Says Cevons’, Puran’s to resume garbage collection from tomorrow
By Ramona Luthi
Town Clerk, Royston King on Thursday told INews that in an effort to sustainably develop the City, residents of Georgetown will be required to pay $100 for every barrel of garbage to be removed from their premises.
“Going forward, there are new proposals with respect to solid waste management including the fact that we are looking and asking all residents within the city to pay a small fee to help us collect domestic waste. The proposal is residents will be asked to pay $100 per barrel to remove garbage from their premises and to dispose of it at our landfill site,” he told this online publication.
According to King, this initiative will take effect from February 1, 2018.
This revelation came on heels of negotiations, on Thursday, between Solid Waste Contractors- Cevons’ Waste Management and Puran Brothers who had once again pulled their services, even though Central Government had cleared the over $300M debt owed by the City Council.
The disposal service providers initially pulled their services from Georgetown in August of 2017 over the M&CC’s failure to pay them more than $300 million owed since 2015.
The contractors had raised concerns over the fact that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), prior to today, did not engage them on their contractual services, even though Central Government had cleared City Hall’s debt and they had resumed their waste collection services for the remaining months of 2017.
King explained that, following a meeting with Cevons’ and Puran’s, they will re-commence their duties as at tomorrow (Friday), in accordance with the conditions and responsibilities outlined in their existing contract, which the Council had initially terminated.
“The contractors agreed to resume their operations within the City of Georgetown beginning tomorrow, January 5, 2018. They are working under the existing contract with all of the conditions and responsibilities of that particular legal document,” he said.
M&CC was unsuccessful in procuring an initial bailout of about $300 million from Central Government to pay the two contractors and later terminated their services in favour of smaller contractors to perform the garbage collection services, in addition to deploying their own garbage trucks to assist in clearing the commercial district.
Following months of impasse, with the M&CC failing to work out a strategy to settle their debts, another bailout of some $475,635,245 was requested from Central Government through the Ministry of Communities, to pay the two garbage collectors as well as another company, Dartmouth Skips rental.
On November 14, 2017, Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green said during a special meeting at City Hall, that she is prepared to beg and bargain for the two companies to recommence their garbage collection services in the city.
Moreover, the Mayor rejected assurances from Solid Waste Director, Walter Narine and the Town Clerk that the garbage situation was under control.
The Solid Waste Director had attempted to assure the Council that his department was handling the garbage situation, while the Town Clerk had cautioned against turning to Central Government for bailouts or financial contributions on a regular basis, saying it would dilute the Council’s authority.
However, the Mayor had said she was being told one thing and is seeing another. She had noted that the situation is not under control, since there was garbage piling up in the city.
“…well, I going and beg for a bailout, because these small contractors ain’t got the capacity…they don’t have the right trucks. Look at those open back trucks they are using; the city shouldn’t be allowing that,” Chase-Green had asserted.
During the latter part of 2017, Central Government intervened and paid off the outstanding monies owed to the two solid waste contractors.
Shortly after, the Town Clerk had withdrawn the termination letters issued to the two companies and requested that they return on board.
