By Neto Baptiste
Rehabilitation work is set to commence at the YMCA Sports Complex. This is according to Director of Sports, Heather Samuel Daley, who made the revelation during an interview with Observer media.
According to Daley, she was informed last week that Cabinet has signed off on the request to have the venue fixed ahead of the country’s hosting of the ECCB International Netball Series slated to shoot off on September 29.
“I have been informed that the contract has been signed and that work will begin shortly and that was also communicated to Karen [Joseph, Netball Association President] and that was also communicated to the Minister that the contract has been signed and work should have begun since last week Monday but there were some things we needed to tidy up which we have completed and we are going to begin shortly.
“I am not going to say Monday as I am not the contractor and don’t know what other little details may be required in terms of that,” she said.
The news comes on the heels of renewed requests from Karen Joseph, who said recently on the Good Morning Jojo sports show that the matter was becoming stressful as no work had yet started at the venue.
Daley said there had been several requests in the past to have the venue renovated but without much success. The former national sprinter also pointed to vandalism as one of the main issues affecting the venue.
“Recently, about two or three years ago, another request was made and some work was done in terms of removing some carpeting and so on that were there and when we handed over the keys obviously nothing was done.
“Over a period of time persons keep breaking in to the place, and one morning … there was faeces all over the gate to go into the building so there are a number of things happening there.
“I even recall the security guy getting stabbed on more than one occasion. We reported it to the police that he was attacked there while trying to get some persons out of in there,” she said.
Nine teams, including hosts Antigua and Barbuda, will play in the round-robin formatted tournament set to climax on October 8.
The other teams taking part are defending champions St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica, Cayman Islands, and Montserrat.
