Toll booth will not cause hardship to Lindeners – Mayor

Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland said he is 50 per cent pleased and 50 per cent displeased with progress in the mining town so far, while he also acknowledged that developmental works are in progress.

During a recent Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) public update, Holland said projects such as the return of the Kara Kara toll booth at Mackenzie, Linden, were sought after in an effort to assist with the offsetting of expenses incurred by the cash strapped municipality over the years.

He assured residents that the toll booth was designed to bring relief to the township of Linden and persons who are using the roads of Linden, especially those coming from out of town and those who are coming into Linden to transport their logs.

“With these big trucks that would cause some amount of damage and stress to our roads… we have to recover in some way. For instance, there is no way the municipality should be made to pay millions of dollars in repairs within the township and we receive nothing in return, which has been the thing going on in our town for many years… Where we’re receiving let’s say one per cent and we are paying out 99 per cent. We cannot survive in such a way nor in such a manner,” he outlined.

Holland assured that Lindeners will not be heavily taxed from the toll booth, but rather will be required to make a small contribution twice a year, upon further consultations with local businesses and the Linden Chamber of Industry Commerce and Development.

He said, “It’s a way of giving back to the community for these businesses. It’s the vehicles that are out of town coming into Linden with day to day heavy-duty vehicles and vehicles that are coming in to the township to sell goods. Persons in Linden have been complaining for many years that the trucks would just come to Linden… and sell and leave, but they have to give something back to the community. So those are the vehicles we will be targeting and not the Lindeners, so we don’t expect any rise in costs or any hardships on the township.”

Additionally, the Mayor revealed that while the municipality is also plagued with garbage disposal woes, it is currently working to correct the situation, noting that it was the recipient of a tractor which is presently being utilised in the community.

He said the municipality is looking to have everyone on board, noting that the return of the toll booth is important at the moment since the earnings of the municipality is extremely low, as compared to its output and expenditure.

With these challenges, Holland said it is difficult for the administration to take on projects such as its daycare centre and the repair of roads. He said too that the Council is in such a bad shape that it cannot afford fuel for its vehicles to conduct its work or equipment to carry out those works.

He said, “We are currently looking to put an end to the garbage disposal situation in the community and we’ve been trying to do this. We don’t have the finances, as the township would know that the municipality inherited a debt of over 200 million dollars and we’ve been working to get rid of that so that we can offset expenses and raise salaries for our workers. We’re looking to do more within the community. So we decided to go after things that would bring finances into the community, such as the return of the toll booth, which was taken away from us under the previous regime,” the Mayor said.

He pointed out that in the quest to move Linden from a township to a city, there is need to develop infrastructure and for Private sector and Government to buy into plans and programmes being undertaken by the Council.

He disclosed that the municipality is looking at twinning with other parts of the world, including Newark, United States, Paraguay, Peru and China, as well as port development with Brazil, with municipal support from various other cities.

The Mayor is calling on the residents to lend their full support towards efforts aimed at the overall improvement of the town.