LEFT: Equipment sits abandoned on the side of what is supposed to be a new road on Crooked Island, however, no work has been done in nine months according to Tommy Thompson. RIGHT: A road has been left half-paved.
BY LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
CROOKED Island residents say they are dissatisfied with unfinished roads, telling The Tribune the roads are affecting their quality of life.
Videos showing half-paved roads and parked tractors were sent to The Tribune.
“They were doing a road between Cabbage Hill and Colonel Hill,” said long-time resident Tommy Thompson. “The original road, which goes through Cabbage Hill and Colonel Hill, is a low area with a lot of ponds, so when the hurricane comes, it gets flooded, and we can’t drive through.”
“So they decided to do this road through the hill, and the road was kinda paved and it wasn’t too bad, but they dug it up in preparation to resurface it and they never came back so we are agitating about it.”
He said after the community threatened to contact the minister of works last month, a team returned to the island, but left.
“All they did was drive up some machines to the area, and they did nothing and they left it how it is to date,” he said.
Efforts to reach area MP Basil McIntosh were unsuccessful up to press time.
“From election, we don’t hardly see him, ya see,” Mr Thompson added.
He said the roads have been in disrepair for nearly nine months.
“It had an affect on tyres, vehicles especially when we come from the mailboat,” he said. “We have to ride through there with roads and trucks and stuff like that and it has a devastating affect on the vehicles with the load.
“The Ministry of Works got to address it because that’s going to get postponed and they got to give us an answer why the contractor is not (here). I don’t know if he’s waiting on money or they say he’s waiting on tar, but if you’re a big-time construction company, you have to have tar.”
Comments
Greentea 8 months, 2 weeks ago
looking back over the past 50 years I wonder what the family islands and the Bahamas more generally would have looked like if governments had focused resources on the development of infrastructure on one or two islands each year and general maintenance on all. Inagua and Mayaguana, then Acklins Crooked Island and Long Cay...setting things in motion to make them places for over 55 housing developments, elder care, hospice care, connecting them better to boat and plane transport. What might have the Bahamas been if all the money lost to corruption had been invested in the lives of the people and the nation? Feeling old since July 10 and feeling as if we have failed in this 50th year. We should be further ahead. This right here is ridiculous.
ThisIsOurs 8 months, 2 weeks ago
The sad part is these politicians will fly around to these "rural" districts during election hug a few old women, buy some beers for some unemployed young men and some old drunks, wink at a few young girls and they'll be right back in.
But in 50 years, there's been no "significant" progress. And significant doesnt mean it has to look like a big city. It just means it should have an infrastructural standard equal to the big city. We dont want to lose our tranquil island communities to cruise ship dazzle and trample and gated French Riviera dreams
On that marijuana legislation, the public feedback to the consultation should be no active minister theff ir family m eff members or business partners can have a beneficial interest in any marijuana operation for the next 10 years. Put a moratorium on that. And if after 10 years its uncovered that they did, it's to be considered proceeds of crime and confiscated with no sunset on the clause. Corruption and political profiteering is killing us. Anybody who tries to say it doesn't happen is not being truthful.
Just listen to the supporter after election who proudly proclaimed he gat crown land and a contract because he work for his MP during the election. That's corruption. Did the l as nd go to the person with the best use plan? Did the contract go to the person best able to carry out the work?
BONEFISH 8 months, 2 weeks ago
Crooked Island is where my mother is descended.The island has suffered a decline in it's population from the sixties. A number of settlements in that island no longer exist.
Most bahamians seem to be unaware of the that the Bahamas is an archipelago of islands. I always that Bahamians don't live in the Bahamas, they live in New Providence and Freeport.That lop-sided disbursement of the population poses tremendous challenges to the country's development. Every inhabited island in this country has infrastructure issues.
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