Cevon’s in hot water with Region 10 RDC over “illegal dumping”
By Utamu Belle
Concerns are presently being raised by the Region 10 Democratic Council (RDC) over the alleged discriminate dumping of waste by Cevon’s Waste Disposal in the vicinity of the Linden Watershed situated at Wismar.
The issue formed part of a back and forth discussion at the RDC statutory meeting on Thursday, with Councillor Douglas Gittens referring to the alleged act as an “illegal operation”.
The meeting which was held on Thursday
However, in 2012, a contract was signed between the previous administration of the RDC and Cevon’s for the company to conduct waste disposal operations in the Linden community. While the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) was the sole entity responsible for the community’s waste management, the Council had opted not to engage in collaboration with Cevon’s.
In addressing the issue at the meeting, Regional Chairman Renis Morian resorted to informing the Council of the contract which was signed by the previous RDC. He made a promise to have the content of the contract be made available to the Council.
“It’s a strange contract. All the then REO signed to is for Cevon’s Waste to operate in Linden. But Cevon’s Waste had to go to the individual homes and get their own contract to pick up the waste from persons. The problem that came out of this is that Cevon’s is dumping within the Watershed Management”, Morian stated.
Gittens, who was also a part of the previous RDC indicated that the contract was expected to be overlooked by that Council, however since it was not under its jurisdiction, Cevon’s was instructed to consult with the LM&TC. He opined that this was not done.
“…I think they made a decision to send them away and let Linden people deal with the situation because we have the capacity to deal with something like this on our own. People bought trucks and are willing to provide the service. Why somebody got to come from town to do it?” Gittens exclaimed.
This was refuted by Councillor Gordon Callender who was part of the previous LM&TC. “We had no discussions over this issue… when that document (was) signed it just appeared just so at the Town Council to say contract signed, Cevon’s in the place. We didn’t know anything about it,” he said.
This was partially refuted by Councillor Charles Sampson who was also of LM&TC at the time. Sampson disclosed that initial discussions were conducted at the time, however the Council disagreed with the proposal made by the waste disposal entity.
“As a private company, we could not stop Cevon’s from doing business in Linden, especially if they went to individual members of the community and put forward their proposal to do business… We could not object to that… I don’t have a problem with Cevon’s doing business in Linden if they’re doing business with private individuals but we always said that the municipality had a responsibility to collect garbage in the town and that is what we stuck to…”, he reiterated.
Meanwhile, Regional Executive Officer Gavin Clarke said while the RDC may not be able to stop Cevon’s from operating, it can still hold the entity responsible for the way it does so, also to terminate its contract if the relevant specifications are not met.
