Representatives of our new local government committees and councils are just returning from a Local Government workshop in Nassau. This was a working session to acquaint newcomers with the local government rules and regulations and to motivate and inspire the old-timers. They will have been given an overview of The Act and accompanying Regulations and pep talks on how to best serve their communities. The sessions were held at the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino.
During the first and third terms, the workshops were held on Abaco with town delegates commuting to Marsh Harbour for the various sessions. Fifty or more delegates attended some of the Marsh Harbour sessions. The current workshop is being conducted in Nassau with all Family Island delegates converging there. This same method was used for officials during the second term of local government,.
Besides learning about the system, the Abaco representatives were prepared to lobby for additional funding to maintain Abaco. We are not aware that the budgeted amounts for Abaco have been released yet but most people expect it will remain the same as last year which was essentially the same as the year before, even though the workload has increased dramatically.
It is strange that Abaco is recognized by Nassau politicians and others as the fastest growing island in The Bahamas, both in population gains and expanding economy. With growth comes larger responsibilities which are more costly to maintain. However, the funding is quite stingy when it comes to allocating money for the town committees and councils.
Residential garbage collection is one of the largest items in each town’s budget and is a mandated service to be provided by local government. All towns are growing and generating more garbage and trash but the money available remains the same.
M.P. Sidney Stubbs recently addressed local government representatives and their guests at the induction ceremony at Government House in Marsh Harbour. He mentioned that Abaco contributes $3.2 million to the Treasury each month which is the largest amount by far for a Family Island. He stressed that this gives Abaco some clout when talking to government and the Abaco councils are within their rights to lobby Nassau for adequate funding when conditions justify.
The Abaco business community is growing and serving more clients and customers. Although local government is not responsible for removing commercial garbage and trash, most of it ends up at the Central Abaco public dump. Once here, it is combined with the residential trash. Within the past 18 months, the Central Abaco dump has been further burdened by absorbing the construction trash and other garbage from the Abaco Club at Winding Bay. Additional trash and garbage comes from Guana Cay, Man-O-War and Hope Town. Those three cays are fast growing and generate large amounts of trash with little space to either store, burn or otherwise manage the debris.
To decrease the quantity of trash, Man-O-War bought a chipper which reduces yard debris to usable mulch. Hope Town is still obliged to burn some of its debris as there is not enough capacity to ship it all to Marsh Harbour. Both of these towns accumulate old appliances, junked vehicles and construction debris at their limited dump facility. Virtually all their residential, hotel and restaurant garbage is sent to the Marsh Harbour dump site.
Guana’s garbage volume is presently much less than the other two cays and it is all shipped to Marsh Harbour. Guana has a further disadvantage as they have no public site for holding or managing the daily accumulation of trash.
To solve a growing garbage problem on Guana Cay and Elbow Cay with their limited space, central government absorbed cost of shipping the trash to Marsh Harbour, then trucking it to the dump. This is a substantial amount and is not presently imposed on local government. Man-O-War was the first cay to solve its garbage problem this way and its funding was initially absorbed by the residents there but is now a part of the Hope Town Council budget.
A recent development adding to the quantity of trash to be managed is the addition of containers placed at the Pigeon Peas and Mud Haitian communities. These have been a welcome addition which the residents there are using. Casual observation suggests more containers are needed or the existing ones must be emptied more frequently.
These refuse containers were bought and donated by ECHO, the European Community Health Organization. They left enough funds to provide for six cycles of emptying them and these funds are now depleted. We presume that either Local Government or the Department of Environmental Health must step in and fund the removal of this trash. Presently, there is no provision in the budget of the Central Abaco Council to remove the garbage from these two communities. A similar situation exists for the container placed at the Sand Banks Haitian community.
The Marsh Harbour Haitian communities are to be commended as they are visibly much cleaner. PAHOE, ECHO and the Department of Environmental Health are to be given credit for recent involvement in these communities to instill community cleanliness and pride which will result in less potential health problems for the residents there. It is amazing to see the amount of debris these new bins are collecting and it leaves one to wonder how these settlements absorbed this debris in the past. However, this new source of garbage adds to the quantity to be dealt with at the dump.
It should be mentioned that E & D Waste Company maintains its own private dump site not far from the Central Abaco public dump. The trash that company collects is not a burden to the public system.
Maintaining the public dump site in Central Abaco has been a problem over the years and continues to be a challenge. The cost of dump maintenance is presently in the neighborhood of $5000 per month. This includes bulldozing or pushing the trash to the borders and burning several times a week to reduce the volume. The money must also pay for the services of a dump manager or watchman to ensure the debris is properly placed. Without an attendant, persons tend to dump their garbage at the most convenient spot which is frequently at the entrance. This was recently the case when dump management lapsed and the debris filled the site and extended out to the highway. It is generally conceded that past funding has been inadequate for dump maintenance.
Like the airport, the two government schools, the clinic and other facilities that serve the greater Marsh Harbour community, the dump is the responsibility of the Central Abaco District Council. Awarding the contract for dump maintenance has often been contentious as the $60,000 to $65,000 annual contract is often perceived to be a rich reward to be awarded to friends. Experience has shown that it requires a dedicated and professional approach. There have been few instances in the past nine years of local government when Council or the communities were satisfied that the dump was maintained properly.
During the first Council term the dump was brought under control and was well managed. However, successive Councils managed the dump situation in different ways that generally ended in disaster.
With a new Council now in place, the members must work together and give the contract to a reliable company with a good record of managing a business and with the proper equipment to do a professional job. Few of the contract holders during the past several years qualified in either of these areas. The Council members must put Central Abaco foremost and not resort to playing politics or favoritism.
We will all be watching to see how responsible the new councils and town committees will be in looking after their communities. Even when funding is inadequate, creative ways must be found to get the job done. Accepting the lowest bid does not necessarily mean we are getting the best deal. Contracts must be examined to ensure that value is received for the money spent.
The town committees and councils are starting fresh. Many members have expressed a desire to make changes for the benefit of their communities. We encourage them to keep their initial goals in mind and persevere for the next three years.
Copyright © 2007, Abaconian. All rights reserved.
Website Design, Hosting & Maintenance by Under the Palms
Maps • Abaco History • Inquiries • Useful Links