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THE BELIZE TIMES
WOMAN IN THE HOUSE By Dolores Balderamos Garcia
The time has come! A little over a week ago it came to my attention that a letter had been written to the newspapers making the proposal that Ladyville/Lord’s Bank should become a town. The letter is written by Major Lloyd Jones, retired officer of the BDF who lives in the BDF area of Lord’s Bank. Major Jones has been outspoken on several important issues, and I found his proposal interesting. I have to say that his proposal is nothing new. He has certainly not made any great discovery in putting this issue forward. I can recall that back in 1990, when Mr. Gaspar Lara, of blessed memory, was Chairman of the Ladyville Village Council, he and I actually went house to house campaigning for Ladyville to become a town. The Ladyville/Lord’s Bank area has been my stomping ground for a very long time. I still worship at Our Lady of the Way R.C. Church, both my sons having been christened there
twenty-five and twenty years ago respectively. Let me hasten to say that I very much welcome this idea coming forward again, and Major Jones is to be commended for once more putting it on the table. If memory serves, when Mr. Lara and I campaigned on this issue, then area representative Glenn Godfrey took the view that Ladyville/Lord’s Bank should become part of “greater Belize City,” whatever that meant. And when Ralph Fonseca was representative from 1993 to 2008 the whole area saw unprecedented growth, development, and attention. No joke indeed – Ralph worked for all of us! Again I feel very grateful that the idea for township has come up once more (although I am not sure whether Lord’s Bank residents would wish to be a part of the Town of Ladyville/ Lord’s Bank). I do not think anyone can gainsay that the present situation is not working at all. With over 4,000 voters
and close to 9,000 residents Ladyville/ Lord’s Bank is a sprawling suburban/rural area, stretching from the Haulover Bridge all the way up to the Mile 13 junction with the Burrell Boom to Hattieville Road. It comprises the Airport area, Vista del Mar, New Site, Mitchell Estate, Perez Road/ Plunkett Road, Old Northern Highway, Lord’s Bank/Old Well Road area, Marage Road/Milpa area, Los Lagos, Lake Garden, and the Mile 13 area. The village council does not have the authority and clout nor the resources to service these huge communities, and change is desperately needed. Two examples will suffice to make the point strongly. First, the Chinese supermarkets that have sprung up and which are making loads of money from all these communities have mostly been left to develop and place cement parking areas but with no proper culverts for drainage. This has caused the highway to literally become broken up, and Ministry of Works officials are sick and tired of doing “cover benjie” work to deal with the problems, not to mention how sick and tired residents are of the terrible roads and the problems of lack of drainage. Not to mention a complete paucity of other essential services like cleaning drains and proper garbage collection and enforcement of no littering signs. Every time it rains hard Ladyville R.C. School is under water and classes have to be called off. Plus the various businesses pay almost no taxes and are left to go on their merry way hauling almost every last dollar out of Ladyville/Lord’s Bank people. They certainly get quite a bit of my mon-
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2013 ey, as it is quite convenient for me to shop there. Secondly, there has been the recent development of M & M Engineering doing their business at their new premises along the Old Northern Highway. While we can never be against jobs for our people, the result has been pure grief for residents, including those of Dew Drop Estate (which I didn’t mention above). Massive heavy equipment including trucks with flatbed trailers and cement piles, cement trucks, cranes, etc. are now twenty-four seven traversing stretches of the road that were never meant to accommodate such heavy loads. The result has been HORRENDOUS. I am supporting residents in dialoguing with M & M Engineering and bringing all this to the Ministry of Works’ attention. This situation cannot continue, and M & M must bear full responsibility for the breaking up of the roadways. These two examples make it patently clear that there needs to be a municipal body for Ladyville/Lord’s Bank that will have some clout. And we all know that this will mean TAXES. Unlike Lloyd Jones I am less concerned about the make-up of the Town Council and other ancillary matters like the education level of members. My main concern is to sit with residents to iron out how the tax structure will work when, by legislation, town status, or other municipal status that has some teeth, is granted to the area. Let us think this out and talk seriously about it. THE TIME HAS COME!!!