The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A North-Abaco non-profit organisation has spent about $1m on rebuilding Bahamian homes on Treasure Cay in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

Tom Wheeler, member of the Treasure Cay Property Owners’ Association (TCPOA), and major donor to the North Abaco Rebuilding Initiative (NARI), told Tribune Business: “We have committed over $2m, and I’m sure we have spent $1m by now.

“NARI is a group led by Ed Newell (a real estate broker in Abaco), who is a Bahamian, along with several other volunteers. Nobody is being paid a dime. Ed is the leader of the group and I’m a Treasure Cay homeowner, and I’m part of the group in that I am helping fund the project and raise money for the project.

“But Bahamians are leading it, and we are employing Bahamians and paying them standard rates to help repair just native Bahamian homes and businesses. That’s our goal. There are no second homeowners receiving anything from NARI. and no foreign homeowners.”

Mr Wheeler added: “We have our second shipment of materials coming soon. We have done a number of homes and gotten them to a point where the roofs, in some places, are rebuilt. Others are just repaired and now we’re bringing shingles in to finish them.

“That’s our first goal; to get local Bahamian homes, people that work and live in the Treasure Cay area with our boundary between Cooper’s Town to Leisure Lee and everything in between there. So we have a number of homes in Treasure Cay, but they are Bahamian homes that live within the confines of what’s known as Treasure Cay.”

Mr Wheeler said NARI had received “zero government support”. He added: “I would say that they have not given us their blessing, because we have been asking for some time now for a very simple letter that states that they recognise NARI as a non-profit, and we are doing things that the government can’t do.

“So we’re helping the Government and helping the local people, and it’s important to us because, as a donor, when the government says NARI is a non-profit, then a non-profit 501 C-3 from the United Sates can donate money to NARI for this.

“So for right now there is a lot of credit that has been extended to me personally, and I personally paid for a lot of supplies and local labour. We need to get the donation to go through the foundation. So it’s the Treasure Cay Community Foundation (TCCF) that’s funding 99 percent of what NARI is doing, and most of the TCCF is comprised of second homeowners or those that are closely connected to Abaco somehow,” Mr Wheeler explained.

“The funding for NARI will come the TCCF. It’s no secret, but Ceres (Environmental Services) has been given a bad name for I don’t understand what? Because these guys have been absolute stand-up guys and done a very productive, efficient, thorough job, and have extended me personally credit that amounts to a lot of money.

“From day one they (Ceres) have been cleaning up the properties, and a lot of these properties were dangerously uninhabitable because of the debris around. The government wasn’t doing anything. So before we can start to repair these local homes we have to clean them up, and we chose Ceres to clean them up for us because they had the proper equipment. They charged a very fair price and they have extended NARI credit because some of the members have pledged to pay them.”

Mr Wheeler said the second phase of NARI’s restoration efforts will involve purchasing materials for local businesses so they can finally resume operations.

Asked how the non-profit has been mobilising labour and supplies, and getting money in and out of Abaco given that most banks have not reopened on the island, he said: “Not much has come in and out, but it is mainly cash. How are you going to pay people? There is no bank. There is no ATM (automated teller machine). Until recently there was no bank on Abaco, but I think now Commonwealth Bank is in Maxwell’s (supermarket).

“I can tell you this that Ed Newell has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of his real estate office; he is doing a yeoman’s job. There have been people who have really put themselves out for this and that story should be told. A fat cat that happens to be able to afford to write a couple of cheques is not the story; the story is a Bahamian effort helping Bahamians.”