Dear Editor,
Now that we have had the national budget read and analyzed and found to have a focus on improving lives and creating opportunities for all Guyanese, the citizens of Georgetown now have to await, and we hope for not much longer, the presentation of the city’s budget to see what the municipality has in store for us.
If I could make a few recommendations in the meanwhile as there is never any consultation with the citizenry, on the expenditure side, I would like to suggest that they consider rehabilitating and refurbishing the municipal slaughterhouse on Water Street, so that it could be transformed into a modern abattoir and meat processing factory, with proper waste management, and in compliance with environmental laws, so as to ensure the supply of safe and hygienic meat to the Guyanese consumers and even for export, with minimum manual handling.
Second, they should allocate funds for the construction of a municipal swimming pool. Swimming pools are important facilities for exercises, such as swimming laps and water aerobics. Pools provide opportunities for educational purposes, swimming lessons, lifeguard training, swim teams and various competitions; they serve the needs of persons who have medical conditions and/or injuries. Pools provide spaces for social interaction, relaxation and stress relief. Pools have the ability to bring diverse groups of people together. A lot of Guyana’s swimming stars got their start at the Luckhoo pool which existed for some 25 years.
Third, the Council should put aside sums for the purchase of a modern fleet of garbage trucks so they could return to providing refuse collection and disposal services themselves and stop wasting hundreds of millions of dollars each year on high priced contractors. This would lead to considerable savings, and the provision of a superior service like it was when Georgetown was a ‘Garden City’. Fourth, the municipality should allocate monies in 2023 to restoring the City Police Training Centre. The City Police are badly in need of training to be better prepared emotionally, physically and technically to meet the herculean challenges of modern-day law enforcement.
Fifth, monies urgently needs to be allocated to saving the Stabroek Market wharf from a total collapse into the Demerara River. Sums also need to be allotted to restoring municipal Day Care services, stray animal control, installation of new street lighting and repair or replacement of old dysfunctional ones. A large chunk of the budget needs to be allotted to rodent and vector control, road building and repairs, weeding of parapets and clearing of drains, towards automating and computerizing of their services to change from the current archaic procedures that requires persons to go inline rather than being allowed to go online to receive them.
And sixth, but certainly not least, financial provisions ought to be made for the transformation of the cemeteries from their current inaccessible, scary, dangerous jungle like state into facilities that would allow relatives to visit their deceased loved ones without having to take along a chainsaw, armed security and portable bridges. Should they present a budget to address those issues, and guarantee citizens that every dollar received and expended would be subjected to external auditing, then I am sure everyone, including the business and governmental sectors, would be happy to pay up their property rates and other municipal fees in a most timely manner.
Sincerely,
Riley Matthews
