EDITORIAL

From restoration to beautification

Wednesday,  June 15, 2005

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ivan there was an enormous effort by everyone here in the Cayman Islands to pull this country back together as quickly as possible.

Virtual miracles took place to get communications and utilities up and running again, businesses pulled out all the stops to do what they could to resume trading as quickly as possible and home owners began patching up their houses as best they could.

At the weekends volunteers from churches, service clubs, charities and numerous private and public sector organisations could be seen cleaning and fixing up the roads, the beaches and anywhere that needed attention.
In those first few months following the landfall of Ivan 11 and 12 September last year in the wake of the storm, there was a concerted effort all round by the community as a whole to get Cayman back to as near to normality as was possible given the circumstances.

Yet in the last few months or so, these valiant efforts slowed and in some cases seemed to have ground to a halt particularly since MC Restoration reportedly completed their contract, to remove 300,000 cubic yards of debris, said to be only half the amount generated by the storm.

Where insurance settlements have been made, work is visibly underway, but there seems to be so many places where there still appears to be problems.

At the moment we find ourselves driving past sites that look the same now as they did just after the storm if not worse.

It therefore goes without saying that the focus should now be from restoration to beautification.

This is not happening and more importantly the arrival of yet another hurricane season and with it the first tropical storm, demonstrates how quickly the country could be in further disarray.

Right now the Cayman Islands needs to make another concerted effort to restore the beauty we once knew and aim to do so before the peak return of tourists for the Christmas season this year.

If the service clubs, churches and voluntary organisations could join forces again with the support of Government, we could devise a master plan to get our country back to how it once was, but it means everyone must take responsibility to begin dealing with the matter seriously.

Everything from the removal of the rotting vegetation and rubble that still litters the beaches around Bodden Town to the crumbling Ocean Club condominium complex on the beaches at Prospect, needs to be addressed.

This may mean the enactment of legislation to enforce insurance settlements so that properties can be restored, and if complexes and buildings cannot be re-built, they should no longer be left in a state of ill repair, but bulldozed and then the site cleaned up and made attractive until re-development begins again.

We also need to address the car problem once and for all — getting those that cannot be made roadworthy off the Island and out of view.

Above all we need a harmonized and organised clean-up operation to finish what was started in the early days. We should use our own contractors and our own people who are ready, willing and able to make our country beautiful again.

With a co-ordinated and well-focused plan we could soon be proud of the true beauty of Cayman Islands once again. Moreover not just for visiting tourists but also for all the people who live here and call these beloved Isles home.

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