B.E.L. Apologizes for Felling Centuries-old Succotz Tree

On the phone: Dawn Sampson-Nunez

News Five spoke with B.E.L.’s general manager, Dawn Sampson-Nunez following the meeting today and she expressed regret on the part of the company in the wake of the incident.  She also says that B.E.L. will be meeting with residents of Succotz in the days ahead to see how all parties can work together going forward.

On the phone: Dawn Sampson-Nunez, General Manager, B.E.L.

“From BEL’s perspective, we sincerely apologize for this incident.  The tree clearly has great sentimental value to the community, to the people of Succotz and we sincerely regret that this has happened.  I assure you, I assure the people of Succotz that had we known of the great value this tree has to the community, this incident would not have happened.  It was a spirit of, “Okay, how do we work together, which is the best approach to take in a situation to take in a situation like this.  How do we partner?  How do we move ahead together?”  We didn’t identify or finalize on any concrete initiative, but what we committed to was to continue with that conversation.  As a matter of fact, that conversation will continue as early as this week and by the end of this week or next week, we will actually meet and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing will also be at that meeting where we will share with the community our concrete plan.  But I am happy to say that that was not at all the posture of the representatives in the meeting.  I think in a situation like this, you have to step back and ask ourselves what lessons can we take from this?  And so, I want to assure you, on behalf of BEL, I want to assure the community that that’s exactly what we’re doing to ensure that there is not a repeat of anything like this going into the future, especially given the great sentimental value to the people of Succotz.  And again, we sincerely apologize.”