One Punta Gorda resident who's questioning his officials is former Central Building Authority inspector Orlando Muschamp.
He says that the town failed to hold public consultations and that he wasn't given the opportunity to offer advice on the problematic nature of the development.
And this evening-Via Zoom- He told us all the reasons: environmental, logistical, and health why the development at the Y shouldn't be allowed to go ahead.
Orlando Muschamp - Professional Building Contractor "My main concern is the safety of my people living in Toledo, my people coming to Toledo, the youths, the older people who are driving, who don't really have that sense of looking, observing, well they're only going that way because of necessity to do their daily chores, that's my main concern. Without the gas station there, without any fence there with just the dollar sign there is already a dangerous area for any person transiting Punta Gorda, driving in or out, very verry dangerous and definitely with an 8ft wall or 10 ft wall, it's like suicide. Now on the intersection into Punta Gorda that has only a one-lane bridge which is a few meters away from that business establishment and then it's divided into a Y, you go left and you go right and imagine a huge fence around that, it's not good for PG. At the same time we have people who don't want to come to reality to say what about the other gas stations then yes, I can understand that ignorance is a pure factor there because the law clearly states that whatever was in place before remains but from the wya, I think it was in 2001 from here onwards then the law will apply. Unfortunately speaking from my experience there is not enough space at this property so something had to have gone wrong somebody signed off under the table because if there was a public consultation then they would have heard my voice bringing these problems to them. So for it to happen and the mayor of Punta Gorda Ashton McKenzie saying it's all coming from Belize City, everything is Belmopan, everything is, where is the representation we have in Punta Gorda and I ask myself, why are people putting their names on the ballot to serve us in another municipal elections that have no idea of the responsibility it takes to administrate and govern a community. We go to the Central building authority when we see that they have incompetence in what they're doing for us. So they do the inspection and they do the reinforcements, and this is the case every single action that has been taken out there I don't see it happening, I don't see it's for real how could you install tanks 8 feet away from the property line, it's not real, how can you allow a tanker to come into an intersection to refill these tanks off a main highway, again the law says you need to be 50 feet away from a main highway. This is not against the investor you know we must reiterate that, we're not against the investor I don't believe that he has the full responsibility of what is happening out there, I don't believe he is at fault, I believe the authorities are at fault not give him the necessary information that is needed to meet the requirements for such a project and I believe it is the responsibility whoever signed off to this project to reimburse the investor if by chance he would not be successful in his venture."
Muschamp says he will be running as an independent candidate in the upcoming municipal elections.
