Mills Creek Businesses To Meet With Engineer
The 20 businesses and one residence located on Mill Creek Road who have expressed concern about the impact of flooding in the area, said they received an email from Government and will be arranging a meeting with their engineer next week.
Ed Faries, speaking on behalf of Mill Creek Road businesses and residents, said: “It is very clear that the canal upkeep is the Minister’s responsibility. We are asking the Minister to fix the canal, not to fix our road.
“The canal is a public piece of infrastructure just as Bernard’s Park is a public road. It is absolutely correct to compare them.
“As per Section 2 of Pembroke Marsh Canal Act 1969 [PDF], it states,
Minister to be responsible for upkeep of Canal
Subject to this Act and any other provision of law the Minister shall be charged with the responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the Canal and, accordingly, with the administration of any moneys appropriated therefor.
Mr Faries continued, “I note in the Government’s statement of November 6 that they did not address the following issues:
- The wall surrounding the sluice gate has cracks and leaks. Government tried to patch these but leaking is now much worse.
- The ongoing flooding problem has been made worse by systematic failure by the Government to action the 10-point plan from the 2004 Mill Creek Flood Mitigation Study.
- It has also been made worse by not enforcing the Bermuda Plan 2008. The Bermuda Plan 2008 says that the control and disposal of storm water runoff will take place within the boundaries of a site and that no drainage will take place into the Pembroke Canal.
“Government has not responded to us since our meeting in July, or to the letter that we sent to them in September or even since we made our comments public in the media this week. We want timelines for solutions.
“The Government owns the canal. It is the Minister’s responsibility to upkeep it. We are willing to absorb the costs that relate directly to the road, but Government needs to acknowledge their responsibility for the canal.
“We are not asking the Government to fix our road. We are asking it to take care of its own canal.”
Mr Faries also added, “We received an email from Government at 5:30pm this evening and will be arranging a meeting with their engineer next week.”
Atta boy Ed, keep up the pressure. Those do little civil servants don’t like the bad publicity. The only way to get them out of their comphy chairs is to call them on nasty little things like facts.
The government is responsible for the upkeep of the existing canal. But upkeep does not mean upgrades. Seems clear where this is heading.
“Upgrades” are part of “upkeep” if those upgrades are to fix a major issue in my opinion .
A bit of a continuum really. Where maintenance of what is present is on one end and the ultimate upgrade is on the other. Money available dictates where you land. Unfortunately these businesses should have followed up like this with the PLP right after the upgrade recommendations were made, and while there was money. Why didn’t they?
Dont worry ,,,,,the Government will upkeep and upgrade the canal,,,,either the Present Government or….the next one,,,rest assured.!Guaranteed.!Without a doubt.!Yup.!Yup, Yup..!
While they are looking at the canal, how about they clear the garbage that is clogging the canal by the new COH ysrd. With the debris clogging the canal nothing is moving preventing proper drainage which is the absolute purpose of the canal. It is hard to believe that when my parents were kids, there were fish in the canal and the kids swam in it. Our government MUST do a better job at maintaining our natural environment!
@TD. With this Govt it’s the MINISTERS who duck and hide when there is bad publicity. I’ll always remember how they sat there while Minister Richards took all the heat at that Pier 6 Town Hall. Just sat there. Not one of them got up to speak to support and defend their colleague. Civil servants do not have the authority to sign off on the budget and overall Government purse. The MINISTERS, ie Cabinet determine the priorities on what needs to be spent. You can rest assured funding for these canal repairs was probably not at the top of the list or allocated any funds at all. Hence the pushback from Government. AC is one of the main expenditures the OBA want to be seen front and center to because….well it’s good publicity for them. Not annoying flooding situations, no no….
“With this government”. Ya. Okay.
Pier 6. Bob’s a big boy. But there wasn’t much point in anyone responding to that “heat”.
Budgeting. I agree that money for upkeep of the canal should be provisioned in every budget. There is no money for expensive upgrades. Just because the former government investigated upgrade options doesn’t mean they or any other government committed to carry them out. (The PLP didn’t do it when there was money.)
Well if your comments prove true the OBA should get off their a– and put some Freon in the AC and the PC -(Pembroke Canal).
Shalom.
Let’s see if our government cares about it, something should get done but let’s see
It’s easy to care when you have the money, or spend like you have it.
Hmm yeah, unlike the previous government who had an emgineer’s report for 10 years and did nothing.
And where has the Engineer been all of these years.. Finally he too is out of the woodwork. Another fall guy for the Minister to blame. Minister Cannonier you dropped the ball on this one, July till Octobef. Why is there never any urgency in Bermuda?
On another note, has anyone seen the OBA elected females. They cannot still be on the payroll.
Same engineers who designedthe maintence yard in the Botanical Gardens. We deserve better from our civil servants
Why do you think that land fill sights are not being used ?
The engineer will tell you.
I am pesently building a venitian gondola….and will soon be able to sell an italian style boat ride to persons wishing to take advantage of this event….i wiil have little italian flags you may purchase….and if you like i can either sing in italian to you while we scull or play some Tony Bennet….why Tony you ask?….Because i prefer his singin …dat’s why!
I doubt very much if the miracle workers take the time to read any of the comments placed on these pages by those of us who care.
What does it take to wake the ” Sleeping dragon”.
A $6,000 tip to London would fix many pot holes an trim back miles of road side vegetation.
$6000 to London is peanuts! Where were you when somebody went trotting off to Dubai, India, China etc. Didn’t see you complaining then. What did we get from those trips? Must be selective memory.
They should make sure they serve tea at the meeting. tea fixes everything!
toodles!
We’re “DOOMED!”