The Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) Museum in Steinbach was left with a damaged fence and soggy gardens after last week’s heavy rainfall. Thankfully, their historic buildings and Village Centre were spared from flooding.
Executive Director Robert Goertzen says the museum’s pond is tied into Steinbach’s creek and drainage system, which swelled quickly with the downpour.
“The pond is part of a creek system that runs through parts of Steinbach, and the golf course, and then west past Langill Estates,” explained Goertzen. “Every time there is a large rainfall, we do experience changes in the elevation of the water in the pond. But what happened last Friday, with the excessive amount of rain we received, was that part of the fence, which acts as a bit of a barrier for debris and vegetation, came down. The rising water created quite a bit of pressure on the fence, and a couple of lengths actually gave way and flattened out.”
Visitors passing by may have noticed what looked like seaweed or grasses stuck along the chain link fence, to which Goertzen says their crew has already started cleaning and making temporary repairs.
“Our maintenance staff has been out there, starting to clean things up and pull the grasses off the fence and are trying to reset it,” he said. “It won’t be a permanent fix right now. There will be some infrastructure that needs to be strengthened, and we’re looking at other ways to mitigate that.”
Goertzen notes it is their priority to keep the museum's property secure.
“We love visitors on our property, but we prefer to have the visitors come during our regular business hours. So yeah, we do have a perimeter fence that we want to have secure. It should be up within a few days so that we’re able to feel secure when we go home at 5 pm.”
Despite the flooding around the pond, the Village Centre and heritage buildings were safe.
“We were very fortunate,” Goertzen said. “Several of our staff were apprehensive, wondering what we would find in the morning. But all of our heritage buildings were rain-free, they were secure, and no flooding happened there. Of course, there were puddles and things that needed to be drained, but there was no damage.”
The Community Garden, however, took a beating for the second year in a row. Water poured in not just from the pond, but from surrounding properties.
Goertzen says, “I suppose there's now no need to water the plants for a while. That said, we’re not sure whether there’s anything salvageable in the gardens. Hopefully, at least the root vegetables are OK.”
Goertzen admits it’s frustrating for the gardeners who use the Community Gardens, but there may not be much the museum can do.
“Of course, the gardeners don’t want to see that, but they also understand this was beyond our control,” he said. “Unless we have a dike around the entire garden, but then you also have water being retained at every rainfall. So, right now we’re hoping these once-in-100-year rainfalls don’t happen very often. We are looking at other drainage aspects, and we’re doing whatever we can to ensure that when we’re offering a service like the Community Garden, people can reap their harvest and enjoy their vegetables.”
By Friday night into Saturday morning, most of the water had drained, and guests were welcomed back to the museum grounds, though staff encouraged them to stay on the paths to avoid the soft, low-lying areas.
Through it all, Goertzen says the museum is thankful the rain didn’t cause worse damage.
“We were open for business, and it didn’t interfere with that at all.