Homeowner seeks relief from drain contractor
The construction of a modern drainage system on the southside of Belize City will eventually make life better for thousands of residents. But in the meantime, not everyone is enthusiastic about the construction process. Jacqueline Woods has the story.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
They say progress brings problems and that seems to be the situation that has been unfolding at number forty four Racoon Street for the past eight months.
Evadney Scott, Homeowner
“I never had no problem like this before the house start. Dah just since the house start, the house crack up. Several crack deh inside of the house… it’s shameful to talk about.”
Evadney Scott claims that since the contractor, Johnston International, started to do drainage work in front of her house on Racoon Street Extension, the building has shifted and several cracks have appeared in the walls.
Evadney Scott
“Well as they start the work the house start to crack. I tell my children them about it and then we talk about it to the contractor, the man weh work it. And he said that it was the work from the building of the house nevah build good. And I tell ah, regardless of the building of the house no build good, the house nevah crack. It tell ah it suffered through two weather and it nevah did crack and I seh that dah when unu (it was when they) start to work them it crack. And so I said the building of the house noh got nothing to do with it.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What would cause the walls to crack like that?”
Evadney Scott
“They have deh big bulldozer, the Caterpillars and things that work that whenever it shake it, the vibration of the thing broke the things in the house and thing.”
“And the house shifts. I tell ah it mi shift about two inch. And then they put a cement thing in there and they say that it will stop the house from shift. I seh but they put some cement on the ground and now the house shift nearly about half inch now. It done shift half inch more since they tell me the house noh wah shift.”
When News 5 contacted Gary Wilde, the project manager for Johnston International, he told us that he personally went to see the Scott family and both parties agreed that the company would level the floor and plaster the cracks. But Scott contends she has been promised less.
Evadney Scott
“The man said one time that he wah plaster the whole house. But now they seh they only wah patch up the holes them and that can’t do, because they wah have to take down the wall thing and plaster it over. But they say they noh wah do that, they just wah patch the hole. And if they patch the hole, it wah be yah.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What does the family want the company to do?”
Evadney Scott
“Well I want if they can’t repair the house the way how I want, then they have to give me a new one, because I have to pay fi my house. I dah wah poor person and I dah wah single parent. I have a son going to college and I can’t di repair the house and thing.”
However, Wilde says they intend to repair the house on what was agreed and that work should start next week. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
The Scott family and other area residents are claiming that the company, in the process of doing its work, also broke down their fences and have refused to replace them. Wilde says as far as he has been told, the Scott family did not have a fence before the work started and that the only fences the company will repair are those that were taken down in order for the company to do its work.
