A NUMBER of city councillors on Monday approved the announcement by Town Clerk, Royston King that businesses will be charged between $5000 and $12,000 for the collection and disposal of their garbage as of September 1.

People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Councillor, Bishram Kuppen, raised the issue of the matter coming to the Council for a vote before the rates could have been announced, but Mayor Patricia Chase-Green reminded that the rates were already voted upon when councillors voted in favour of the budget.  “In the budget for the Solid Waste Director, it was $5000, $10,000 and $15,000.

After consultation it was reduced to $5000, $8000 and $12,000, which is reasonable. So we didn’t need to go back to a vote on it because we would have reduced. If we were going to a higher fee other than what was agreed upon in the budget; that would have had to come to the council to agree and change our figures,” Chase-Green explained.  Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran offered that $5000 a month for garbage collection is not too much to pay.

“I think it is a very fair fee. I don’t think many businessmen will complain about it,” he said. Director of Solid Waste Walter Narine, during a presentation at the statutory meeting observed that $5000 when broken down, really amounts to businesses paying a mere $161 a day for garbage removal.

“I challenge you to walk down Regent Street, Water Street, Robb Street this afternoon and you will see the amount of refuse that they (businesses) are putting out. And 98 percent of them do not have receptacles,” Narine said.

The amount of garbage to be picked up has increased, he said, especially since there is no longer a market for cardboard in the city and hence the M&CC is tasked with removing those as well.

Narine said his department has done its homework and hence knows the size of every business and under which category (large, medium, or small) they will fall. “Ask any private contractor to pick up waste from any business for $161 a day and see if they will do that,” Narine further argued.

He said ever since the two major garbage contractors withdrew their services on July 30, every ward in Georgetown has received at least one clearance per week. “We are doing much better now that the smaller contractors know the streets. We are on schedule and I think we are doing a fair job.”  Meanwhile, M&CC has said that the council must expend in excess of $50M per month to dispose of the city’s waste.

Explaining why a separate fee for garbage collection has become necessary, M&CC said: “In reality, the council is subsidising the collection and disposal of the city’s waste. However, the council could no longer sustain this on its current very narrow revenue base, it has to broaden its revenue base.

It was noted that while solid waste management is vital to the good health and well-being of citizens and their local neighbourhoods, the Council is not prepared to compromise this aspect of its statutory responsibility even in the face of financial and other shortages.”