M&CC appeals to city residents to use garbage collection system in place

…as rainy season looms
BECAUSE the May/June rainy season has already started, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is again urging citizens, and businesses in particular, to make use of the system in place for garbage collection, and to desist from paying ‘social rejects’ to dump the refuse just about anywhere.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green made this appeal when she spoke to this newspaper in an invited comment yesterday. She said garbage has always been a concern for the municipality, and this is moreso now that the rainy season is here.
“People need to stop dumping (their garbage) and comply with the system in place to collect garbage,” she stressed.
Chase-Green went on to suggest that owners of businesses who miss the garbage trucks that go around in the afternoons should keep the refuse in bags for the council to remove “first thing in the morning.
Littering has long been an issue for the City Council, and has been described by officials, some years ago, as the “single most challenging issue that has been plaguing the municipality”.
None of the initiatives tried by council has so far proved fruitful in ending the city’s garbage woes.
One official of the council, who preferred anonymity, told this newspaper on Monday that Mayor Hamilton Green continues to “hamstring” (to destroy, hinder or frustrate the efficiency of) the entire City Council with the powers vested in him.
Certain officers, the source explained, are shielded from wrongdoing by the mayor, and thus they are “running things” in the council without having to account to anyone. As a result, funds that the council can use for developmental works in the city are often unaccounted for.
Very little is needed for Georgetown to remain clean, the source pointed out, noting that people willing to work and be paid by the council could easily be tasked with keeping a certain section of the city clean. If the work is not done satisfactorily, then the council could simply not pay the individual, the source reasoned.
Just recently, the City Constabulary launched an anti-littering campaign that, it said, sees officers “lurking” around on city streets to catch persons in the act of littering. The campaign was a new plan by the constabulary to rid the city of its litter bugs, and officers in plain clothes were mandated to arrest persons caught in the act.
The exercise began last October, but was halted for a while because officers were diverted to other work around the elections period.
Deputy Chief Constable Trevor Merriman, however, said last month that the exercise is now back on stream, and that there will be no pardoning of persons caught littering.
“Littering is now a country wide thing. Everyone knows they should not litter, so we will not be taking any excuses.
“Littering is something we have been fighting with (for) a very long time. When one may want to believe that there is no constabulary presence out there, don’t make the mistake and throw anything out there…because you will be arrested.
“Once you’re arrested and brought in here, there will be a zero tolerance (policy in effect), and you will be taken before the court, and you will have to pay a fine,” Merriman warned.
The Constabulary officers are working at strategic locations, including on Regent, Water and King Streets, as well as at Stabroek and Cuffy Squares.
Those caught littering will be made to pay a fine of $7,500.
Merriman also appealed to business owners to use the system that the council has in place, as their will be “no excuses (and) no pardons.” He disclosed that there will be a special arrangement in place for those business owners who feel they could dump garbage in the nights.
He said the Council “is still hoping that one day” authorities will see the need for the Council to have its own municipal court.

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