City Centre gets tested by water

With the arrival of a brand new court for the Belize City Centre, preparations for hosting the upcoming CARICOM games have moved into maximum over drive. As News Five’s Arreini Palacio reports, organizers today turned up the pressure on the venue for the games.

The Belize City Centre compound was overcome by fire trucks this morning, but the building wasn’t on fire. The presence of so much machinery was just to test the brand new roof that has just been added to the sporting complex. The National Sports Council enlisted the help of the Fire Service as they prepare for next month’s regional basketball tournament.

Raymond Lashley, Chairman of National Sports Council

“Well as you know we are preparing for the CARICOM Games and we would want for seven or eight countries to come and we have a shower of rain and we have to postpone the games because of rain.”

And when mother nature does not cooperate with man’s best laid plans, it’s time to roll in the next best thing to a rain shower.

Raymond Lashley

“What happen is the contractor was employed to stop the leaking because it has been leaking for the past five, six years. When that was completed in order to see if he had done a good job or not we had to find some way to know if he did a good job or not.”

And the contractor couldn’t have been more satisfied with the results of the test.

Delphin Garnett, Contractor

“Oh yes it was pretty successful. As the test will show there are only a few drips. We attribute that to the fire hose pouring on down pipes and breaking the seal.”

The resealing process took three weeks to complete and included major maintenance work on the entire roof.

Delphin Garnett

“Well we use asphalt sealants on the whole structure and we changed to the gutter. And if you look at the structure of the Civic the new building was built and the original building was built to accommodate water from half the building which is this side here.”

Now that the test is over and the report card is in, Garnett says his return to the roof will be easier this time round.

Delphin Garnett

“We just need to go recheck the pipes and that is an hour and a half work.”

And then it will be safe to lay down the country’s brand new basketball court. Arreini Palacio for News Five.