Le Repentir ‘back to a jungle’
Works were done to upgrade roads, clean drains and remove overgrowth, but the M&CC is unable to maintain such works.
Works were done to upgrade roads, clean drains and remove overgrowth, but the M&CC is unable to maintain such works.

TOWN Clerk Royston King has said the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will have to enter into ‘special’ contracts with contractors to have Le Repentir Cemetery cleared and restored.
“The cemetery is back to a jungle,” observed Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green at Monday’s statutory meeting. “It was once looking very beautiful and clean. It’s now in a terrible state and we will have to look at it again,” she said.

King told reporters after the meeting at City Hall that draft contracts have already been submitted to the Finance Committee. The committee has since requested more details.
In an invited comment, Chase-Green told the Guyana Chronicle that the situation at the cemetery is back to ‘square one’, owing to the recent rains . But she said the cemetery will again be placed on the council’s budget for 2019.

The mayor said plans are still in place for expansion of the cemetery, its fencing, and maintenance works, but that all of it hinges on garnering additional finances, which the City Council has been unable to do.

In February this year, the M&CC had said it wants to spend $100M each year to keep Le Repentir in good order and has included a ‘maintenance clause’ in its contract with Chung’s Global Enterprise.

Works were done to upgrade roads, clean drains and remove overgrowth and M&CC’s intention was to have such works maintained.

“We spent about $240M in the past and still had to go back shortly after to do maintenance work. So now we have included a maintenance clause, so that works can be ongoing all the time; like an ongoing cleaning regime,” Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis had said.

TO OPEN AGAIN

After major works on Le Repentir Cemetery earlier this year, it is now back to a ‘jungle-like’ state

Roads that were opened to the public in times past had to be closed, because of the state of disrepair and overgrowth that had developed in the cemetery, but Lewis informed this newspaper that the municipality is working to have such roads opened to the public once again. At the moment, though, they are closed again.
Since residents continue to dump refuse in the cemetery, the City Council also wanted to re-implement guards and armed rangers.

In view of this, Lewis said the bridges will have to be repaired and lighting will have to be installed.

While there is a definitive plan in place to bring these facilities on board, she said everything hinges on finances, because the municipality is covering the cemetery project with its own finances.

Assistant City Engineer Rasheed Kellman had spoken about plans that the City Council has to replace the current fence with one that caters more to the needs of the cemetery. Plans also include expansion of the cemetery, Kellman noted, to deal with the current overcrowding.

The proposal entails that the cemetery will be extended to the unused and densely vegetated land between Cemetery Road and Mandela Avenue. The extension is proposed to begin from the area closer to Mandela Avenue and the total dimensions of the extension will be 3000 feet to 600 feet, which will be divided into six plots. A number of works must be done to the land, including clearing away the dense vegetation.

Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had said that the estimated cost for this extension is around $45-$47M, but that there will be an official tendering process due to the size of the project.

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