Publication: Daily Nation / Extra
Paper Section And Page: 1
Paper Date: Wed, Aug 30, 2000
Byline: Terry Ally
MAGISTRATE Carlisle Greaves smells a rat and it's at the Mangrove Landfill in Arch Hall, St. Thomas. There's something suspicious, he said, about Government acquiring a further 14 acres to extend Mangrove giving it a three-year lifeline. He noted that only an additional acre was needed for the dump, which was to have been closed from June 30, 1995.
An Arch Hall resident, Greaves is on vacation from his magistrate's post in Bermuda. He told the DAILY NATION yesterday that something was definitely wrong if it was going to take Government an additional two years to fix Greenland.
"The Central Bank was built for $80 million and it did not take two years to complete. The ABC highway was constructed at a cost of $90 million and it took less than two years to complete. How could something which cost $3 million take two years to complete? Something about Greenland annoys my common sense," said the magistrate.
Greaves said he was disappointed that scores of residents sold themselves short for a meagre $6 000 pay out from Government. He said it was heart-rending that those who were not involved in the fight against Mangrove were the first to collect their pay cheques.
"I told them [residents of Arch Hall/Bennetts] not to take that money offered to them as compensation, but they would not listen to me, now they have to put up with it for another three years," he added. Greaves said so far more than 20 persons involved in the fight had passed away and he was worried that many more would die before they reached the proverbial "promised land".
Another resident, who asked not to be
identified, said it was distasteful that a church was the venue for a
series of town hall meetings at which Government officials promised to
remove the dump from St. Thomas. He said it was disrespectful to a sacred
sanctuary where officials did not tell the people of St. Thomas the truth.
The angry youngster, who suffers from an allergy, said he has to wear
contact lenses because of this condition. He also said that asthmatics
were, in some cases, hospitalised five times a year because of the stench
from Mangrove.