Previous PPP/C administrations had an odious reputation where Georgetown was concerned, since citizens felt the city was being penalised for political reasons. Symbolic of this approach was the fact that the historic City Hall building was allowed to fall into a shocking state of disrepair, although that was, arguably, more a comment on the governing party’s philistinism than on its political fixations. Certainly former President David Granger when he came to office expressed great concern about the state of City Hall, although the City Council, absorbed as it was with parking meter contracts in particular, took its time about reorienting its attention to that urgent issue.
It would have been a matter of some interest to those who live in Georgetown, therefore, when we reported a meeting between newly appointed Minister of Local Government Nigel Dharamlall and Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine, with a view to establishing a good working relationship between the ministry and the M&CC. At a press conference, the Minister said that the development of the city was at the forefront of the ministry’s plans, and to that end an inter-ministerial committee would be set up to work closely with the residents of Georgetown.
Exactly how this will dovetail with what the City Council does, considering it is the elected body which is answerable to the inhabitants of Georgetown, was not made clear, although the Minister did say the two sides discussed the question of a modus operandi. For his part, Mr Narine gave the media a synopsis of what had been discussed, which topics included the rehabilitation of City Hall, and the construction of a building to house administrative staff not just during the period of restoration, but also in the long term.
Technically speaking, the City Hall building itself as a heritage structure is the responsibility of the National Trust, which does not fall under the Ministry of Local Government. However, it has been the home of the Mayor and City Council for more than 130 years, and it would be nothing short of a scandal if it were allowed to fall into ruin. This would represent a catastrophe from which no government on watch at the time would recover in a hurry, and for which the Minister holding the local government portfolio would have to take responsibility. As such, Minister Dharamlall has a vested interest in applying his mind to how the necessary funds can be raised for rehabilitation in as short a period as is viable, and collaborating with the M&CC to ensure the work is done.
Unfortunately the estimated sum is enormous, and this can certainly not be met in its entirety, or anywhere near it, from the local budget. Since so much would have to be sourced internationally, there will be great challenges at the present time given the global pandemic.
In the latter part of 2018 the price-tag for restoration was estimated at US$4.3 million. This was according to the Comprehensive Restoration and Sustainable Conservation Management Plan for City Hall, which had been funded by the European Union at a cost of $64 million. That plan was submitted in October 2018. One can only remark that in 2010 then Mayor Hamilton Green had said that $400 million was required for repairs. It is a lesson for all governments about the dangers of procrastination when restoring historic edifices.
Subsequently, at the end of that year, the building’s restoration featured in the budget estimates for 2019. During the debate, then Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan said that phased restoration works would be done on City Hall, the funds coming from the $300 million allocated to the Georgetown Development Programme. He also told the House: “I am aware that there have been offers from external sources …to help with the restoration of that building.”
That of course was before the vote of no confidence in December when government attention was entirely redirected to the matter of avoiding the consequences of the vote. Whatever work was done on City Hall in 2019 no intimation of this trickled into the public domain, and since the caretaker government passed no budget for 2020, no work could have been undertaken this year, and neither was it in a position to seek overseas funding. One presumes, therefore, that the new Minister and the M&CC are facing the same situation as existed in 2018, except that there presumably has been further structural deterioration in the interim.
During the period when reconstruction work is underway, the administrative offices of the M&CC, as well as the council itself would have to be housed elsewhere. As noted above, Mayor Narine also raised with the Minister the matter of a new administrative building. The issue goes back more than two decades when it was decided that the Treasury department in addition to administration should be permanently accommodated in a building in the compound behind City Hall. The foundations for such a structure were then embarked on, but as is typical of the City Council, then everything stalled. Although the issue has come up periodically since, it has become a much more urgent matter in recent times.
Former Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said two years ago that City Hall was in such a dire state that the Guyana Fire Service had asked them to evacuate it. They couldn’t do that, she said, or else it would have deteriorated further. Two years ago as well, City Engineer Colvern Venture had advised the council to move within five months. While the building could be used for five months, he was reported as saying, regular assessments of its decay would have to be conducted. “[T]his floor [where the council meets] and the ground [floor)] can be occupied but there will be discomfort because of the leakages,” he was quoted as saying.
It might be noted that the experts who produced the restoration plan said that water damage was one of the major factors for the current state of the building and its ongoing decay.
It was decided not to rent a building when renovation was in progress, because the council could not afford it, and it made better economic sense to invest in a new structure which could then be used on a permanent basis. During the debate for the 2019 budget, then Minister Bulkan had announced that $75 million was to be allocated for the construction of such a building, and when pressed, answered he expected it to be built during 2019. As is known, it wasn’t, which is why it is back on the current Mayor’s agenda in his first interaction with the Minister.
The question arises as to the aesthetics of such a building, since it would be erected in the existing compound. Acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe told this newspaper in 2018 that City Hall “is a historic building and not the compound. In the past, the identified location had a fire station and a building to house the public health department.” She was talking nonsense of course. In the first place it doesn’t matter what was there before, that does not justify committing aesthetic violence now; and in the second, any ugly excrescence in the compound will of course diminish the aesthetic features of City Hall itself. Of course it will not be possible to replicate the lines and flourishes of Fr Scoles’s creation; it could just be a plain building. But it must not stand out, and above all else, it must not jar. It would have to be in harmony at some level with the other buildings which grace the compound.
The point is, the whole City Hall restoration and associated building is such a massive project that central government will have to take the lead. The Ministry has no time to waste in getting an administrative structure underway, and most of all, in raising funds with some urgency for the first phase of City Hall’s restoration. It owes that much not just to Georgetown, but to the nation as a whole. It is an item of material heritage which belongs to all of us. As a signal of good intentions the government might start with an allocation in the upcoming budget.