The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE Government's plans to provide assistance to businesses impacted by the New Providence Road Improvement Project was hailed as a good move yesterday, with Coconut Grove Business League (CBGL) spokesman, Ethric Bowe, telling Tribune Business: "It's never too late to do the right thing." Speaking after Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced the first concrete steps towards compensation, with Ministry of Finance personnel delivering survey questionnaires to all impacted businesses, Mr Bowe said: "I am hopeful and trying to keep an open mind about it. "I think now they realise the extent to which the public is upset. It's never too late to do the right thing. If they are going to come and try to correct the damage they have caused, then we appreciate that." Mr Bowe added, though, that regardless of whatever assistance the Government ultimately provides to businesses on Blue Hill Road and Market Street, those companies will continue to lose money unless the one-way road system is reversed. The CGBL, a group of some 50 companies, raised its voice in protest two years ago against the new traffic system, which made Baillou Hill Road one-way northbound and Market Street one-way south-bound, citing the negative impact this had on their businesses. They secured a victory in the Supreme Court against the Government over the road changes, only to see that decision overturned by the Court of Appeal. Mr Bowe said yesterday: "Some of the people they are going to try and survey are no longer there, Jiffy Cleaners, for instance, is gone, so I don't know where they are going to find them to survey them. "It's best to do things right the first time. The Government should compensate you sooner rather than later. Your whole life shouldn't have to be destroyed before you are compensated. Now the Government is facing up to the consequences of their actions. If someone spends 30-40 years building a business, that's not just a business, that's their life. We appreciate that they have now come around to try to resolve it, and we really hope that it happens before the election." Mr Bowe added: "We really hope that they stop the bleeding and turn the roads back, and make them two-way again. That is most important. As long as those roads are one-way, businesses will continue to be damaged. To give those businesses a chance to bounce back you have to make the roads two-way again." Arnold Heastie, owner of Heastie's Service Station, told Tribune Business: "They want information but they are not saying what they are going to do. Nothing has been concrete. I have not heard any concrete means of compensation. What's the information being used for? All they need is the difference in sales. "I think the biggest thing that will help people is to change the roads back, just looking at Blue Hill Road and Market Street. I think that would stop the losses. It doesn't matter how much you give me, two years, I will be back in the same place. They need to say what they are going to do. This vague stuff seems like an election ploy." Prime Minister Ingraham recently announced that the Government will borrow an additional $65 million from the Inter-American Development Bank to complete the already over-budget New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project. Mr Ingraham said the projected total cost of the IDB-funded portion of the project is now estimated at $206 million. The project was expected to be completed by the end of January 2012, but due to challenges, the Prime Minster said the Government is currently negotiating an Addendum to finalise a revised completion date. Mr Ingraham listed the challenges of the project as; unforeseen site works, the discovery of mapped, unmapped and unaccounted for underground utilities, the need for additional water works due to the poor condition of pipes, changes in the designs carried out in densely populated areas, escalation in the price of fuel, utility underground congestion and conflicts and land acquisition.