Street Contracts Put On Hold

Bernard Wagner

Former Mayor Darrell Bradley left behind several incomplete projects and plans, most notably the Commercial Center and City Hall upgrade. In the area of streets, a considered hallmark of the past Council, contracts for nine street upgrades with RJB Construction had been signed last November. The affected streets are West Canal and East Canal; Eyre Street, Chancellor Avenue, Racoon Street, Ebony Street, Gibnut Street, Third Street and Allan Pitts Crescent. But if you’re not seeing any activity on your street, except on East and West Canal which are completed, there’s a reason why, according to Mayor-elect Bernard Wagner.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor-elect, Belize City

“Currently, we have put all of those on hold. We need to get a handle on those and we need to understand what happened there, what the urgency was all about. Was it political expediency, or was it as a part of the Council’s mandate to complete those streets? We couldn’t allow that those continue, so we put them on hold. But certainly, when we have a better understanding of the contracts – I haven’t had time to look at the contracts – but when we do, then we’ll be able to see how we move ahead.”

The projected cost of the project was two-point-six million dollars, based on a suppliers’ credit from RJB. The company up-fronted the work and the Council promised to repay them over a three-year period.