New Region Ten Chairman Rennis Morian is supporting a call by the Linden municipality for the reopening of the Kara Kara toll booth, which he says can fund road repairs.
In his inaugural address as Regional Chairman on Tuesday, Morian said trucks passing through Region Ten with heavy loads, including timber, earth moving equipment and fossil fuel, cause tremendous damage to the roads within Linden, the region and on extended portions of the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
He also said he visits the United States, where road tolls are used to repair roads. “Hence the toll from Kara Kara should be channeled directly into a road rehabilitation programme,” he further said, while pointing out that excluding the roads to Kwakwani and Lethem, over 125 miles of roads need to be fixed within the region.
The toll was stopped by the former PPP/C government, much to the chagrin of cash-strapped Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Linden Town Council, which depended on the funds. The then Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker had sent a letter to the Town Council stating that any town council employee who manned the booth would be dismissed immediately and anybody employed to work there would be charged with extortion.
Morian also said the toll collected at the Mackenzie/Wismar Bridge must go to the Linden IMC and be used for specific programmes. “We want to work in harmony with the other bodies in the region, especially the town council,” Morian said. “We want to work assiduously [to ensure] that the monies that go to NICIL from the bridge based on the Bridge Act… go to the town council,” he added.
Meanwhile, concerning the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, Morian said none of the contractors engaged to clear vegetation along the highway come from Region Ten. As a result, he plans to send a proposal to the Ministry of Communities for all cleaning and weeding within Region Ten to be done by people from the Region.
Morian also observed that Linden has an abundance of scrap metal and indicated that he wants to present a proposal to the government to use the proceeds from the sale of scrap metal to set up a bitumen plant in the region. He said the bitumen plant could be a long term project that provides materials and employment for all weather roads from Linden to Kwakwani and Lethem as well as other roads in Linden and other parts of the region.
Morian also wants attention to be placed on disaster preparedness. According to him, unknown to many, there is a company in Region Ten that is dumping toxic waste in the community – a situation that emphasises the need for a disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation programme. He said that he would present a concept note to the government that there should be a disaster preparedness committee in the Region.
Touching broadly on the Region’s Works Department, the new Chairman said because of its topography, Region Ten is faced with drainage and erosion problems that need keen attention. At the same time, he assured that no one contractor will get as many as seven contracts at the same time.
