Is Restaurant Causing Problems for its Next Door Neighbour?
A Belize City woman claims that a next door restaurant has been creating all sorts of problems for her. Nicole Milton lives on Cemetery Road and she alleges that the smoke a restaurant is emitting is causing a thick layer of grease all her house. She told News Five that she has had to keep her house windows and doors closed six days out of the week. She alleges that the problem has been happening since 2017 and that the Public Health Department was slow in its response until she reached out to the department in Belmopan. She claims that the restaurant was ordered to stop cooking food until its smoke extractor system was fixed, but she claims that up to Wednesday they were still frying foods. Here’s how she explains the problem she is facing.
Nicole Milton
Nicole Milton, Cemetery Road Resident
“All the grease is coming into my house. If you notice, I have a lot of evidence and thing. I am complaining about this thing to Health from 2017, the eight of July. They come and they go nothing gets done. When you open the house the whole place get smoky. Then ih the sicken me, miss. I mi done have stomach issues in the past and it just makes it worse for me. I nuh change my curtain, miss, because every time you change the curtain, every time you open the window, this dah weh happen and the TV mess up . See, no dust but if I wipe the fan unu wah see the blackness come off deh. Only on Sunday I could open up my house and wash too because of the line. The line deh black and greasy and I have the cloth dehweh I wipe the line with. They not suppose to work the kitchen area until they get the thing fixed or weh them fi mi do but they still work it miss andthey mi only supposed to sell liquor. I tiad ah it, miss. This is all I di ask fi mek they please move that thing from there and put it on the side of the building. That is all I ask, miss. I tiad.”
On Thursday we inquired about the matter with the Public Health office in Belize City. They say that they’ve issued instructions to the restaurateur to install an extractor and only until that is done they can continue cooking in the establishment. The Public Health says on Wednesday they visited the establishment to check if the kitchen was being used, but they didn’t find any evidence of that. Earlier today, we also spoke with the owner of the building David Montero. He told us that he didn’t wish to give an interview, but that his tenants were not using the kitchen and were taking steps to address the problem.
