With the development of the former Club Med property in St. George?s looming on the horizon, the Corporation has started looking at the demands this new hotel will make on that community?s infrastructure.

In a candid interview with this week, Mayor E. Michael Jones said some of these issues include the town?s sewage system, traffic and parking, public transport and future staff accommodation.

Updating the current sewage system is something Mr. Jones feels should be done sooner rather than later.

Raw sewage is currently pumped out to sea, something which he said, residents agreed could not continue in this day and age. There are three ways to accommodate sewage including primary ? where raw sewage is pumped out to sea; secondary ? where some treatment takes place, but the rest is pumped out to sea; and tertiary where fresh water is produced after treatment.

The tertiary system, which is being considered by the Corporation, is the more costly option, but the town council had unanimously approved it.

The Corporation currently provides salt water for flushing to about 70 households and this water is returned to the sewage system to be pumped out to sea.

?Should we get a tertiary sewage system, we can?t use salt water so all our customers will have to change to fresh water for flushing,? he said and this meant replacing the leaky pipes currently in use.

The new hotel development includes permanent residential units and fractional units which in itself poses more problem including an increase in pedestrians, traffic and what to do about parking.

Mr. Jones said residents needed to be aware and ready for the influx of both guests, staff and additional residents who would not only frequent restaurants and shops, but also increase the amount of traffic to a town that was built before there were cars, busses or bikes.

As far as the cruise ships are concerned, Mr. Jones said the town would only accommodate either one large cruise ship or two smaller ones, but never at the same time.

The two cruise ships which call in St. George?s carry an estimated 3,200 passengers in total, while the newer larger cruise ships sometimes accommodate only 2,700 passengers, as well as smaller crews.

Mr. Jones said residents were under the impression that twice as many people would be pounding the streets of St. George?s on a daily basis and that was not necessarily true.

With the development of the hotel however, finding ways to deal with the increase in pedestrians is something the Corporation is taking a second look at.

He said one idea could be to close King?s Square and Water Street to traffic for longer periods of time, even permanently.

These two areas are currently closed to traffic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Then there?s the question of what to do about the limited parking.

The Corporation is looking at introducing paid parking ? something that?s unheard of in St. George?s.

He said the Corporation purchased half of the Belco parking lot some time ago. The other half is privately owned.

?With paid parking we can repay the loan we used to buy the lot and paid parking is something that is likely to happen in the near future.

Another issue of grave concern to Mr. Jones is the demolition of the current hotel and the transportation of the rubble.

With St. George?s narrow streets, the transportation of this rubble and debris to the airport landfill poses a significant challenge. ?Are they going to traverse through the middle of our town down narrow York Street with tractor trailers or will they move it by water with the aid of barges? These are all issues we have to address,? he said.

Lastly Mr. Jones said the future of the St. George?s volunteer fire brigade was another issue that was being discussed.

?We are currently in discussions to determine how best to manage and operate a fire service that provides the most protection for the World Heritage Site,? he said.

St. George?s fire brigade uses trucks which are specifically designed to go up the town?s narrow streets and alleys as the pumps are located on the front and back of the truck, as opposed to the side.

?We currently only have one truck which is more than 30 years old and we?re in discussions with Government to get another new truck,? he said.

?If the truck were to not start for some reason I will have no choice but to get on my pedal bike with a bucket of water and put the fire out myself.?