ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3RD, 2010_ Keeping with their resolve to bring light to Grenadian playing fields island-wide, officials in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Sports, led by a representative from the Inspectorate Department in the Ministry of Works, toured the three playing fields earmarked to be lit this year.
The tour, which took place on Wednesday, March 6, pinpointed to Coordinator of Sports Conrad Francis, the areas in Cuthbert Peters Park, St. John, Alston George Park, St. Mark and Victoria Park, St. Andrew, currently selected by the Ministry of Works for erecting electrical poles.
“This move is very important in achieving the Ministry’s ultimate objective,” said Francis. “The ground work is done, the fields have been chosen, the budget is approved, the contractors have been selected.... [Today] we are looking at where we are going to plant the poles. If we don’t know where we are putting the poles then we cannot start.”
Working along with Oketo Peters, the electrical engineer in the Ministry of Works, who led the tour, Francis was able to suggest more appropriate positions for the poles, especially in Cuthbert Peters and Victoria Park.
“For Cuthbert Peters and Victoria Park, we hadn’t taken into account the cricket boundary,” said Peters, who had already visited and conducted preliminary assessments on the fields. “This means that the poles will have to be pushed further back from the athletic and football section.”
The lighting of the playing fields is likely to begin before the end of this budget cycle. It is expected to have tremendous benefits on how sports are played and on the development of its communities. “Athletes would get a longer duration of time in which to train and persons, who are employed…, will have the opportunity to do less rushing and to take their time to reorganize themselves and to participate in sports in the evening and night time,” said Hon. Patrick Simmons, Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports, who joined the tour at Victoria Park.
Jean Peters, a vendor in Gouyave, believes that the lights will be a great help in being able to earn a greater income. “With the lights, I would be able to make a little more dollars because I could sell for a longer period of time,” Peters said. “You see when you don’t have the lights, when you have sports; you have to leave at a certain time.”
Aware of potential energy wastage, the Ministry is seeking to install token metres as a means of regulating energy output on the fields. “With token metres people will have to pay a small fee to use the fields for a certain length of time,” Francis said. “On one hand this will help us to control usage. On the other, it will allow the lighting of the fields to pay for itself.”
