Stadium clean up begins after evacuees leave

Piles of garbage, dirty underwear, rotting food and both new and old clothes were littered about the stadium in rooms once occupied by Barbuda’s evacuees. That was the condition of the basement portion of the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds (SVRCG) after it was returned to the management, when the approximately 40 evacuees left on Saturday, ending a three-month stay.
The old Nurses Hostel on Queen Elizabeth Highway is the new home of those evacuees. Conliffe Phillip, stadium manager, told OBSERVER media yesterday that the clean up will commence shortly and the contractor anticipates that the refurbishing will be completed by month end, in time for the start of the Super 50 Tournament. “There was major damage done to many of the doors, most of the walls have to be repainted, there are issues with the dividers for the shower stalls and the toilets, so reinforcement will have to be done to those and the vanities of the face basins,” he said.
Phillip said that based on the assessment that indicated that much work has to be done, the contractor has pledged to working after hours and on the weekends to meet the January 30 deadline, which will be one day before the start of the cricket matches. He said that paint left back from one of the previous projects at the stadium will be used to keep the cost of refurbishment down.
Empty and half-drunken plastic bottles, unopened cases of water, mattresses, brand-name jeans, shoes, and other items of clothing were left on the floor or resting in opened cabinets. Some of the door for the cabinets had been removed. Yesterday, when OBSERVER media was taken on a tour of the temporary housing shelter by Lennox Williams, supervisor of housing, tea was fermenting in cups on a table, even as roaches roamed freely through the mouldy chicken bones and rotting food scattered in the sleeping quarters.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)