Last week Thursday, we told you how undertaker David Coye secured a court order which overturned the city's monopoly on grave construction, and got Coye and other undertakers back into business.
Mayor Darrell Bradley was contrite as he backpedalled on the policy which was instituted in January, and he admitted that it was a mistake by City Hall to stop the undertakers from providing the service. It should have been a happy ending, but not so fast….
Coye says he's still not being allowed to work in the cemetery and he says that the council is not respecting the authority of the court. Well today, we got a chance to speak with PR Officer Kenny Morgan about why undertakers aren't been allowed to operate freely.
He told us that it's because City Hall wants to institute an oversight mechanism, and they will have a sit-down with the undertakers
Kenny Morgan – PR Officer, Belize City Council
"We are planning to have a meeting with them, but that would be subsequent to our engineering people putting forth a set of standards that the undertakers would have to comply to as we prepare them to allow them access to Lord Ridge Cemetery for the purpose of constructing tombs once again."
Daniel Ortiz
"So we've received complaint from one of the undertakers that City Hall isn't allowing them to operate at the current moment. Can you explain that to us please?"
Kenny Morgan
"Well definitely - it is not only one undertaker that is currently barred from the cemeteries but all the undertaking homes are presently not allowed to conduct any construction in the cemeteries because we are in meetings with our engineering department. They will put in a set of standards in which the undertakers will have to adhere to and we will also have to have monitoring capability to ensure compliance to these standards before we allow them access to the cemetery. This should be at the conclusion in the next two weeks then we will have the set of standards and put them forward. At that time we will call a meeting then we will sit down with all the undertaking houses to inform them of the standard that we are putting forward and the need for their full compliance barring which they will not be allowed in the cemeteries."
Daniel Ortiz
"At the same time Sir, people need to provide a service to different family members of the public that have passed away."
Kenny Morgan
"The need for these regulations arose out of the fact that the undertaking homes were not giving fair value for the dollar where construction of tombs is concerned. We found on numerous occasions that city council had to go into effect repairs on tombs that were constructed by these undertaking homes. For the time being the City Council will be the entity that will be responsible for the construction of tombs for a very minimal period of two to two and a half weeks after which our engineering persons will put forward the criteria which will be needed to be met by all undertakers. As long as they can comply with the standards we put in place then full access will be granted to all undertakers."
According to Morgan, until this oversight body is in place, the Belize City Council will be providing the service to ensure that members of the public can bury their dead.
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