Moblissa residents have been advised to establish a toll point for lumber trucks that pass through the community. Regional Chair-man of Region Ten, Sharma Solomon, made the suggestion at a community meeting with the residents on Sunday.
Noting that St Cuthbert’s Mission has such a facility, Solomon pointed to a truck that was laden with lumber and was passing by the open air meeting. “These people should not be driving through your community and not paying something for damaging your road,” he declared.
Pointing out that most of the trucks come from the Intermediate Savannahs and all the way up the Berbice River Area, the Regional Chairman said, “You should establish a toll so that the money you get from these trucks that traverse your road can repair your road.”
Recalling that the Moblissa residents had to protest vehemently to get Bai Shan Lin to repair the road which it had damaged, Solomon said, “Now you have lumber trucks traversing your road and damaging it.”
He pointed out that the Region Ten administration does not have money to fix the Moblissa road and when it had last requested funding for the road, the money – $40M – came out of LEAP under the rubric of fixing a farm road in a farming community.
Stressing that the people in the community have to preserve their road, or they would have to endure the pain of a bad road, Solomon noted that as farmers they travel in much lighter vehicles than the lumber trucks.
He suggested that the toll point could be erected by the bridge at the creek. He recalled that when the bridge was damaged, it was the Moblissa residents, who had fixed it themselves even though government officials had brought in two culverts to place beneath the bridge but the culverts were never used.
“Now you fixed your bridge and big trucks coming through to damage it again,” Solomon said as he reiterated that the Moblissa community can use the money that is collected from the toll to fix the road as the need arises.
The Regional Chairman said the community’s leaders should visit St Cuthbert’s Mission to view at firsthand how the toll point operates there and to be advised on aspects of the operation of the toll point.
