Dirty 'paros'
Publication: Weekend Nation
Paper Section And Page: 3
Paper Date: Fri, Dec 29, 2000
Byline: by Terrel Yearwood
HABITUAL DRUG-USERS (paros) continue to wreak havoc on the Sanitation Service Authority's (SSA) efforts to keep Bridgetown clean.
Speaking against the background of SSA work in The City over the Christmas period, deputy general manager Stanton Alleyne said vagrants were taking garbage from Swan Street to the Swing Bridge, Hincks Street, Cheapside, the newly-constructed Boardwalk and many of the alleys off Broad Street.
"They present one of the main problems for us when it comes to keeping Bridgetown clean," he said.
"Paros" have also destroyed and defaced special garbage bins on some streets and have even started to remove drainage recently placed in Swan Street.
Alleyne said SSA personnel serviced Bridgetown twice on weekdays and once a day on Saturdays and Sundays, with crews working between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays.
"We clean Bridgetown 12 times a week. A lot of people probably don't realise this."
Alleyne said The City was different from other urban commercial centres where many storeowners packed garbage away from the front of the stores, keeping it at the back instead.
"At the back of Broad Street, you have Swan Street and a lot of narrow areas that cannot be blocked.
"It would take us sitting down with merchants and setting the best times when they should put out their refuse," Alleyne said, adding that although this had been tried before, some businesses went back to their old ways.
Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of the Bridgetown Division, Carson Bannister, said the matter was brought to his attention and discussed at a meeting with the Bridgetown Business Consultative Committee.
Bannister, who said officers on patrol were told to take action against such people for littering, added it was just a few of the "paros" who engaged in the practice as a way of finding bottles to sell, to support their drug habit.
"We know exactly where to find them. They are usually at Hincks Street, Broad Street, Baxters Road and Independence Square. We will do our part, but it is still left for the other authorities and agencies to play their part as well," he added.
President of the Merchants and Property Owners' Association, Paul Bernstein, said the group had been complaining for a long time, with Swan Street owners being very concerned about the manner in which "paros" ripped garbage on evenings.
He said when most of the businesses closed between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., they descended "like vultures", opening plastic bags, looking for bottles and left-over food, and littering.