We are not crazy, says Burton

Chairman of the Barbuda Council, Wade Burton, has declared as completely unfounded the declaration in this week’s Cabinet report that the walls of the Holy Trinity School are compromised.
The Council recently took the lead on rebuilding the school which remains closed after it was severely damaged by hurricane Irma about a year ago.
“We are all Barbudans over here and if the school falls down it is my cousins or my family that are in the school, so why should the government think that we would be doing a bad job at fixing the school?” Burton asked rhetorically in an exclusive interview with OBSERVER media yesterday.
“We are not crazy people,” he added. “It would be irresponsible of the council to put the lives of children in jeopardy.”
According to him, the Development Control Authority (DCA) was on the sister island sometime last week, visited the construction site, inspected the buildings, met with the contractors and no stop order was issued.
The Cabinet report stated that “the Cabinet was informed that the old Barbuda Holy Trinity School was being repaired by the Barbuda Council”, it continued by asserting that, “the Cabinet was informed that the strength of the walls was compromised when the roof of the building being repaired was blown away by Hurricane Irma. Cabinet advises that even after replacing the roof, the building will still be unsafe for occupancy by children.”
Burton expressed dismay over the Cabinet’s claims and said that instead of trying to undermine the council’s efforts to bring the school back to a state in which it can be used for the benefit of the children of Barbuda, the government should get on board and find out how it could help.
He has since called on the government to share any information shows that the building is indeed compromised because every person and agency that the council has consulted regarding the integrity of the building has given the go-ahead to continue construction.
He stressed that the council is doing everything that needs to be done to ensure that the building will be able to stand up to a Category 5 hurricane if one is to hit the already storm-ravaged island again this season.
Burton belaboured the point that the council is not just putting on a roof as the notes from Cabinet scribe Lionel “Max” Hurst suggests but, rather, it is fixing the entire school so that it can be used to house the children of Barbuda safely.
However, the Cabinet has advised against holding classes in the re-roofed Holy Trinity School and said that a new primary school is to be built near to the Sir McChesney George Secondary School, compliments of the Dominican Republic in addition to two new wooden classrooms that are also to be constructed on the grounds of the secondary school.
Burton said that the council is in full support of the government’s plan to build a new school but reiterated how disheartened the council is that, at this juncture, the government would put information out into the public that the old school cannot be fixed.