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By Neto Baptiste
Member of Parliament for the St Mary’s South Constituency, Kelvin ‘Shugy’ Simon, has labelled news that government plans to complete the structure intended to house bathrooms at the YASCO Sports Complex a “knee-jerk reaction”.
Simon, who is also the United Progressive Party’s (UPP) spokesperson on sports, said the decision was made only due to the country’s recent successes at the Carifta Games but insists it should have been completed years ago if the sitting government has any legitimate interest in sport.
“I chuckled because first of all, if you’re serious about developing YASCO, it shouldn’t take me coming to a programme after Carifta to speak about it and then you’re making a knee-jerk reaction to say that you are going to do something. That should have been done a long time ago. We’re talking about a government that has been in office for 11 years now and you’re only seeing it fit to now speak about putting in a bathroom facility in YASCO. Then there is Lionel “Max” Hurst saying how resources were scarce but it’s the same government that spent $120,000 plus per month, maintaining a yacht that was sitting in the harbour,” he said.
Government announced last week, in it’s weekly Cabinet notes, that it would complete the structure that has been sitting at the facility for over 15 years while they will also construct another building to house changing rooms, all by the end of 2025.
Simon said he doesn’t hold out much hope given what he calls a “history of neglect” by the current administration where sport in Antigua is concerned.
“Seeing is believing when it comes to this government. So I take nothing they say seriously because as I said previously, it’s a government that governs by headlines where people talk about things and they bring out a statement saying they are going to do something. Like a few years ago with the national aquatic centre we’re still waiting to see happen. The swimmers went to the OECS competition and they came back as champions… The Minister of Sports [Daryll Matthew] promised an aquatic centre and even had a ground-faking and not even a weed-eater has been up there to cut grass to say they were going to start anything,” he said.
The MP, who plays for the Old Road Daggers in the Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) competition, pointed out that the prime minister’s son utilizes the facility on a daily basis. He is therefore also suggesting that a proper assessment of the structure be conducted before proceeding with work.
“As the prime minister, you’re sending your son to a facility where, if he needs to use the bathroom he would have to go and lean up against a fence and that’s shameful to say the least. There is no national pride at all in that and for $600,000 for what we have there, it doesn’t add up. Looking at it, I don’t know the strength of the structure and it has been sitting there for a while so a proper assessment would have to be done with engineers coming in [to] check the strength of the steel and the concrete and so on if they are going to finish it,” Simon said.
In January 2022, Minister of Sports, Daryll Matthew, said that a total of $1,411,862 had been budgeted for the completion of the country’s lone track & field facility. The document also revealed that some $90,000 had been allotted for the completion of the controversial bathroom structure.
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