It is nice to know that the Water and Sewerage Department building will soon be restored. I wonder if the WSD director and the new minister of transportation, works and utilities had a chance to discuss whether financing would be available to purchase some new meters. This would enable them to reconnect supplies damaged by the hurricanes and to reconnect new properties. This would not only improve the department’s income but would give the staff something to do instead of sitting around chatting all day.
Gov’t projects
I find some media reports confusing. Reading between the lines it would appear that no work has actually started on the West End ferry dock, the Bregado Flax Educational Centre, the Elmore Stoutt High School or the Department of Disaster Management building. Is this so? It’s only 18 months since the hurricanes and we are nowhere near restoring normal service, let alone making us bigger, better and stronger.
Meanwhile, I note that the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College has partnered with the University of the Virgin Islands, and that the UVI is developing a school of medicine. Does that mean that we no longer have need for a medical school here, which was supposed to start in February?
Incinerator story
The Beacon’s story on the state of the incinerator makes for worrying reading. So we paid $500,000 for a scrubber that has never been provided? Sound familiar anyone?
The whole project was doomed from the start. The access to the locally constructed building was not big enough for the incinerator to get inside. Nobody realised they had to go to the factory to test the assembled plant before shipment. Nobody provided funds for shipment. Somebody thought a scrubber was not necessary.
And do any heads roll over these debacles? Of course not! And then the incinerator is allowed to catch fire! And not in the way it is meant to operate. You could not make it up!
Derelict vehicles
It is good to see that more scrap cars and metal are being cleared up and removed. But Sea Cows Bay must be immune. There are still hundreds of cars and boats needing to be removed. Some are on private land, but that should not be a deterrent.
I expect most of our new premier’s travels so soon after his appointment were leftovers from the previous administration. I hope the list runs out soon and he concentrates on business at home.
Happy Easter, everyone!