WESTERN BUREAU:
Citing what he deemed to be the poor performance of the National Works Agency (NWA) in Hanover, Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels on Thursday said that he wants the state agency to be kicked out of the parish and its roles, responsibilities and resources turned over to the municipal corporation.
Samuels made the call during the monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), where councillors complained about the NWA’s ineffectiveness in addressing the poor state of roads in the parish.
“My suggestion is to get rid of the NWA completely out of Hanover, phase them out, and we (HMC) take over their responsibilities and their duties, because we have been doing it out by Riley River and in other places within the parish,” the mayor said in response to a litany of complaints about the NWA not meeting its mandate to the parish.
Noting that complaints about the deplorable state of central government roads, which is the responsibility of the NWA, were coming from all seven electoral divisions in the parish, Samuels argued that the NWA’s resources should be given to the corporation so that it can take on all road repairs.
“Give us (the HMC) the authority to use the funds that are allocated to the NWA, and we will get these roads fixed, just like how we are fixing our parochial roads,” said Samuels.
Prior to Samuels’ statement, Lucea Deputy Mayor Andria Dehaney-Grant had lamented that she had never seen so many roads in as deplorable a state as they are currently in.
“I am not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dehaney-Grant, who added that residents were becoming increasingly frustrated. “It cannot continue like that. The people are going to stand up at some point.”
Easton Edwards, councillor for the Lucea Division, gave notice that he plans to put forward a resolution calling for the HMC to take the responsibility of fixing NWA roads when repairs are not done in a timely manner.
“I will be coming up with a resolution that states that when the problem concerns us (the HMC) or is close to our space, we just deal with it because we know that the NWA is going to take a year and a half to have it done,” said Edwards.
The councillors were not the only ones expressing concerns about the state of the roads as Superintendent Sharon Beeput, commanding officer for the Hanover Police Division, said it was also affecting police vehicles and operations across the parish.
“I am suggesting some form of meeting between the two agencies (HMC and NWA) with a view to arriving at a better level of efficiency with regard to road repairs and upkeep across the parish,” said Beeput.