EXETER – An appeal for the Exeter Diversion Drain project was filed last week and sent to the Ontario Drainage Tribunal so a hearing date can be set.

This according to a report from Municipality of South Huron chief administrative officer Roy Hardy included in the Aug. 23 council package.

Hardy's report states the appeal was filed by a solicitor on behalf of the Hamather and McBride families, both of whom own land affected by the proposed drain.

As previously reported, the diversion drain is intended to put an end to flooding problems in the eastern portion of Exeter by constructing an approximately $1.5 million drain in Exeter's east end.

The project would see a closed drainage system starting at the Exeter/Usborne boundary at Huron Street and traveling north through the 12th fairway of Ironwood Golf Club and finally emptying into the Ausable River.

South Huron has received a federal-provincial grant of $925,100 for the project, but to keep that grant the project must be completed by March 31, 2011.

Municipal clerk Michael Di Lullo told the Times-Advocate the project cannot proceed until a provincial panel comes to deal with the appeal.

He said he's unsure when the matter will come before the panel, though he said the municipality has requested "the sooner the better.

"We want to try and get this project done, so we're hoping in the next two months," he said.

According Hardy's report, the grounds for the appeal are:
• The benefits to be derived from the drainage works are not commensurate with the estimated cost;
• The administrative process and actions undertaken by the municipality and the drainage engineer do not comply with the scheme, purpose or intent of the (Drainage) Act;
• The appellants will not receive any benefit from the drainage works; and
• Such further and other grounds as counsel may advise.

Di Lullo said if the federal-provinial grant is lost, South Huron council would have to reconsider the project