–hoping EU plan will not be shelved like others

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is hoping that the recent initiative taken by the European Union to fund the restoration of the iconic City Hall will not be like past ventures which were eventually shelved.

Last May, the European Union teamed up with the National Trust of Guyana to fund a two-day stakeholder workshop for the Comprehensive Restoration Plan and Sustainable Conservation Management Plan for City Hall.
Since then, Town Clerk Royston King said, the M&CC has not heard anything further about the plan, except that the National Trust and other stakeholders are studying it.
After so much money would have gone into the project, King said the M&CC is hoping that the restoration of the building will move forward this time around.

But the big question is where the City Council will find the more than $400 M needed to actually start the works. King is, however, optimistic that something will work out.
“We’re very anxious to push ahead with it and get something done about this building,” King said, adding that the M&CC is very optimistic that this is not just another case where the project amounts to only talks.

“We’re hoping that we can really push forward with the restoration. The building is really in an advanced state of deterioration and we need to move on with restoring the building,” he said.
Following the completion of the plan and its handing over to City Hall, phase two of the project will be to find funding to get the actual works done.

“Perhaps we will need to approach governmental agencies with this project; craft a plan to see how we can have funding, because the Council cannot fund this. We are struggling to do even basic things at this point; we will need everyone to make a contribution as we move forward,” King had expressed at the launching of the plan.

Based on a report obtained from City Engineer Colvern Venture, the most immediate works will include repairs to the roof and windows.
Come July 1, the building will be 129 years old and it has been in occupational use by Mayor Patricia Chase-Green since 1994. She expressed how she watched the building deteriorate year after year but was helpless. “We had so many consultations and promises, and so we became frustrated,” she said.

Chase-Green said they have been trying with the building for more than 20 years now, and spoke about the extent of its deterioration by pointing out how pieces of the building are always falling off and shoe heels often stick in the floors.
She also described City Hall as a fire hazard, and said with even a loose wire, it can go up in flames within a second.

The Guyana Fire Service had advised M&CC officers to move out of the building but the workers were later told that it would have deteriorated faster if everyone left.
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told the Guyana Chronicle recently that the Service did some inspection on the building back in 2015 and made some recommendations. He noted that urgent steps are needed to rectify the problems there, and that the Service is standing by its recommendations.

The building has obviously gotten worse from 2015 to now, to the point where even from a layman’s view, there are clear signs of structural deficiencies.
Gentle observed that the current state of the building can pose a danger not only to M&CC staff, but to citizens going to transact business at City Hall as well.