. One significant area was the East Church St Canal on Roland’s east side, which required specialized equipment to hack through an intrusive bamboo forest, grown so tightly together that it prevented even a person from getting into it.
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David Kennard is the executive editor of the Robesonian. Reach him by email at [email protected].
