Gardeners

The Gardeners will soon be completing their contract to clear up Mi Sol, everyone I have spoken to has expressed their satisfaction with the work.

A problem has come to light though, it seems that after finishing clearing various circles, some Owners have then been pruning tress, etc on their own properties and dumping their rubbish on the cleared areas.
Clearly this is dis- heartening for the Gardeners as they keep having to go back to clear this rubbish away, something they were not contracted to do.

Another problem has been caused by tenants of Clara, it is the dumping of mattresses, household rubbish and junk in the Gardening skip. The container hired by the Gardeners is only allowed to hold garden rubbish, so this will now have to be cleared out into another skip, meaning more work for the contractors which they should not have to do.

I recognise that in the past when we employed a Gardener on a full time basis, he would clear away any rubbish he came across in his daily work. However we now employ contractors, whose work is to keep MI SOL land up to scratch, they are not employed to clear Owners private rubbish away.
This is the situation in all other Communities I visit on a regular basis. The main reason for having the Park cleared of weeds and grass, apart from the aesthetic point of view, is so we can control the Mosquito population by regular spraying. Owners dumping rubbish on Mi Sol land defeats the point of spraying.

At the Committee meeting held on the Bar Terrace on Tuesday 25th March it was agreed to accept the Contractors quotation of Euro 800 per month to maintain the Garden areas of the park and spray regularly to prevent mosquito infestation. Apart from the general gardening this would also include the roads being swept with a professional machine once a month.
The contract would be on a month by month basis.

The Committee felt that at Euro 9,600 . 00 per year, this was a much better option than employing a single Gardener full time at a cost of around Euro 12,000 . 00 to Euro 15,000 . 00 per year, when things such as Social Security, insurance, Accountants fees, and the running and maintenance of the car and trailer were taken into consideration.

Committee member Mrs Lin Foley has agreed to take responsibility for ensuring the Gardening Contractors carry out their work satisfactorily.

Hopefully we will now be able to maintain and improve the appearance of Mi Sol and save money as well.