High school opening delayed
(CNS): The opening of Clifton Hunter high school, which was on schedule for Easter, has been postponed again. The education minister told CNS last week that he believed the plan for the students to begin moving in after the Easter holiday could be disrupted as a result of what he described as “shoddy work” at the site that had to be addressed. Rolston Anglin has not yet confirmed the details of what he called an “unexpected delay” but it is understood that the school will now not open until September and the start of the 2012-13 academic year. He denied that the move was political and he stated that the current administration was committed to opening the first of the two high school projects as soon as possible.
The two high school projects have become the biggest, and it appears from the current government’s claims the most expensive, political footballs that Cayman has ever seen and became a point of enormous contention during the 2009 election campaign.
Alden McLaughlin, the opposition leader and former education minister, commissioned the projects as a result of what he had described as a pressing need to address the overcrowding and sub-standard conditions in which the country’s students were being educated. He told CNS that he had been very disappointed to hear recently that the opening of the school would be delayed yet again but not surprised.
McLaughlin said he understood the delay was down to cash. Government now has five school projects on the go and he claimed it was facing serious financial problems in its efforts to complete any of them.
“Government is scrambling to find money to complete the primary school additions, they have abandoned the John Gray project and they don’t have the money to finish Clifton Hunter and have pushed back the opening date to September and even that date is opening to question because of funding issues.”
He acknowledged that the country needed to work on the primary schools but he said it was a question of priorities as the government now was struggling to find the money to complete anything at all.
McLaughlin also questioned the increased figures that government continues to throw out about each of the schools costing $100million.
“The big question is how we got to a $100 million, because the majority of the expenditure has been incurred under this administration and there has been no public accounting of how we got to this figure,” he stated.
The original contract to build the schools was around $110milllion for both buildings $51 million for Clifton Hunter and $59 million for John Gray. After the project started, however, the contractors, Tom Jones International claimed some $17 milllion in overruns before getting into a dispute with government and walking off the job site in November 2009. They later filed suit against the Cayman Islands Government, a case which is continuing through the courts.
McLaughlin, who has faced persistent criticism over the high school projects, stated that despite the financial issues he had been committed to the two high schoolsas a question of equality. The current minister, he said, was now facing the potentially serious and unfair problem of inequality in education.
If and when Clifton Hunter opens, the students from one geographical area of Grand Cayman will have access to a state-of-the-art school, while the other students from George Town and West Bay will be left in the ever deteriorating unacceptable conditions of John Gray.
“A lot of people still beat up on me,” he said about his continuation with the two projects in the face off government’s deteriorating financial fortunes, “but it was about my commitment to equity in education because it is just wrong in principle to have the kids from one area having access to all of these facilities, amenities and opportunities while other kids, just because of where they are from, do not have access. My policy was when we do the high schools they had to be done all at once so all kids had the same opportunities. That is not what is going to happen now.”
Anglin told CNS that he was well aware of the inequity that would arise once Clifton Hunter opened while the John Gray projected remained stalled, but he said that was the way it had to be as the UK would simply not allow government to borrow the money needed to carry-on with both schools. He acknowledged that the students affected would also be those from his constituency and that if it affected his election chances then so be it. Theminister said he was not doing his job to win the election but was doing what was right for the country.
The current education minister also denied that his attention on the redevelopment of the primary schools had anything to do with him seeking his own legacy as education minister or that he should have prioritised the secondary school projects over the new primary school sites. Anglin said that the overcrowding and problems in the primary school were a priority and needed to be addressed.
McLaughlin said he appreciated that there were huge demands on the limited amount of money that government had to spend on education but it was a question of priorities. He said he feared that the constant delays at Clifton Hunter were because once people’s children start going to that school a lot of the negativity that he said had attended him would stop as people recognised what he had been trying to achieve.
Category: Local News
Does anyone know who will be teaching at the school? I need a new job!
Maybe the "shoddy" work was because this was supposed to be done by Caymanian companies and it wasn't?
Can somebody FOI what XXXX is doing for the Ministry at the schools? It will be very interesting once you find out who the principals are….
Some things never change….
CNS: Perhaps you could do the FOI.
Haha, good one CNS
When the contractors are picked for flag waving political reasons this is what you get.
Can we get off the subject wether the school should have been built or not and move on! Obivously, they started building the school and it now needs to be finished.
