During an outreach within the environs of Georgetown on Tuesday, Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., disclosed that there are plans to refurbish the Cadet Lane Community Ground, which has been neglected for many years.
Minister Ramson detailed that the facility would be completely levelled, a turnstile and vehicle entrance would be constructed, floodlights would be installed, and a third entrance would be constructed. This rehabilitation would be completed by the end of this year.
As he urged those who reside in the community to maintain the cleanliness of the community ground, the Minister expressed, “It’s your ground, but you have to put effort into clearing it. You have to take care of your exercise book or your sports equipment. After you’re finished playing in the mud, you take a little toothbrush and go and clean it. Similarly, a community conference requires a kind of support, and it requires a kind of interest and caring.
“So I can come and do it myself, but it’s also important that you learn how to do this and take on that level of responsibility and discipline and maturity as you continue to get older.
All those things will help you, as you get older in life, to develop important lessons as well as principles and attitudes and behaviour. All of those things will help you to become successful in life.”
Indicating that a Rapid Response Group has been organized to monitor community grounds throughout Guyana, Minister Ramson added, “So we’ve organized already, right? And you can see the ground is in very decent condition in terms of the level of the grass. I organized within my ministry a Rapid Response Group. So, we sent around our machines, there are 34 community grounds in Georgetown, we sent around our machines. We have tractors, we have driving lawn mower tractors, we have some bobcat excavators and mini excavators. We don’t generally need the excavators and bobcats. Very rarely do we need it.
“Let’s say, for example, in a situation like this, where you’ve got a whole bunch of stuff at the side of the road, you might need it for that: to clear the parapet; or if you’ve got a roof material down here, they just park the material on the bridge. We might use it in that situation, but very rarely.
“Mostly, though, what we do now is just bring the tractor. It’s got a slasher at the back. They just come and drive. They drive for even an hour, two hours, whatever it is, and then they move to another location. So, we do that once a month, depending on how much rain there is.
“We haven’t had to deploy that during a rainy season yet. Obviously, you know that grass grows more when there’s a lot more rain. We haven’t had to deploy that as yet since we started it, but we’re going to monitor it. You’ve got to keep in mind that if we were to do that when the ground is really soft, the heavier machines damage the ground. The problem with that, though, is that when we have to cut with the slasher, with the hand slasher, it’s very expensive.
“To cut the ground now is probably about $300,000; just to cut the ground with hand slashers. Because you’re not only cutting the grass, you’ve got to pick it up and then you’ve got to take it away. So, it’s expensive, depending on the size of the ground. But for maintenance, we have devised an in-house solution that has been working very well.”
Over the past few years, Cadet Lane Community Ground had become a veritable jungle that had caused the community much discomfort. However, the Ministry of Sport has already eradicated the bush and has erected a fence, giving the local youths a secure place to play. (Omar McKenzie)
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