BROWNMAY PEN, Clarendon:
MAYOR OF May Pen Milton Brown is moving to stop Clarendon parish councillors from taking their licensed firearms to council meetings.
His decision came yesterday, one day after two People's National Party (PNP) councillors had a heated verbal exchange, during a closed sitting of the council's Road and Works Committee.
According to Mayor Brown, disallowing licensed firearms in the council will help to ensure the safety of persons at meetings.
"We are a pretty vibrant council and from time to time we have debates that tend to get heated and there is the possibility of persons getting upset and we want to avoid the temptation of anybody ever thinking of pulling their firearms," Mayor Brown told The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre yesterday.
He said, however, that a decision is yet to be made as to where the councillors will be required to leave their firearms while attending council meetings.
During Thursday's furore, between the two PNP councillors at the Clarendon Parish Council, several persons reportedly left the meeting.
POLICE CALLED IN
According to Mayor Brown, the police had to be called in to quell the dispute between the two councillors.
The argument reportedly arose from the location of roads proposed to be repaired.
In the meantime, Mayor Brown, who is also the chairman of the Association of Local Government Authorities (ALGA), is upset that the Government is yet to complete disbursing the $200 million allocated for repairing parish council roads damaged during last year's hurricanes.
The Government had promised the money following a protest in which several mayors heading to Jamaica House were tear-gassed by policemen.
But according to Mayor Brown, with only days to go before the start of the hurricane season, some parish councils have still not received their full amounts.
"I don't know why the local authorities are being starved, I really hope its not politics," he charged.
ALGA had submitted an estimate of $1.3 billion to fund repairs to the parish council roads islandwide which were damaged in recent hurricanes.