What I can not understand for the life of me is why there are funds available to build a f_ing boat ramp in Bodden Town where we have no money to finish the school and the government has recently missed once again the payment of various bills.
Whoever says the schools are not needed is any idiot and probably has not been to either of the High Schools recently. Those facilities remind me of a prison, not of a school! Stop comparing matters back to 1972 when you went to school – times have changed.
Whether the school should have been built to its size and format is now water under the bridge. At this stage, the entire country should back this project and see that it will be finished so that we can accomplish at least ONE thing this year and move on!
The answer to the ramp is the pathetic side effect of the district system. Each district has to get something. The Bodden Towners are the worst for this on GC. "Well if there is [x] in George Town, what about my district? Meh, meh, meh".
With all due respect, the ramp in BT is vitally needed as there are no other launching facilities on the south coast between south sound and frank sound, and in event of emergency on the south coast it will come in very convenient.
My question is, in relation to the BT ramp works: Where is the dock?
All of the plans and drawings i have seen regarding this "revised" facility do not include a dock. If there is an emergency rescue and the rescue boat is coming back to BT ramp with the injured persons, how are they supposed to get from the boat to the waiting ambulance, etc.?
Can I add there is money for bodyguards, cook, Hurricane Hilton, paving parking lots, Christmas lights,travels with entourages, etc? But no money to finish the schools? Really and truly?
The Lord said, we should spend on bodyguards/shopping cart pushers, Hurricane Hilton, cook passages, accommodation, chauffers and all the trimmings, but leave schools for later.
I wonder what is going to happen, when they are no longer in their present positions that attracts all of these perks and they have to come down from their pedestals? What a laugh it couldbe if it wasn't so serious.
The ONLY way this gets done on time and for the price that it should be done for is to get an expat run company(if you can find one that will work for CIG) and leave them alone. Otherwise sit back and watch total incompetence at work. Which is exactly what happens here. That and the constant Blaming of others. Its Cayman. XXXX
i bet sept 2012 will be missed too….
Another critic!
OMG, yall killin' me!! Always ready to play the blame game! Realistically which brainiac decided to open a new school 2 months before summer break! In my opinion it only makes sense to wait until September! DUH!!
For once think about the kids…moving in April would be terrible for them….getting prepared for exams, etc. I for one know what its like to move to a brand new school during the school year…IT'S A PAIN! Our children have waited for this since god knows how long…waiting a few months won't KILL anyone!
anon12:40
You sound pretty ungreatful, you could at least forward your opinion with out spitting hate at Rolston, he is only trying t do his bast, with what we got. My guess, you werent around when the Brac high school opened in Jan of 1967.
Stop putting Caymnians down for trying. The PPM made a mess by giving this project to some foreign company in the first place. hy should April be bad for these kids now?
What is this government doing? Everythingis being delayed.
What ever happened to the 2010 Census? It's about to be 2 years since they came to my house and all now we can't get the results. I'm versy sorry to inform ESO but this Government has messed you guys up with any surveys you have coming out because the participation rate will be low.
Get it together Government….can you do something right and on time?
Elections will be here before you know it!!!
If there was a problem with overcrowding then split the school day into 2 sessions. Its done in other countries and works just fine. 8 a.m.- 3 p.m. and another starts at 3 p.m. – 10 p.m. The same buses that go to pick up the 3 p.m finishers will drop of the 3 p.m starters and buses run at 10 p.m. Maybe it would keep some of these kids of the streets also…. Or cut it down by 1 hr each session and make up for it by taking 2 or 3 extra days of school from a summer holiday.
Its too late now as millions of dollars have been spent and instead of upgrading the old schools and maybe paying well deserved teachers a bit more I just hope we can get ourselves out of the red.
Really 3pm – 10pm? Yea right because you know BIG people playing dominos outside their houses getting robbed, so I'll be okay with my Kid strolling through the door 10-11 at night after school, & keeping them off the road? More like encouraging it. Lord, some of you people's two cents that you guys feel your putting in equals more to nonsense.
Forget all the BS – he said, she said.
Does anyone else with a brain not think that the cost of the 2 schools at around CI$50 milliion each is a little on the high side ? For God's sake you can build a 1300 place academy in the UK, probably built to a far higher standard with better facilities and more space, in London (very very expensive real estate…not on the FSR) for between £18-£30 million. Oh but never mind as long as Caymanian heavy machinery operators are getting in on the act………….
