TOWN Clerk Royston King has warned citizens to stop tampering with the manhole covers in Georgetown, saying that such illegal acts only plunge City Hall into deeper financial woes.

From all reports, the manhole vandals have been versatile in their acts.
“When we make them of wood, people use them for fire; when we make them of metal, they take them to the scrap metal dealers,” King lamented.

According to him, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has already engaged Brass Aluminum and Cast Iron Foundry (BACIF) Limited to make covers with some other kind of material, and with locks, so that they cannot be stolen.

King also lamented that motorists have been driving into City rails causing severe damage to them and often get off scot-free, leaving the M&CC to foot the repair bills.
The town clerk, who was at the time speaking at the fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall on Monday, said one of the bridge rails on Avenue of the Republic had been broken and repaired twice in the past.

It has remained in a broken state after it was hit the third time.
King said people are also in the habit of destroying the rails by tying their animals to them.

Mayor Patricia Chase-Green suggested that the M&CC should collaborate with the Traffic Department of the Guyana Police Force so that the Council can be informed of certain accidents and the drivers made liable for damages.

Contractors who repaired the bridges during the ‘Jubilee’ celebration period are yet to be paid for their work, King said.