City council has spent $40M in two years fixing bridges

Dear Editor, Photographs of broken rails on city bridges along Croal Street on the front page of your Stabroek News issue of Thursday June 22, have attracted our attention at the Mayor and City Council. In fact, we are very happy that you have brought this matter to the fore and that you have raised awareness of the damage done to these city facilities by carless motorists.

The City Constabulary has been making efforts to make those who damage these and other facilities pay for their repairs, but it is a tedium.

Over the last two years, the City Council has expended more than $40 million of property rates to fix a number of bridges across the city. These bridges have historical significance, public health, economic and safety value; and are vital municipal facilities which link communities, neighbourhoods and citizens across Georgetown to allow for the socioeconomic and cultural well-being of the city.

However, we have noticed that careless motorists continue to damage the rails and other parts of those bridges without any worry about sanctions or penalties for not repairing or replacing damaged parts; those are left unsafe for other motorists and pedestrians, and the culprits get away scot free. We are very unhappy with this situation and would intensify our efforts against those who damage these facilities.

In the meantime, we continue to appeal to motorists to be careful, as well as to owners of animals, who sometimes tether their animals to the rails of these bridges causing damage to them.

We, at City Hall, will continue to do our best in circumstances where we are forced to carry out our duties with an extremely narrow revenue base. We ask all citizens to support us and report information about individuals who attempt to damage city property to the City Constabulary at telephone number (592) 227-0280.

Yours faithfully, Royston King Municipal Clerk City of Georgetown