Do the maths folks – even with a very good exchange rate it would seem the value for money is not being found. You wonder why this island is having the issues it's facing…………
WHY?
The people want Caymanians to do the work which is great. But they also want it done to modern day(expat, rest of the world, what everyone else expects standard) which is unrealistic. Just for a monent take adeep breath. Now look at your memories of all the past projects done by CIG with local labor. Take another deep breath and now look at your memories of projects on island done with expat run expat skill. Only some of you will have the skill to see the answer. For the rest get an expat friend to do it for you. I hope this answered the question for you.
Bigot.
Incompetance at all levels.
Corruption at all levels.
These are not just schools. In the persistent focus on the cost of these facilities, the reality that they are multi-purpose community centres is ignored. The facilities are designed as hurricane shelters, built not just to withstand Category 5 hurricanes but to provide shelter during and in the aftermath of a hurricane. The shelter component of the design added an estimated 25% to the cost of the facilities. Secondly, they are designed as sporting faciiities, including an indoor gym, football fields, cricket pitches and a half-size Olympic pool. They include what is called a "Global Learning Centre" which is essentially a 21st Century library utilising modern technology. All this in addition to providing academies to allow for smaller cohorts of students to be taught and mentored in a more initimate environment rather than be lost in the anonoymity of a large school.
Alden's plan was that these facilities would be open and available to the people in the communities in which they are situated up unitl 10 in the evening. They are designed to be commumity centres and in the case of the one in Frank Sound, to provide the communities in the eastern districts and the children who attend school there with oportunities and facilites which they have never known.
Too bad there are so few people with vision and passion about the development of Caymanian children and people. Perhaps, just perhaps, if the current govenrment will ever finish Clifton Hunter, once people see the facilites and understand all the possibilites they provide, understanding may finally trump ignorance.
great ideas…but not worth bakrupting the country for…..
Obviously it is! Anything to keep the unemployable relatives working.
At the end of the day you can’t expect a party with an uneducated and uncouth leader to give a damn about education. The longer we keep our country for generations to come in subpar facilities with subpar and antiquated teaching methods… the longer they (the leaching politicias) will stay in power.
And united, educated and free-thinking society is the only thing a leaching and undemocratic government fears.
Continue to let this government keep your minds and your children!s futer shrouded in a dark cloud of ignorance and finger pointing and you will have no one to blame but yourselfs when the smoke and mirrors are removed and you realize how you were fooled.
Invest in education. Invest in your children. Its our future as a people to evovle. The world is changing and your yesteryear of what was good for you is good for your child is a ridiculous notion. If you are obsolete at least have the decency as a patent to demand the upgrade for your child instead of keeping them in the dark ages.
the problem was, due to errors in the tender / contract documents it was never going to cost the contract sum…. Maybe if the cost hadnt risen they CIG would have been able to afford it… Should have done a fixed price design build contract like the GOAB.
Worked at the site and part of the issue is that, they are replacing and redoing things 3 times to get it right!
Was that because they had difficulty in getting it right, or because the were paid each time to redo the job so it didn't matter?
Whatever happend to the "three stikes and you are out" law?
21: 59
just look at the thumbs down.
Now i worked at the school also and the onlly work that was being done over, was what Tom Jones did, before the UDP Government took over.
And let me say this, I have 40 years in the building industry, i just didnt drift in yesterday and got my trades license by being a caymanian. i worked for it.
You can thumb me down all you want…you PPM …ers, but you cant take away the fact, their are millions of dollars of f@@ed up work done by Tom Jones, and i only hope that the Professional company that took over the project managing side of it, documents it well.
I want to say a big "Thank you" to Rolston for doing his best with what we have left, to try and finish these schools, for our loving Caymanian children, and lets leave the politics out of it….our children comes first. That is why we have so many on the streets with out any direction to go.
