…Juman-Yassin awaiting lease
A one acre piece of land in the Turkeyen area has been identified to construct a headquarters for the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), but the association is awaiting the lease before construction can get underway.

In an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport on Tuesday, GOA’s president K. J uman-Yassin in responding to a question about his association’s achievements for last year said apart from wanting Guyana to win a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, what was equally important for him and his association was for the GOA to have been given a piece of land so that they could have built their own headquarters. “We’ve been trying for the last ten to twelve years but without success.”

“However, things have moved further than that, in that now we will be given a lease for one acre of land at Turkeyen behind Project Dawn.”

According to the Attorney-at-Law, sometime last year he had a meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo who indicated his willingness to provide land for the GOA and since that meeting, the Commissioner of Lands and Survey, Mr. Bishop, has been very helpful.

Juman-Yassin who was recently re-elected to head the GOA said a search was done and one site that was looked at was not suitable, while another site which was offered might have a dispute with the ownership and as a result of that, Turkeyen was looked at and the GOA’s executive and members decided that it is suitable.

Yassin said the GOA is still to get the lease so he is not in a position to say how long the lease is for. “We got a letter indicating that the lease will be given and they have to do a Cadastral Survey which is now being done and as soon as that is completed, I’m hoping that within the next month or two after that, the lease will be given to us.”

He is optimistic that the lease will be for a long period.

He said construction will take some time and the project will be very costly.

“As regards the construction and design, we have one that was done by the late Maxi Pereira, but in my mind, I would like to see some changes to the design because we now have to look at the size of the land and so I’ll be approaching the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Guyana for assistance in this matter and hoping that they will take this as a project and that the Dean, the lecturers and the students working with it as a project to help themselves and also help us” Yassin stated.

The former Chief Magistrate said as soon as the lease is granted some work will commence.

Asked where the funding is coming from, Juman-Yassin said the GOA has some funds in its coffers but it is very limited “so we’ll have to do a lot of fund-raising…we’ll have to approach the corporate people and those persons I want to believe, will want to help us, but the most important thing before you go to persons is to have a piece of land.”

He added: “the unfortunate thing about all of this is that, if we had been given this land before we would have finished it and the cost would have been far far less.

“Now it’s going to cost about three times the amount and my estimation for a project of this sort, we are looking at about US$500,000.”

The GOA head said he is hoping to have a hall in the building that can hold about 350 persons so that there could be seminars and functions. “And this will also bring in revenue for us as we would rent it.”