Workers from the Ministry of Public Works visited the partly constructed Cubana disaster monument at the junction of Camp and Lamaha streets yesterday in what appeared to be an attempt to remove the controversial structure.
The move prompted Mayor Hamilton Green to sit on the unfinished monument, refusing to move.
Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn told Stabroek News however that he sent people to assess the best way to remove the structure and not to pull it down.
At the site yesterday a hymac with the public works logo was parked nearby but was sent away by Public Works Supervisor Wainwright Hicks, who was also on site.
Speaking to Stabroek News after the incident the Mayor said that he was told that workers would have demolished the concrete foundation around 11 am yesterday.
He visited the site then and returned at 1 pm when the Public Works people were there. Other persons on the streets joined the mayor and sat alongside him on the structure.
Green also told Stabroek News that he would give the go ahead to the contractors if they are willing to continue with the project, since he maintains that the land is in the purview of City Hall. Green stated that for “donkey years” the piece of land that the monument is being built on has been looked after by City Hall. “We have been criticized for that land…(but the city) has maintained it for years,” Green told Stabroek News.
On the other hand Benn reiterated yesterday that the monument will have to be removed from the site. “The size of the monument makes it unsafe for the area,” Benn said. The minister said that he cannot allow a structure of the specified dimensions to be at an area with such a heavy flow of traffic. “It’s a declared public road and it’s our liability”, he said.
Green said too that the argument about the monument being an impediment at the junction is an absurdity. He said the monument would be some 30 feet away from the intersection; the western carriageway of Camp Road is quite wide and the intersection is regulated by traffic lights.
“Even if the lights aren’t working the monument will not pose a traffic hazard,” Green argued. He said that there a number of educational institutions close by to the north of the site, and the lesson of the ills of terrorism can be taught. Green said that this was the theme of his address in 2006 when he had proposed the plot of land.
He said further that he has spoken to the sponsors of the project and off site work has been moving apace. The mayor conveyed however that the sponsors do not wish to get involved in what is perceived as a political battle. “It has to be something deeper,” Green contended “because this site was earmarked two years ago…why didn’t they see it then, he added.
Construction work on the monument to honour the Guyanese victims of the 1976 Cubana Air disaster was halted last Wednesday afternoon by Minister Benn, much to the displeasure of Mayor Green.
Benn has since said that several alternative sites including the National Park, the Botanical Gardens and the University of Guyana are being examined.