Stanley-A Caymanian
Maybe I am wrong but I thought the thinking behind these new schools was to help alleviate the overcrowding in the older schools.In other words the new school(Clifton Hunter)being built where it is, was to be able to take the North side,East End and Savannah children and the John Gray school was to take the G/Town kids.Finally the one in West Bay was to take the kids in that district.This would help to drastically reduce the traffic flow from these areas into G/Town.If this is not the case then in my humble opinion this is how it should have been set up.The mistake made was obviously trying to do the 3 schools at the same time.I hear from some on here that the school building with all its modern equipement will not help re educating the kids but I honestly feel that kids in a comfortable school will learn well and with the help of good teachers they will go through school with a much better attitude.and their exam results WILL show that this indeed the case.In closing the children are the most important part of this equation and they should not have to suffer the consequences of poor planning and so called shoddy work so Mr.Minister lets get on with this and get it finished.
And Peter, that is exactly what Rolston is doing. He is getting on well with these schools. they are looking very nice we shoould all be proud of them.
As you said these school are for our children,which is the most important aspect here ..
What is a pathetic condemnation of this disaster of a goverment, apart from the "shoddy work" party members, friends and family only plan for getting things not done properly, is that at the current rate, the PPM will be back in power and organising the official opening.
Anon16:45
Let me ask you this ,have you been at the school? And let me tell you this, some of the best of Caymanian builders, some with 35 years experience worked at that school to correct the shoddy works carried out by Tom Jones…dont listen to the bull shit on the street, you know many of them, just ask them.
These same Caymanian should have built these schools in the first place.
Why you stirring up shit about the Government that fought to get the money to finish these schools, so our loving Caymanian kids can get an education. Rolly, my friend, fight on for our loving children, they need these facilities, and education. Do not pay the critics any mind, they are jealous of you, you are doing a fantastic job. God bless you!
I am someone who was involved in the schools albeit no longer. I think everyone involved in the schools during the Tom Jones era needs to take an inward look. As far as I know, up to the point when Tom Jones ceased work, the CIG, Architects, Engineers and Surveyors did not raise any significant issues with quality. Were Tom Jones really that bad? Maybe, they did significantly change the management that started the jobs (a couple of times!??!?!)…. But they were not building this on their own! Were all the CIG people and consultants walking around with their eyes shut? Are they culpable? Were they asleep at the wheel?
We all need to realise Tom Jones were just the builder, they effectively do what they are told. If they were told that the work was substandard, they should have been told at the tme and told they wont have be paid until it was put right!
Also, I find it VERY frustrating when people say that Tom Jones put in additional costs, asserting that they are put in spuriously – I dont think there is a full understanding of how the contract was let. It was a standard US AIA form of building contract whereby the client remains in control of the design. IF CIG did not change design / specification from the tender, IF the Architect and Engineer had drawn and detailed the project properly and did not vary the design from the tender, IF the Quantity Surveyor had not issues with his documents, then Tom Jones would not have any grounds for asking for additional money, but to get to the point where this is still in litigation clearly shows all of the former did occur. IF I were the consultants who were asleep at the wheel I would be advising my insurers and hoping that CIG doesnt wake up to the fact that they too are part of the mess!!
With regard to the use of Caymanian contractors – Tom Jones used many more Caymanian men than the other blue blooded Caymanian Contractors like McAlpine (…mmm arent McAlpine actually a British company???). Moreover what about CIG – why did they use a US Architect as lead designer? Why were the Engineer and Surveyors exclusively staffed by expats? Why specify products and methods of working in the schools which are not available on island? is that because the Architect, Engineer and Surveyor (as expats) didnt know what expertise was on island????
Been there also and everything you say is TRUE. The job was tendered using a Bill of Materials supplied by the Surveyor. If items were omitted or the quantities erroneously low these items would be additional cost to the Contract.
There was no suitable backfill on site as committed in the Contract Documents, all fill used was therefore an extra cost.
A Project of the magnitude of the high schools should have had a full-time Clerk of the Works which is a common practice everywhere else in the world but not in GC.
The skills required to build a Project of this magnitude were and are NOT available on Island.
If the original team from the CIG side was up to it, why they have to bring in David Benoit to sort the mess out??? Prior to his involvement, the whole team had their heads in the sand when it came to sorting the issues! Benoit was working with the new Tom Jones management team at the time (who also realised their original team was not up to it) to work through the issues and get the project back on track…. but the wheels came off when CIG could not pay money due and agreed with Benoit for the cock ups of their consultants.
As you mention, the contract was tendered and let using a Bill of Quantities that was so poorly put together that the surveyors preparing it didnt even put together in accordance with the measurement rules set by them!!! A lot of the costs applied for by Tom Jones were asked for due to these errors!!
