Government is expected to lose $1 – $2 million in tax revenue, workers will lose a projected $200,000 in sales commissions and taxis may lose $140,000 because their parking spots are blocked, according to the Nassau Tourism and Development Board.
“This is the tragedy of the mess which we now face,” Normon Solomon, acting chairman of the board, told Prime Minister Christie in a letter dated December 7 and released to members yesterday.
The bleachers are being erected just as the board kicks off an evening programme of shopping, dining and local entertainment designed to drum up business for struggling Bay Street.
The board released the letter to outline its “unsuccessful efforts,” to prevent a repeat of last year’s bleacher problem and its “disappointment in the outcome”
It informed members that as of December 10 to New Year’s Day, bleachers would be assembled, broken down and reassembled to accommodate the Junior Junkanoo, Boxing Day and New Year’s parades.
Mr. Solomon said the board met with or wrote to the relevant ministry to share concerns and recommendations on October 31, November 7 and December 2 in 2002; and again on January 31, November 3, 13 and 25, 2003.
The board was repeatedly told that “everything humanly possible” would be done to minimise disruption.
Then on November 25, the board was told bleacher construction would start on December 5 and remain in place until after the New Year.
“We expressed shock and dismay,” and in fact were told that “had we known earlier of your concerns we could have ordered a different kind of bleacher.”
On November 28, a group of retailers met with Mr. Wisdom.
The minister, said Mr. Solomon, indicated government would pay overtime to cover the assembly and breakdown of bleachers between parades.
He promised a meeting with C3 “which never materialised”.
The Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe intervened and a meeting was arranged for December 8 with Mr. Wisdom and C3 to discuss the matter.
But on December 6, two days before the meeting Bay Street was blocked and bleacher construction started without the board or public’s klnowledge.
The Tribune
