Buoys, marine anchors stolen at Pigeon Point

STEPHON NICHOLAS

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Five new­ly in­stalled buoys and 19 ma­rine an­chors used to se­cure bathing-area safe­ty bar­ri­ers have been stolen at Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park, prompt­ing Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine to con­demn what he de­scribed as a bla­tant dis­re­gard for pub­lic safe­ty.

In a me­dia re­lease on Tues­day, the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary (OCS) said the thefts fol­lowed ef­forts to strength­en safe­ty mea­sures at Pi­geon Point, Store Bay Beach Fa­cil­i­ty and Buc­coo Beach Fa­cil­i­ty af­ter the fa­tal jet ski ac­ci­dent that claimed the life of An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie on April 8.

Tourism Sec­re­tary Zor­isha Hack­ett and the her­itage park’s man­age­ment were man­dat­ed to im­prove safe­ty mea­sures and de­mar­cate bathing ar­eas fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent.

The OCS said 900 feet of tem­po­rary oil buoys were in­stalled at Pi­geon Point on April 13, se­cured by 19 Dan­forth high-ef­fi­cien­cy ma­rine an­chors and chains, pend­ing the pur­chase and in­stal­la­tion of a per­ma­nent sys­tem.

How­ev­er, two days lat­er, sec­tions of the bar­ri­er washed ashore af­ter two se­cur­ing an­chors were re­moved. By Oc­to­ber 13, all 19 an­chors were miss­ing.

Be­tween Oc­to­ber 13 and 17, work be­gan on a per­ma­nent bathing de­mar­ca­tion sys­tem, with more than 1,500 feet of buoys in­stalled at Pi­geon Point, Buc­coo Beach Fa­cil­i­ty and Store Bay Beach Fa­cil­i­ty at a cost of $400,000.

But on Mon­day, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 feet of rope and five new­ly in­stalled buoys were cut and re­moved from the main bathing area at Pi­geon Point, the OCS said.

The in­ci­dents have been re­port­ed to the po­lice, and the OCS has urged any­one with in­for­ma­tion to as­sist with the in­ves­ti­ga­tions.