I know for the issue you refer to on the fill well. Essentially the Surveyor forgot to measure in the Bill of Quantities all the fill required for the landscape – this one error by them had a value of over CI$1m on th Clifton Hunter school alone – were Tom Jones expected to pick up the tab for CIG's consultants errors??!?!? Of course not…. But should CIG??? of course not….. CIG are in court with the wrong people – you need to look closer to home…..
Anon 15;59
You full of shit boy, you all come here thinking Caymanian builders are dumb. what you fail to understand is, we been building here long before you came on our shores.I have 35 years in the trade..ran work crews in the USA….fired alot of dumb ones.
I return home to be only pushed out of market by expats workers, because of the different of the pigment of one's skin. Most Caymaninas and expats alike love to give their work to certain people of certain race.
Let me say this, there are bad workers and good workers in all countries you go. I might be wrong, but as far as I can remember CIG had no one looking out for their Interest. if they did, they weren' Cymanians.
We have to believe in Caymanians and give us a chance.
I am NOT full of shit BUT a Registered General Contractor. The skills I was referring to are the following: Quantity Surveyors, Designers, Engineers, and Architects. I am not aware of any Caymanian General Contractor that has the staffing and financial wherewithall to successfully handle both schools.
There are not enough Caymanian skilled craftsmen to staff both of these Projects.
you got a chip on your shoulder 'boy' – you aint gonna get a job anywhere in the world! You must be missing the point above – no one is cussing Caymanians or Caymanian builders – just the incompetance of the project management – local and expat!
Have the UDP completed anything besides an expensive roundtrip?
Ever heard of incompetence?????? We have it in abundance with this UDP government! Mr. Anglin is yet another UDP that has acomplished NOTHING since being elected. They are a bunch of failures. At least the PPM got things done, & done for the people & not themselves.
If you cant see what Rolston is accomplishing your eyes must be up your a@@ I wish people like you would stop talking shit.
Come next 3 to 4 months…what are you going to complain of then,??? "Rolston and UDP created too much work for the Caymanians? because bless your soul it is coming. And we the common sense none haters are waiting and willing and greatful to them for it.
I can remember hearing MR ANGLIN AND FOLIO ON the radio beating up on alden about caymanians could not get any jobs at the school at frank sound. Now mr anglin i am very dissapointed in you also for allowing the same problem to get worst at the school. we have so many cayman MASONS AND CARPENTERS out of work and this goverment would allow a company to bring in (14) fourteen columbians to do the side walks, for half of the price that caymanians are paid. there are many caymanians that could do those sidewalks. SO MR ANGLIN YOU AND FOLIO IS NO BETTER THAN MR MC LAUGHLIN
Maybe you could call Rolston and ask him about this statement that he made in the LA back on September 15, 2010:
Also, Madam Speaker, at a time when the local industry has been hard hit by the recession, this award will stimulate the local construction industry as contracts will be let for various works. Unlike my predecessor who did nothing to ensure that local contractors benefitted for the millions upon millions of dollars that followed the original contract award, for the two new high schools, this administration has ensured that local contractors will benefit from the opportunities provided to find employment.
It is my Ministry’s intention to subcontract as many small construction packages as possible with the aim of maximising opportunity for the local contractors. I have also instructed my Ministry’s project management team to ensure that bidding companies must provide their proposed worker list and that points be awarded based on the percentage of Caymanians. We will monitor these lists on a weekly basis for any company winning work on these two projects.
Yes, it has become a welfare project. You have a gazillion of small contractors, some of them with a lot of foreign laborers. The contractors are frequently rotated out and they wonder why the project keeps being delayed because the contractors have to be brought up to speed time and time again. Wow!
When they say "Caymanian Contractors" they mean one Caymanian owner and 15 or so expat workers.
Kung Fulio keeps going on about "the very photocopying was done overseas under the PPM", well I guess they (UDP) are doing the photocopying on island now but still have Caymanian contractors with majority expat workers
Caymanians need work, teach a man how to fish……
Anon 14;49
I have to agree with you on this. If it is the case. But lets find out first if this contract was signed and given to the Clumbians before Rolston took the schools over.
I also questioned the roofing project and was told that contract was already given to an American company, so was all the glasing and the finishes…all contracted out to overseas companies Thats what our PPM did to us builders.
