The Mayor of Tache says there's no need to panic about the possibility of spring flooding. Robert Rivard made the comment after attending the annual conference of the Red River Basin Commission earlier this month in Fargo, North Dakota. He says they were advised that with normal weather for the rest of the winter there will probably be some flooding in the spring. Rivard appreciates the heads up but is maintaining an optimistic outlook.

"We're hopeful that because we've had so much of the snow already, that we will get less moving forward and less rainfall in the spring to make it more of a normal year and then we'd be alright. But, as it stands right now, we were told to probably expect some flooding."

Rivard says the recent January thaw is evidence of how quickly things can change.

"The snow has gone down a lot, Whether the moisture from it is going anywhere, we don't know, but hopefully some of it will be able to dissipate before the major melt in the spring and this would help us a lot."

Rivard adds the heads up about the potential for spring flooding means Tache will do some planning to make sure its flood response program is up to date.

"We don't want to do anything in a panic, but we have to let our people know that we have to start planning now, slowly, in event something happens. So we don't have to get sandbags in place yet, but we have to know where they're going to be available, where we can get them and be ready to get them when we need them so that we're not reacting after the fact but can be in front of it all the way."