The Bird's Isle basketball court is a Belize City landmark. It was the showcase for Belize's best basketball talent in the 70's and also a concert venue for acts such as a very young Byron Lee and the Dragonairres and Pluto Shervington, among many other songsters and entertainers.
But, last year when Hurricane Earl lashed Belize City and its environs, the court was left mashed up. But, exactly one year later the historic Birds Isle basketball court has been resurrected but with a sleek and finer finish. Today Henry Young Jr. told us more about the renovations:
Henry Young Jr., Owner, Birds Isle
"It took about like nearly 4 to 5 months to actually get rid of the old court and this one started probably in February and it has been a very challenging year to say the least but we decided to go with the same wooden floor because it is easier on knees especially when you get older, you play on cement it damages the knees so we went with the regular wooden floor."
Courtney Weatherburne
"So in terms of cost how much would you say you spent on this entire project?"
Henry Young Jr., Owner, Birds Isle
"I would say a little under half a million, including everything."
Courtney Weatherburne
"And why did you see it important to invest such a large amount of money in this basketball court?"
Henry Young Jr., Owner, Birds Isle
"Well it has been a tradition that Birds Isle had a stadium before and what we do is we invest in the youth mainly people have a nice place to come and enjoy themselves and that is why we decided to go with the stadium."
Courtney Weatherburne
"The other portion that you are working on is the bleachers right now, tell us about the situation with the bleachers."
Henry Young Jr., Owner, Birds Isle
"Yeah the bleachers, we probably made a little mistake we tried to bring back the old bleachers and when we tried 8 months ago, we renovated the bleachers, painted, sprayed it with oil and everything but the salt air seemed that it had seeped into the iron and it just got even worse, it started to rust so we decided that the next phase is going to build new bleachers."
Courtney Weatherburne
"If another hurricane should hit will this set up here be able to withstand it, will this be able to withstand it?"
Henry Young Jr., Owner, Birds Isle
"I think this could take a category 2 hurricane because this is new, it is stronger, the first one was really dilapidated it was like 45 years old."
So it is expected to be finished and ready for use in early September.
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