By Roy Sanford, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
MONTEGO BAY'S Mayor Noel Donaldson is denying claims that the St. James Parish Council owes the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) $2.8 million for the removal of waste from the Charles Gordon Market.
"I have no knowledge of that," Mayor Donaldson told The Gleaner in an interview on Tuesday.
However, NSWMA regional operations manager Percival Stewart said that his agency has in fact done clean-up works at the market and are yet to be paid by the Council for the work done.
"The St. James Parish Council is owing the NSWMA monies for cleaning the Charles Gordon Market because on many occasions they have negated their responsibility and in the interest of sanitation, the NSWMA has cleaned the market and those bills are attributed to them," said Mr. Stewart.
In a release on Monday, Alston Stewart, executive director of the NSWMA, said the money was spent in 'the interest of public health' after the Parish Council failed to provide equipment, under contractual agreements, to load garbage unto trucks provided by the agency for disposal.
In explaining his position Mayor Donaldson said that all monies are paid to NSWMA through the Ministry of Local Government. "So I am not aware of the Council specifically owing money to the NSWMA," he said.
Mr. Donaldson admitted that problems exist in terms of the Parish Council providing the equipment for loading the trucks, but said back up arrangements are in place.
"What has happened on several occasions is that the Council's bobcat has not been working," he said. "Therefore, there is an understanding that whenever the Council's bobcat is down a front-end loader is hired to load trucks."
The Mayor said that on Sunday a front-end loader was available to load trucks but a pile-up of garbage at the market could not be cleared.
"The various owners of trucks who normally provide service to remove the garbage were expressing an unwillingness to come forward because they were claiming that they were owed substantial sums of money for a prolonged period of time by NSWMA," he said.
Mr. Percival Stewart, however, denied that NSWMA owes money to any truck owners for cleaning garbage at the market.
