GOB promises to fix flooded streets in Port
They say that it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease…and today it looks like last week’s cacophony produced by area rep Boots Martinez in Port Loyola did not go unnoticed by some politicians with the power to provide help. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has more.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Most of the flood waters have receded in the Jane Usher Boulevard Extension area of Belize City. But as much as area residents were relieved to see the dampness disappear, they were perhaps more pleased with more the visit of deputy mayor Marshall Nunez and Minister of Works Jose Coye to their neighbourhood. Last Friday, torrential rains made the roads impassable and many of the children had to stay home. The residents complained that for several years they have been asking for assistance but nothing was done
Jacqueline Woods
?Why did it take long for the proper authorities to respond to this situation??
Jose Coye, Minister of Works
?It?s a good question and I suppose it?s a question that any part of the country we go and there is a problem can be asked. My only answer I can say to that is that the multiple demands on the public requires prioritization and I would wish indeed that an area like this should be given priority. I do believe it should be pushed up along with the Belama Phase 3 area and as I understand likewise an area in the Collet in the City. So I suppose it?s a question indeed of strategic prioritization of limited resources in any small country.?
Marshall Nunez, Deputy Mayor, Belize City
?We know there have been many complaints to the City Council. In fact we made two visits to this area last week; I myself along with the city engineer and the people from the works department from the City Council. We empathise with the situation and we wish we could have been able to address it earlier. But there have been contestant effort to try and address it.?
Today it appears that help is finally on its way. Coye and Nunez, accompanied by area representative Anthony ?Boots? Martinez, toured the area to see what can be accomplished. It was agreed that both the City Council and the Ministry of Works would proceed in a coordinated effort to address the problem.
Marshall Nunez
?A more comprehensive drainage plan has to be put in place for this entire area and in some of the other extended areas of the city and it also includes the shaping of these streets that we are seeing here and then later on overlaying it with hard core.?
Jose Coye
?The Ministry of Works will work along with the City Council to develop a project which we feel confident that through the Ministry of Work, we can seek funding with the Central Government?s support. We?ll take it to cabinet for support and we are confident that funding could be provided; at very low cost funding. Because these kinds of projects qualify under the poverty alleviation and we have sources that can lend us at very low interest rates to do project like these. They are not multi-million projects. They are not the mega-type projects but to me I do believe what will be spent in these areas will be well spent.?
Coye says it is difficult at this time to determine how much the work will cost because the plan of action is still under discussion. However, Martinez was promised that on Monday the task of fixing the streets would commence.
Anthony ?Boots? Martinez, Area Representative, Port Loyola
?Well I feel much grateful for the people of Port Loyola who really needs this help and I think it is a coordinated effort between Belize City Council, Central Government and me myself as area representative to make sure that we deliver the basic goods and services that the people need in Port Loyola.?
Jacqueline Woods
?Did you expect that something like this would have ever materialized??
Anthony ?Boots? Martinez
?Well I?m sure of that. Everything in life you have to be hopeful about and I have always been the person to have been knocking on doors to make sure that the basic services of Port Loyola to be done. I fully accept in terms and I am grateful that the Minister and the City Council responsible for streets and drains heard the cry of the people of Port Loyola. We have reached out and we have coordinated today.?
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Both Coye and Nunez also visited other troubled areas in the city and said similar work will be done in Belama Phase Three and the Collet Division.
