City in financial strain –as operational costs for portable toilets, road sweeper bite
Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan presiding over Monday’s statutory meeting
Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan presiding over Monday’s statutory meeting

 

ALTHOUGH Acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe has cited a lack of finance at the City Council to efficiently care for “important” works in the City, councillors have been told that more than $6M are being spent on a monthly basis to pay for the services of a road sweeper, and just about $1M are being spent to rent portable toilets.The use of the road sweeper — a vehicle with huge brushes that sweep in a circular fashion and collect dust –- and the rental of portable toilets have been severely criticised by some councilors, and a call has even been made to discontinue their use.

At the Council’s fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall on Monday, the acting Town Clerk reported that there are several issues in every department of City Hall, and authorities there now have to prioritise.

“There are so many (issues) that we may not be able to address all simultaneously, but what we are doing is addressing them in phases. All our facilities are important to us; we would like to look at all those facilities like yesterday, but, unfortunately, finances within the Council do not allow it,” Munroe stated.

Councillors have heard how Solid Waste Management Director Walter Narine is currently housed in a building that urgently needs repair. “…but we could not do that immediately; we really cannot address all the issues at one time. They are all important to us, but we do try to do it in phases, one at a time. We are doing it in baby steps; we do not have enough to do big steps, but we doing baby steps, and I am quite certain we will get there,” she said.

Shortly after her comments, Councillor Bishram Kuppen reminded that at the previous statutory meeting he had recommended that the services of the mechanical road sweeper be discontinued.

“This is a complete waste of time. The Council can save money. I would recommend we discontinue the service of the road sweeper. The way road sweepers work, they have to sweep the parapets of the road, not the middle of the road, where all the dust accumulates. Most of the roads in Georgetown have vehicles parked on both sides, so I don’t know when they are sweeping, or what they are sweeping; but it’s a complete waste of the City’s money,” he declared.

Acting Mayor Sherod Duncan then pointed out that City Council is spending about $1M on portable toilets. He recalled that the Council had previously had many public conveniences built.

Councillor Oscar Clarke said he could see the need for the portable toilets, as many new parks are being made available but they do not have toilet facilities. “And so the cost for portable toilets has escalated. In the past, the Council had given contracts to private individuals to construct and operate sanitary facilities in certain parts of the City. Many of those private contractors and facilities have been so badly managed that people don’t want to use them. We have to relook at the whole question of maintaining the public facilities,” he said.

Councillor Malcolm Ferreira said he is not asking for the road sweeping to be discontinued, just for the bill to be justified. “This is the final time I am asking. It seems as though we ask, ask, ask, and no one sends or put forward…they only give us what they want us to have. So I am not going to ask again. I will go out in the fields and compile my report and submit it to the Council.

“I can’t interfere with their work, but I can monitor from afar, and cameras allow me to zoom right up to the closest inch. So I will compile a report on how much distance they cover and so, in order to justify the amount we spending each month.”

Councillor Akeem Peter questioned why the City Council could not look at purchasing its own portable toilets, instead of paying for rental each month; while Councillor Ivelaw Henry observed that a comprehensive review of the road sweeping is needed.

The acting Mayor concluded this discussion with a request that the administration report on the road sweeper, including the contract and scope of work, for attention of councillors at the next statutory meeting.

 

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