IN an effort to aid sanitation in Georgetown, Cabinet granted a sum of $56M to improve various communities in the city.

Minister in the Local Government Ministry, Mr. Norman Whittaker made this disclosure at a press conference Friday at the ministry’s headquarters at Kingston.
Whittaker said that from this $56M, $41M was given to the Ministry of Public Works, leaving the Ministry of Local Government with 15M to carry out their part of the exercise.
He pointed out that this money was used to assist in improving the aesthetics of Georgetown as well as the sanitation.
He added that contrary to the views expressed by some members of the City Council, this exercise was never intended to be and was never a part of the Restoration of Georgetown Project.
Minister Whittaker pointed out that this is a part of a continual clean-up exercise.
He explained that the City Council took responsibility for the sanitation of commercial areas of Georgetown, while some of the other wards were delegated to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.
He noted that he was very pleased when he inspected some of the areas, for example, Agricola and McDoom communities.
Whittaker said he observed that a majority of the workers were females and they were very happy to be involved in providing a cleaner environment and to be working for government.
He said that he also visited the Riverview area and was pleased to see a woman taking the lead role in the activity as she was the supervisor. Whittaker added that this exercise was given a lot of help by the Community Development Councils (CDCs) in the various areas.
He said further, that in addition to controlling vegetation, focus was placed extensively on drainage. And in the areas of Lodge and Mc Doom, the residents agreed on having members of the City Council spearhead the actual work – one such person was Head of the Works Committee, Mr Ranwell Jordan.
He explained that what was done was simply an exercise to work with the City Council and not to seek aggrandisement, but to improve the conditions under which people lived.
He concluded that the ministry will continue to support the work of the council in the broader interest of the general public as well as for sanitation and tourism.