The Editor, Sir: Road repair agencies and government officials must be asking how we can engineer the limited basket of funds to carry all the water accumulated in the potholes and bad roads from Negril Point to Morant Point. It could boil down to parson christening his pickney first and, even so, there is going to be dissatisfaction. In order to balance the equation with fewer demonstrations from the People's National Party supporters complaining that their roads are not looked at because they are PNP vis à vis Jamaica Labour Party supporters, Labourites and others whose areas do not get fixed and complain that their members of parliament are ineffective and 'nah gwaan wid nutten': The satisfactory way out is to have stringent and well-publicised standards and warranties for road repair construction and maintenance that people in their local communities can become part of the unofficial quality control system. All warranties should be in excess of two months since that is the time I have observed some of the roads fixed in time for elections and World Cup Cricket breaking out into potholes. Certified prescribed course Persons or companies obtaining contracts to repair roads should undergo a certified prescribed course so as to have uniformity in standards, such as how much asphalt on top: one inch, three inches six or eight inches and how many pounds of compression. It cannot be that a road to carry 40-80-ton trucks and trailers is rolled by a 500-pound roller and when it sinks, the truckers and trailer operators are blamed to justify weigh stations adding another layer of blame-the-victim penalties. It should be mandatory that all roads through communities be constructed with clearly demarcated sidewalks to reduce the danger to the lives of pedestrians. Saving scarce resources If we cannot get it right locally, we should outsource the jobs to whomsoever can get it done properly while saving scarce resources for other well-needed projects. It is now approximately 70 cents out of every dollar earned into government coffers going to service debt; if we continue at this wasteful pace, it will soon be 99 cents. I know we can do it right; we used to do exactly that with the old Public Works Department length system operating from right there in the community. Potholes and roads were built and fixed in time and on time without the excessive dependence on marl; it was varying sized rock stones with asphalt paving. The digging, breaking and selling of stones years ago used to be a small business in which men, women and children participated. Pearnel 'Rock Stone' Charles (JLP), member of parliament, now minister of labour and social security was then the minister, got a verbal bashing from those opposing for daring to suggest that women could break stones for road-building. Minister of Transport and Works Mike Henry, over to you, sir. I am, etc., MICHAEL SPENCE micspen2@hotmail.com PO Box 630, Liguanea, Kingston 6

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