Point Fortin mayor concerned about security expenditure

A decision to reschedule the placement of 22 municipal police officers in the Point Fortin Borough Corporation was met with disbelief by Mayor Abdon Mason who described the corporation’s present spending on private security as an “unnecessary spend”.

Mason was addressing the corporation’s monthly statutory meeting at its council chambers, George Road, Mahaica, Point Fortin on Wednesday.

The officers were supposed to assume duties on December 2, but this was carried forward to January 2019 as they had not completed their training because of flooding earlier in the month.

The recruits had been used to assist in the flood relief efforts.

This caused Mason to question the use of the private security and requested a meeting with the firm’s head to discuss several issues.

Meanwhile, Mason said while a vote of no confidence in the borough’s chief executive officer had been tabled at a special statutory meeting last week, the emphasis should have been on four other motions which would benefit the borough.

“The thing is, while that was part of a series of motions, we lost track of the other motions that were passed that day and I think those motions were more specific to the further development of Point Fortin.”

The motions were: To rename Frisco roundabout to the Jereem Richards roundabout; to review the disaster management plan for the Point Fortin region with specific inclusion of an emergency operation plan to be a part of that disaster management plan.

The third motion is to twin the city of Castries St Lucia with the borough of Point Fortin while the fourth motion is to engage in a consultancy arrangement with quality communications to help the corporation work towards of the monetisation of the borough celebrations.