Executive Director of The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) Rupert Hayward presented to members and guests at the monthly Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce (GBCC) luncheon on Thursday May 23rd. Hayward gave a comprehensive report on the extensive clean-up campaign launched by the GBPA over the past few years.
According to Hayward, the GBPA is working hard towards the creation of a “presentable city” designed to attract sustained development and growth for Grand Bahama Island. During his presentation to a captive audience of business owners and entrepreneurs, he recognized the important role that the Port Authority and its principals have as a quasi-governmental agency and regulator of business on the island. He noted however, that those goals cannot and would not be accomplished without stakeholder collaboration.
“We need the people of Grand Bahama and the stakeholders in The Bahamas to work with us to solve some of the more complicated and larger issues that we have here,” said Hayward. “If we get it right, I’m confident, with the GBPA acting as a driving and galvanising force for the community, that we will have a launch pad for growth again, with increased Foreign Direct Investment, Tourism and jobs.”
Hayward, who focused his comments on issues directly impacting the city of Freeport, pointed to issues such as littering, indiscriminate dumping, the prevalence of derelict vehicles and the lingering effects of multiple major hurricanes, as priority items for the GBPA. In 2017, the company spent over 1.4 million dollars on Hurricane Matthew recovery efforts. These were unbudgeted costs on top of the normal city management expenses and were borne entirely by the Port Group of companies.
As part of its strategy to reverse negative trends in keeping Freeport and its surrounding communities clean, Hayward discussed his work with the Keep Grand Bahama Clean initiative. He noted that under the guidance of its Chairwoman, Nakira Wilchcombe and the committee of NGO’s and concerned citizens they are trying to change the cultural habits of littering and dumping; through hundreds of school lectures, PSA’s, social media outreach, countless beach clean-ups and eco-community work.
Hayward noted that the Port Authority has also focused a significant amount of resources on road maintenance, spending over one million dollars last year alone. He noted in the last three years, their maintenance team had repaired some 38,392 feet of new roads, fixed over 2,000 potholes, and removed over 200 derelict vehicles. Hayward was pleased to share how the use of state of the art technology has become instrumental in assisting GPBA with addressing and solving issues in the city through the ‘Freeport Report App’ which allows the public to download the app for free and then register maintenance issues in real time.
