The city’s departments which had their power cut off recently in a row over money had their electricity restored yesterday following fruitful discussions between the Mayor and City Council and the power company.
Town Clerk Beulah Williams yesterday met with Guyana Power and Light executives and according to her the two are making headway in putting an end to the ongoing dispute. “We paid them some money and so our lights have been reconnected and our discussions were good and so we promise to pay as we go along,” she said. However the Town Clerk did not reveal the details of the discussions but assured this reporter that some progress was being made in bringing the dispute to a closure. Meanwhile in relation to the contention between the two as to who owes who, Williams said yesterday’s discussions also covered this area and the council and GPL will decide further with respect to an exchange of cheques. However this part of the matter still rests in the hands of the courts and, according to the Town Clerk, that is where the final decision will be made. The council had accused the power company of not honouring its financial obligation to the municipality while GPL said the council had reneged on its 2005 payment deal. The dispute caused many of the council’s facilities to suffer from more than a month of power outages and forced the use of generators. Teachers and children at the municipality’s daycare centres were also forced to endure days without electricity and workers at the Kingston abattoir were also forced to work under unhygienic conditions. The frequency with which animals were slaughtered also had to be reduced.
CWC preparations
Now that the Guyana Labour Union has put strike action on the back burner pending early payment of the 50% of the one-off payment for workers, and with its lights back on, the city council is now apparently back in the mood for talking about its Cricket World Cup (CWC) preparations. Mayor Hamilton Green yesterday hosted a press conference with some officials from the council but without a representative from the council’s treasury department to shed some light on the council’s current finances. Neverthe-less, Green shared proposals to engage the cooperation of several groups to assist the council in its beautifying efforts. He said he hopes to engage educational institutions, corporate bodies and the business community as well as political and social groups so they will appreciate the important role that they must play in ensuring that the city is kept clean even after the efforts. “We can spend millions and unless the citizenry is sensitive to and involved in the efforts they are unlikely to help us maintain it,” the mayor asserted.
He said these engagements have already started in a small way and should intensify come next week. The mayor also pointed out that the council is continuing works in several areas in the city including in the environs of the National Cultural Centre to prevent flooding and noted too that works were also ongoing in Hadfield Street, Lodge.
Green said the Lamaha Street Canal is also currently being desilted while the maintenance of alleyways in Lacytown is also ongoing.
Additionally, the council said it is keeping a keen eye out for those persons who insist on dumping garbage in those areas already cleaned and made a call for business places to make use of certified garbage disposal services.
The council, Mayor Green said, is also continuing with its old-building demolition exercise. Shortly too, the council hopes to work on cleaning up and beautifying the 1763, the Queen Victoria and Non-Alignment monuments.
The Environmental Pro-tection Agency is also expected to play a part in the efforts specifically with inscribing the scientific names of the trees that line the Main Street avenue.
The government is playing a greater role in the clean-up efforts for CWC since the council found itself in a financial crisis. (Heppilena Ferguson)
