The lower part of Parks Creek in West Ferris is mostly free of the thick ice that is a potential flood risk every spring...but not without a little drama.
The 20-ton excavator broke through the ice yesterday afternoon while crossing from one side to the other.
"It's going really good," Ken Adams, owner of DIGSAFE Contracting smiled as he watched his son extricate the excavator from the creek.
It's the company's first time doing the job and Ken wasn't worried about his big machine.
"We went to cross to the other side just now but the ice wasn't strong enough to hold the machine," he explained. "So it broke through the ice but everything is good."
The ice is about two feet thick at that particular spot on the east side of Lakeshore Drive, and the machine fell into about four feet of water.
See: Sure sign of spring! Parks Creek de-icing
The North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority is urging people and snowmobilers to stay away from the creek on Lake Nipissing.
Each year NBMCA assesses the capacity of Parks Creek to absorb the spring melt and manages the flood control structure on the creek at Eva Wardlaw Conservation Area to ensure that people and property along the creek are safe from the risks associated with flooding.
Removal of ice between the flood control structure and Lake Nipissing will help minimize the risk of any property flooding or ice damage to the control structure.
