By Jeff Trotman
The proposed Digicel Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Linden will be a main agenda item when the Linden IMC holds its monthly statutory meeting today.
The proposed multi-million dollar project became immersed in controversy when a Special Buildings Committee of the Linden IMC put the project on hold one day after a sod turning ceremony.
Jacqueline James, Digicel’s Head of Marketing, along with Chairman of the Region Ten Democratic Council, Sharma Solomon; the Linden IMC Chairman, Orrin Gordon and Education Ministry representative, Evelyn Hamilton, participated in turning the sod, witnessed by representatives from the Linden Town Council, the Region Ten Education Department, stakeholders and students from several Linden schools.
The Linden IMC Chairman has expressed concern about an article in this newspaper that focused on the project being put on hold by the Special Buildings Committee of the town council a day after the sod turning ceremony because Digicel had requested to begin “preparatory” work before the architectural plan was submitted for approval. Gordon said, following the publication of the article, he had received telephone calls from several sources, including the Ministry of Local Government, pertaining to various matters related to the project.
But Eric Harry, the Linden IMC Vice Chairman, has opined that Gordon ought to be concerned because he wanted to fast track the project and if the “preparatory work” was done, the Ministry of Local Government would be reluctant to stop the project. According to Harry, except for the reserves along the roads in the town, the town council does not own any land and it has to seek permission from the Ministry of Local Government to give the green light to anyone to build on any plot of land in the town.
Harry said he was informed of the project some time ago when Digicel held initial talks with the Regional Chairman along with Evelyn Hamilton, representing the Ministry of Education. Harry said a different location had been designated for the project in the initial discussions and because of this, he did not read the letter when he signed along with twelve other councillors on the 8th of October to approve the project. Consequently, he was unaware that the location had been changed to the plot of land that had previously been allocated to the Legionnaires.
Arguing that the IMC Chairman tends to act on his own instead of operating by consensus, Harry said that he did not have prior knowledge of the sod turning ceremony and he doubted that most of the other members of the Linden IMC were informed about the exercise.
Alternative spot
Meanwhile, a number of Linden residents have expressed concern about constructing the rehabilitation centre on land that had previously been allocated to the Linden Branch of the Guyana Legionnaires. But the Chairman of the Linden IMC told Stabroek News that after the Legionnaires had not built anything on the land for 15 years, the Linden IMC gave the August body an alternative spot at 417 Independence Avenue. He said, again the Legionnaires failed to develop the spot and the town council subsequently gave that spot to the Ministry of Human Services.
Gordon said that another location would have to be found for the Legionnaires and the town council is bent on holding Digicel to a promise to assist the Legionnaires in constructing their building – even if it takes the Legionnaires the next fifteen years to be ready.
Meanwhile, one member of the Special Buildings Committee, Gordon Callendar, is adamant that the committee did not put the project on hold. “We say, yes, we want that building,” the APNU councillor said. “We don’t have a problem with that. Nobody on the Special Buildings Committee objected to that building. We would have said no objection to it before. But Digicel come now … and want to start building without a plan. We said to the Chairman (of the Special Buildings Committee) that Digicel will have to come with their plan before they start with their foundation. Every other person, who applies to build, has to have a plan; that is what we normally do. How could you now go and ask to do something without a plan – put in your foundation and what have you without a plan? Digicel could have their plan in quick time because they are a telephone giant and they could pay somebody to do their plan quick time and bring it.”
The Special Buildings Committee comprises four APNU councillors – Callendar, Charles Sampson, Harry and Nurse – and two PPP/C councillors – Orin Wilson and Eon Halls. According to Callendar, those two PPP/C councillors “get to the press and they give the press wrong information about the APNU Councillors”.
He said the Special Buildings Committee meetings deal strictly with residential or commercial building applications. He said the meeting on 16 October lasted for half hour and after the meeting, the Chairman, Eric Harry, read two correspondences. One was a request by the Police for permission to build an outpost on a plot of land at One Mile, Wismar, which the committee said should be sent to the Ministry of Local Government. The other, sent by the IMC Chairman, contained Digicel’s request for permission to begin preparatory work on the site of the proposed rehabilitation centre while awaiting the building plan to be completed and sent to the municipality for approval.
When asked if he had seen the letter, Callendar said, “no,” but the Chairman of the committee had read it aloud. Callendar added: “Regardless of the letter, all we are saying, they (Digicel) got to come up with the drawing or the plan for the building. What is written in the papers that people put thing on hold is wrong. Nobody ain’t put thing on hold”.
Harry said the person who gave him the letter while he was chairing the meeting had said that Digicel was requesting permission to start building the foundation of the building while the architect was preparing the plan. “What does preparatory work mean?” he asked before rationalizing that since the sod had already been turned at the site of the project, there was no need to request permission to do ordinary cleaning of the land.
