As contractors discontinue garbage collection in the city
TOWN Clerk (Ag) Ms Yonnette Pluck is urging citizens to visit City Hall and pay their overdue rates and taxes so that the Council can pay up monies owed for garbage collection.

With residents of Georgetown resorting to burning and heaping up garbage on road corners, Pluck is urging all to bear with the Council until the issue of garbage collection can be sorted out.

In an invited comment, Pluck said she met with the garbage collection contractors yesterday in an effort to negotiate with them.

However, she stated that they were adamant that they need to be paid a similar amount to that paid to them last Wednesday before they resume the garbage collection.

Wednesday they were paid $5M; on that occasion Pluck said the Council managed to pay some $5M of the $24M owing to them.

Pluck also stated that the municipality is now vigorously pursuing all outstanding payments so that they can have more money to pay to the garbage collectors. She said taxes paid by citizens are the Council’s main source of revenue.

According to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), the two main refuse disposal services contracted by the municipality, Puran Brothers and Cevons Waste Management, have withdrawn their services due to $24M owed to them by the Council.

The City Treasurer had indicated to the contractors that a portion of the outstanding amount was available for payment. However, the contractors were not happy with the settlement and decided to discontinue their collection schedule.

In an earlier interview, Pluck told this newspaper that the system of persuading defaulters to pay their outstanding money is “a bit slow” and that the M&CC will be prosecuting several persons in the court.

Pluck exhorted everyone who owes to make payments, at least every three months, or go to City Hall and work out a payment plan with the Treasurer’s Department.