From what i saw happened at the schools, whatever work that wasn't contracted out, Rolston made sure local contractors were hired…. and i know many of them.
Shoddy work is a farce. The amount of time that has elapsed since Tom Jones was terminated is enough to build, demolish and build the schools twice over.
Obviously lack of funds is the real issue.
S-eaking about 14 Columbians brought in to do side walks. Could Mr Anglin explain the reason for building another kiitchen at the Clifton Hunter school and how much in excess it has cost taxpayers? Was that a wise move? He is his wisdom has only added to the cost of the project.
Ten times the cost?!? I'm sorry, but I drive by Camana Bay every day and see the International School that was built by Dart on time, on budget, and a design that actually works in the Caribbean instead of a USA design. We could have had three of these schools for the same price by now and yet, still we wait for the politcal football and cronyism to be passed around. I'm not 100% pro-Dart, but at least he knows how to build a decent school. (anybody got a copier? I bet if we asked nicely for the plans…..)
anon 14;31
Yes, lack of funds are the major issue, we have to give Rolston high marks for getting these schools done with the little cash we have left after PPM left office. Yes there were lots of shoddy work, ask the Cayman builders that was forever jack hammeringwalls. Windows couldnt fit the openings.
You dont make sense, can you pay off your bank loan in one payday? the same thing here, CIG has to wait on cash to come in.
Maybe you just dont like the man but thats your business, and your low esteem.
Anybody who knows anything about building, or who has ever employed a contractor, knows that when you change contractors in the middle of a project the finish cost of the project is going to be greatly inflated from the original projected cost of the project. This is Project Management 101.
Another thing to consider is that materials have been left open to the elements for the past couple of years and were probably no longer up to their original integrity and may not have passed BCU standards. I bet you will find a substantial amount of materials at Mount Trashmore that have come from Clifton Hunter.
This situation will be the same with the other abandoned Government projects. Whoever is to blame – will we ever know? But the fact is these projects have been wasteful and brought unnecessary debt!
If Government is finding difficult to come up with the funds to finish the project, then where are they going to find the funds to sustain the campus? And how are they going to pay to educate the students, maintain the property and keep it secure and protect it's value?
Not sure who they are trying to fool. Work has been continuing quietly on the John Grey site, albeit slowly. Hell, they even recently painted a piece of it red. Shhhh, don't tell Ju Ju.
hahaha…the incomptence of this administration never ends………u-turns, flip-flops, delays….
Is Rolston thinking of having his cantene workers move from red bay to clifton hunter? Mr. Governor, you just watching nah true?
CNS: "'A lot of people still beat up on me,' he said about his continuation with the two projects in the face off government’s deteriorating financial fortunes" – Alden McLaughlin should have consulted the people of the Cayman Islands, what they wanted to do with the overcrowding of the schools, and on how government was to spend the public funds. But sorry to say he did not, and that is why many people to date has criticized him for it. That is how he and Kurt loss the 2009 elections. These MLAs get in power, do their own thing, and believe that they are not accountable to the people. Trust me, the next party that gets in for another 4 years, will do the same thing. It is all about party interest versus people's interest. Like I said, UDP is really the United DOLLAR Party, and PPM is really the POLITICIANS Progressive Movement. Always when they get in, they do their own thing, hook up with people who got money like dart, and forget the people who elected them. Now, look at Alden as one example. There is also Mark and Dwayne. When last have you seen them have a public meeting for Bodden Towners, seeking the people's "will" and "concerns" on importanct matters. Just who are they representing???
12:42 " The party system is rigged". Well I thank God someone with a little bit of common sence is now expressing the dogone truth on this Cayman News Service, concerning pure facts.
I want to be totally bitter with some people of the Cayman Islands, no I better say most of them, because they know the truth, but are so caught up in idle talk that the truth cannot sink into their heads. I keep wondering what it is that keeps my people so darn dumb. Four years after four years. I mean, gosh, if you got a wife for four years, do you really mean to tell me that you are so dumb you cannot tell if she is playing you in four years. What are you expexting? To catch her red-handed?.
Caymanians, stop being fools, look at what these politicians are doing. They are feeding you crap, year after year. Yes I do believe it is all about Party interest versus People interest, and as the writer said the next party gets in will do the same thing. CHANGE THEM UP. Take the best from UDP and the best from PPM and the rest new interest. Do not put back in all of the old PPM or the new UDP.
