While the Flag/Temenos project is temporarily closed, Ashtrom, the construction company, and the Ministry of Social Development of the Anguilla Government, have taken the opportunity to work towards the completion of the Football Stadium at the Ronald Webster Park annex which had been halted for sometime now.

Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, said his Ministry had secured the approval of the Chief Minister and Ministry of Labour to have the Israeli company to undertake the work. He explained that there was an “impasse” whereby the local contractor was unable to continue the stadium and that he had no objection to the Ashtrom workers completing the work.

Ashtrom’s project engineer Ronen Arava, other company personnel, Minister Evans Rogers and Raymond Guishard. Chinese workers in background on football staadium.

“It cannot be looked at as though we are putting aside Anguillian contractors for the sake of having Ashtrom on board,” Mr. Rogers told the media on Wednesday, August 27. “That particular [local] contractor is well occupied… and I got the green light from him that he has absolutely no problem in seeing that project completed. I explained to him that I was looking towards getting assistance from Ashtrom and putting them on site… and he too wants to see the project completed. Public perception is one thing. Reality is another.”
Mr. Rogers said that while he was hoping that Ashtrom would soon resume work at the Flag/Temenos project, he looked forward to the continuation of the partnership whereby the company would assist with building some of the needed facilities to improve the Government’s social services.
Ashtrom’s Chief Project Engineer, Ronen Arava, said 40 skilled workers had been assigned to the stadium project which should take about two months to complete all the masonry and other work on a voluntary basis as part of assisting the people of the community to have a better life. He disclosed that in all there were 270 Chinese workers at the Flag/Temenos construction camp site. In addition to the 40 at the stadium, another 50 were engaged in hurricane precautionary work at the Flag/Temenos project. The balance of the Chinese work force is at the camp site and a number of social and other activities have been arranged for them to occupy their time pending the resumption of the tourism project. He added that his company was patiently waiting on the owners of the project to re-start the work which he hoped would be soon. It is understood that the Ashtrom Chinese workers are being paid as they wait to return to the construction site.Meanwhile, Raymond Guishard, President of the Football Association, expressed delight with the work on the stadium and looked forward to its completion.

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