CitCo Workers to Receive Parcels of Land

Darrell Bradley

Earlier, we showed you Mayor Darrell Bradley engaged in the very spirited defense of the Council’s finances. But there’s more than that going on at the Council. Bradley is also working on a land deal where CitCo workers will get a piece of the jewel. He told News Five today that the initiative has been in the pipeline for some time now.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“This is actually something that we have been working on for the last year. We were working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and they had given us fifty acres of land along mile fourteen on the George Price Highway. And what we were doing in relation to that is we were looking at the amount of parcels that we can divide for each employee and it would be a reward for their years of service. This is something that we’ve already announced to our staff and we have formed a committee that is made up of our technical personnel including Miss Sharlene Rudon from the HR Department, Mister Troy Smith who deals with our properties for the City Council and then also our Director of Finance to see how the parcels will be configured. The idea is that we would want to give people who would have been working for the City Council for at least a minimum of two years so that it is a reward for their years of service. There are some practical difficulties that we were encountering which is why it’s kinda taking us so long. We are working with several surveyors in terms of surveying the land and then the land is off the road—quite considerably because it was a piece of property that was gifted to the city. We have actually spent no City Council resources in acquiring the property so that we had to deal with certain issues and challenges that that presents itself in how we will get electricity in the area and other things like that to benefit our staff. The committee is working on all of those attendant issues. We were going to do the distribution by way of a lottery so that no staff member can complain that anyone was favored in relation to the selection of their parcels and this would be for staff who have worked with the council for over two years.”