Skip to main content

Liberia: Paynesville Mayor Blames Filthy City on Lack of Citizens Cooperation, Lack of Funding; No Equipment



Paynesville City Mayor Pan Belcher-Taylor

Paynesville, one of Liberia’s largest municipalities, has come under the spotlight for its filths and mountains of garbage while the city corporation appear incapable of remedying the situation.
But responding to criticisms from the public since concerns heightened over the increasing presence of garbage in the commercial district of Red Light and several other communities in the city, Mayor Belcher –Taylor argued that she took over a city government that had no logistics and funding.
“We don’t have any equipment here. When I first got appointed and I took over as city mayor, I didn’t even meet a wheelbarrow, I didn’t meet stationery, I didn’t have fuel to run the generator,” she told reporters Tuesday.



“My first day here, I put my hand in my handbag and bought the fuel and stationery to start doing the people’s work. I never ask for reimbursement because it’s my duty as a public servant to serve my people and to serve them well.”
She also complained about how she’s struggling to manage the city due to lack of resources, adding that she was constrained to “beg” private individuals, who loaned the city trucks and loaders to dispose stockpile of garbage.
“ When I came here, there was not even one tricycle here. A friend of mine was the one that turn them over to this city. We are sourcing funding to be able to build transfer stations all over Paynesville for people to be able to dump their dirt. We want to do door to door garbage collection and have been asking the people of Paynesville to come and pay small fees to the city for garbage collection,” she said.
Mayor Belcher –Taylor disclosed that she inherited a debt of US$300,000 that she has been struggling to service while operating on a “negative bank balance”.
“We were running the city on friendship. I see one friend I beg for gas slip, I see one friend I call because I know the people who owned AMINATA – we go and credit because we don’t even have LEC in this building. We are running on generator. I can’t believe the city hall of the largest city doesn’t even have LEC when we have a substation next door,” she said.


At the same time, she accused the leadership of the Red Light market of not fully cooperating in order to clear the garbage off the market.
“I went to Gobachop market, I started crying because I couldn’t believe that my people were living like that,” she explained. “But the LMA allowed the marketers to sell under those conditions… I called for yellow machine on loan and escorted the yellow machine into Gobachop. We clean Gobachop, but it took us 10 days to clean Goba-chop market.”
She said discussions with the marketing association, which is collecting fees from marketers for garbage management, in order to remedy situation have shown little progress so far.


“They came here, and we talk back and forth; finally in March – the records are here – they brought in L$100,000 in March,” she said of the LMA contribution to PCC for waste collection.
She then frowned on the marketing association, while also calling on marketers themselves “to hold their leadership that they voted accountable to take them out of that dirt”.
“Either they pay to the city or find a way to strategize to clean out that dirt from Red Light and they should not shift blame on anybody because they are to be blame,” she blasted.
When PCC opted to conduct a second phase of cleaning-up of Red Light, companies the administration owed heavy debts requested rental fees before continuing the contract, she said.
“I beg and we got the trucks again and we started dealing with a new company. Right now, I have the people’s bill, US$40,176.00. Who wants to run a company and owed somebody 40,000 dollars and you don’t know when you going to get paid, but I pleaded and keep saying my name is on the line because LMA has refused. They are collecting the money, but they are not paying to the city. They collect garbage fees from the marketers to go sit down in that sun and rain with their children.”
She stressed that although the LMA is collecting garbage fees, it often default of its contribution to the City.
“We do collect fees as a city but those fees are use to run this office. We have to buy stationery; we have to buy ink we have to buy fuel. Businesses paid US$55 annually on an average. Some paid US$30; some paid US$25 for the year. We have over 5,000 businesses and we are even trying to track businesses in Paynesville. Out of this amount, only 2,902 have paid up to date.”
She added that when the ‘Weah for Clean City’ was launched, the President observed PCC challenges and approved “some finances for this city corporation”.
“We have gotten the first portion of the money but we had to paid some of the people we owed to be able to carry out this work. Because we were owing too much money.
We were able to get a 150 youths to put them to work because that was what that money was meant for – to empower young people.”


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

President George Weah's One Day National Forum Successfully Attended by 26 Political Parties

On Thursday, August 8, 2018, President George Weah had a sit down with 26 political parties of Liberia.  The meeting aimed at advancing ideals that promote the spirit of national unity and political tolerance between opposition political parties and the government.  ANC, LP and UP attended the meeting as a team. According to Deputy Minister Eugene L. Fahngon, Deputy Minister for Press and Public Affairs at Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism, all 26 political parties attended and participated from start to finish.  Even though, social media was buzzing about AB Dillion walking out of the meeting, he walked out as an individual and not a political party, "the invitation was extended to political parties and not to individuals," Minister Fahngon stated in his live video.  Each political party gave ideals and recommendations, which made the meeting a great success.  According to  Deputy Minister Fahngon, "there will be future engagements as such.&quo

What President Trump and Kim Jong Un Ate

The historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continued midday Tuesday, as the leaders satisfied their appetites while holding negotiations with a contingent of advisers over a working lunch. The lunch, which followed a 45-minute one-on-one meeting between the leaders earlier in the morning and bilateral discussion with senior aides, was held at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island. It was far from an intimate affair, with each leader accompanied by a bevy of senior staff, according to the White House. Joining Trump were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Deputy Assistant to the President for Asian Affairs Matthew Pottinger. Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chol , the former spy chief and one of North Korea’s chief negotiators, as well as Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, former

Snapchat Slammed for Domestic Violence Meme Featuring Rihanna and Chris Brown

If Kylie Jenner ‘s stock-plummeting Snapchat rant didn’t make you delete the app, maybe this will. Over the weekend, Snapchat found itself in hot water after a now-deleted domestic violence meme featuring Rihanna and Chris Brown went viral. The meme, which was an advertisement for the app “Would You Rather,” asked users whether they would prefer to “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.” Almost immediately, screenshots of the ad appeared on Twitter, with many criticizing Snapchat for making light of domestic violence. Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG — Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018 Many considered the ad a mockery of Rihanna’s experience with domestic violence. In 2009, Brown was arrested and charged for physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna hours before she was to perform at the Grammy awards. Since the incident, Rihanna has spo