On the subject of MARK AND DWAYNE, I have noted your comments about when last they had a public meeting in the Bodden Town district. Well to touch briefly on them, I really do not think the people of Bodden Town care much about what they are pushing now. No interest in the welfare of the people and no money spent in the district. . Most voters have already made up their minds for the new Semister (hahahah) What Mark Scotland and Dwayne Seymour need to ealize is that NO QUICK FIX is going to get them re-elected. So they can sit there thinking that building a boat launch Ramp and a few Tiki Huts will be a blessing. No it will be more like a curse. Imagine many of the Citizens fishing along the beach would have welcomed a dock whereby they could sit on at night and fishing. You want to tell me that after 4 Frigge***n years all they can give the Bodden Town people is a mini boat ramp which take you out in a white hole.
Ms. Juliana, please tell me where is the money that is needed to complete this project. Look at the millions of dollars you have spent on Cayman Brac in the past three years. Mr Minister Scotland where is your mouth for not asking Julie and the Premier, or Dart. I am sure if you had asked Kenneth Dart to complete this project properly he would have contributed. Just think of it a miniboat ramp, no dock, a few Tiki huts, no channel for the boats to get outside, Come on guys, do a better job, as for Mark Scotland he is nothing but a Big promise to this district, and Dwayne, if I was you I would jump ship now with EZZARD AND McLEAN because if you run a camp with Mark Scotland or Anthony, you are going to loose. Three strikes and you are all out.
…..and the bigger and more pretty the church looks the more I will believe or learn about God? Just because the schools are bigger and brighter doesnt mean the education level will.
But things were looking so good leading up to Christmas 2010. What happened? Here is what Rolston had to say back then:
http://www.caribbeanconstruction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=412&Itemid=3
Accompanied by his ministry's Chief Officer Mary Rodrigues and Deputy Chief Officer Christen Suckoo, Education Minister, the Hon. Rolston Anglin recently visited the site to assess the project's progress. "It feels good to finally visualise some of the changes we have had to make, as the Ministry, Department of Education Services and school staff have continued to work on plans and preparations," he said. "They will have a huge impact on teaching and learning. "Given the challenges we've faced, I'm happy with the progress. It excites me that we're talking about potentially occupying the site in September 2011."
Asked about progress made since the departure of general contractor Tom Jones, the Minister confirmed that much had been accomplished. He advised that the school's category-five windows had been manufactured during that time and that a large percentage of the mechanical and electrical works had also been completed. But of equal importance to him was the positive impact the project continues to have on the local construction industry.
According to a status report from Education Ministry Project Manager David Benoit, a total of 32 contracts have been awarded and another 15 tender packages are active. The report also mentioned 12 additional small contractors who are supplying material and equipment to the site.
"It's great to see and interact with the number of young Caymanians working on the site. Their employment is crucial to our economy," Minister Anglin commented. "I'm especially happy for the smaller contractors who've won small-works projects."
The current project management team for the High Schools has been in charge since October 2009. More than two years ago!
I don't think shoddy work is a credible excuse after so long. It must be shoddy management Mr. Minister and you ought to be looking at that team and wondering whether or not the advice they gave you to get rid of Tom Jones was right.
What happens when a competent company is replaced by friends and family? Just another Caymankind project. Twice as long, twice the price(minus court fees) and half as good. Same as everything else on island. Its what Cayman is now known for. Its what the people want.
brillant!
Shortage of money is a big problem, but the Bell Tower and Hurricane Hilton must go on!
There is "shoddy work" on a jobsite?
I don't suppose this could in any way be related to the fact that since the UDP took office every construction job over $250K has been sub-divided into "projects" of less than $250K in order to bypass the Central Tenders Committee and reward cronies and supporters with work that they couldn't get in a competetive bid.
11;11
I have to agree with you on this. all CIG projects should be tendered through the CTC. it used to be anything over 50,000.00 had to do so. I dont know why they keep changing it.
I see this school as a good thing which should be supported. I wish I had an opportunity to attend a school such as this when I was young.
Government schools need to be equipped equally!! Never mind the building and chairs, etc. but when it comes to learning aids, such as Chemistry rooms, IT equipment, sport facilities, etc. It is 100% true that this is unfair to any students who cannot attend the school for geographical reasons and $$ should be equally distributed to upgrade all schools with the same equipment at the same time.