Garbage stench subsides as temporary deal brokered

Emotions were running high on Tuesday when Belize Waste Control’s employees protested at City Hall. The demonstration was called off today and both parties are still at the negotiating table.  But for now, there is a temporary agreement between the BWC and City Hall. It means that garbage collection services will resume even though the debt stands at half a million dollars and is piling up. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Employees of Belize Waste Control Ltd. were back on the streets this morning following a one-day protest that saw them marching on City Hall on Tuesday.  This time around however, it was business as usual as they went about their job of collecting the city’s trash.  In light of a recent cash flow problem within the municipal government that led to CitCo defaulting on three months payments to the sanitation company both parties have reached a mutual agreement that will see garbage collection resuming its full schedule as of Thursday.

George Lamb, General Manager, BWC

“The council had made two payments [for] two weeks that is and that would enable us to really jumpstart the service and get over the hump.  However, we are still in negotiation and we are hoping to come to an understanding before the day is out as to how the council will go about addressing the arrears.  It has been mentioned that the council would like to make good on its arrears payment by the end of February next year.  So we are hoping that if they can put that in writing and give that to us that would be a good thing.”

Phillip Willoughby

The temporary solution comes on the heels of failed negotiations with CitCo’s financial controller Patrick Tillett on Tuesday.  During that meeting BWC executives and Tillett were at an impasse over future payments to reduce the outstanding bill.  Today Deputy Mayor Phillip Willoughby stepped in to broker a deal with the company.

Phillip Willoughby, Deputy Mayor, Belize City

“We have the wider public, an obligation to the wider public and that is where now fair play with negotiation has to come in.  A compromise has to be set and sought by both Belize Waste Control and the council and that was made and we move forward with the relationship that we have because I think we have a good working relationship.”

Despite mending fences Lamb says they were not totally pleased with the result of the negotiation.

George Lamb

george lamb

“I would not want to say we were a hundred percent satisfied with the outcome of it but let me just comment on what the councilor said, the deputy mayor said a while ago that we decided after not being able to come to some solution with Mr. Tillett.  The buck stops with the councilor and the council and so we decided [on] going to the deputy mayor because they are answerable to the people.  The people are calling Belize Waste Control wanting to know when would this something be done so we felt that we could get a hard answer from the deputy mayor and the mayor and going further than Mr. Tillett resulted in that.”

Of the half million dollars owed to BWC the city council has provided payments for two weeks labor, a paltry sum of roughly eighty four thousand dollars.  The rest, Willoughby says, will be defrayed over time using a payment plan that should also see the council saving significantly.

Phillip Willoughby

“There will be a silver lining behind the dark cloud in the very near future and hopefully at the expiration date of one of the sanitation contracts we will be seeing some major or huge significant savings from the Council’s part as far as our cash flow position will go.  And then we’ll look at how we move forward in providing additional services to the city but looking at what is on the books currently, the log, if we down the road we are saying that our cost saving, our base will save seventy-five thousand plus a week providing that the residents take up the responsibility to ensure, that is on the law, on the books, to clean in front of your territory, your yard and so forth.”

Late this afternoon, garbage trucks were already making their routes along the main streets collecting refuse that accumulated across the city since last Thursday. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

In the north side collection began today and on Thursday the garbage will be picked up on the other side of the city.