CITY Engineer Gregory Erskine announced yesterday that the municipality will be executing several works over the next few weeks.
But he said he had no idea of the cost involved although some of the jobs have already started. “To be honest, we still have not worked out the cost as yet. We are still working on that. As the exercise continues, we will put a cost to it and we will get that figure to you,” Mr. Erskine told a press conference.
Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort said she could not comment on the financial sourcing for the undertakings since some may have been covered in previous budgets.
She had promised to give details within half hour of being called but attempts to contact her later proved futile.
Replacement of bridge rails, trimming of trees, weeding of parapets, cleaning of drains and canals and replacing manhole covers are among the projects Erskine mentioned.
He said the areas of focus include, D’Urban, Bent, Church, Irving and Cummings Streets and North Road; as well as the wards of Tucville and Wortmanville, North and South Cummingsburg and  Queenstown.
The works are expected to spruce up the city, to some extent, for the Mashramani celebrations.
Erskine said, for 2011, the Mayor and City Council (MCC) was able to garner revenue totalling close to $3M from the rental of spots along the Mash Parade route, particularly in the Merriman Mall and that money was sent to the City Treasury.
According to him, after the recent inclement weather, water that lodged along several roadways caused them to erode and the Ministry of Public Works and the Council will be pooling resources to address that problem.
The ministry will provide the asphalting materials while the Council would ensure that there is enough manpower and equipment available, he stated.
Erskine lamented that some of the jobs already begun had to be stopped because of the rainfall in the latter part of January. He cited the canal at East and West Front Road from where an excavator had to be diverted to another location to mitigate flooding.