The San Pedro Traffic Department now counts on two brand new Meilum 125HP motorcycles thanks to the generous donation of Mr. Corry McDermott. This now brings the fleet to five motorcycles: two Yamaha YBR 125HP, one Honda Scooter and two Meilum 125HP. At an estimated value of $4,000, thanks to the kind consideration of Mr. Norman Dueck of Universal Hardware in Belize City, the vehicles were secured at $3,600.
Kenrick Brackett, councilor for the San Pedro Town Council responsible for transport spoke of the donation; “The motorcycles are very much needed by the department and will be used for patrolling the streets. As you can see for the past couple weeks, we had Freddy, one of our new Traffic Wardens, on the golf cart for the town council as we didn’t have enough vehicles. I decided to approach Mr. McDermott, a former head of the traffic department here on the island, for some assistance and he was more than happy to do that.”
One of the cycles will be assigned to Warden Freddy, however according to Kenrick, the council hopes to employ at least two more wardens by early August, to further assist in controlling the traffic flow on the island. “I am also looking ahead to see if we can hire some more wardens and at least one or two more by Costa Maya, so that they can all have a motorcycle when patrolling on the streets and that is going to help us with the free flow of traffic in San Pedro.”
A relationship such as the one with Mr. McDermott and the San Pedro Town Council is very much welcomed and encouraged, “We want to encourage the business community to support our efforts. What I want to say is that we cannot do this alone. The Town Council needs to partner with the business community. That, I believe is the way that success comes, and that’s how sustainable development and the town as a whole grows, when the council and the business community partner together. This is when we are going to see prosperity and a lot of improvements. This shows us that the people are listening and they see us working and they are willing to help.”
As to what made him decide to offer this very kind gesture, Mr. Corry stated, “The decision was made over dinner. I was head of the traffic department here about 20 years ago when we had the citizen’s safety committee. One day Kenny and I got together, as I had given him a plan of how we could utilize these streets better than what we are doing today. We talked about it and I made out these plans and he mentioned to me that they were hoping to get two new motor bikes. Now we have all these cabs going about 40MPH when they shouldn’t be going more than 15mph. At lease with these bikes, these men will be driving, they’d have maybe a better chance to slow them down or even give them citations, so that the people that come here, the tourists, our friends that make this community what it is today, will appreciate that.”
The bikes were put to use immediately patrolling the island. The San Pedro Sun joins the San Pedro Town Council in offering much thanks to Mr. McDermott for his very kind donation and hopes that this will serve to assist the wardens in carrying out their duties more effectively.