Mayor Wagner Introduces ‘Grid System’ for More Efficient City Maintenance

The Mayor has announced a new strategy that will revolutionize how the city manages its public spaces. Mayor Bernard Wagner unveiled the concept of “Grid System. Under the Grid System, Belize City will be segmented into multiple zones, with maintenance teams responsible for the upkeep of their designated grid. These teams will handle tasks such as street cleaning, garbage collection, pothole repairs, and landscaping. The initiative aims to streamline operations, foster community engagement, and create a more efficient workforce. During an interview today, Mayor Wagner explained the rationale behind the new system. 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “What we have in place currently, and you’ll be hearing about it very shortly, that we are completely looking at how we change the way we address drains, maintenance, chopping of grass, potholes. We know that the current system that we have in place has not worked. It does not work for the residents of the city. And we are very… we are aware of that and so we are working on a new system which will be really powered by GIS where we will be really dividing up the entire city, north side, south side, into different grids. We call them grids. 24 such grids have been identified and what we will be doing, we will be having dedicated teams for each grid. So you will have chopping team, you’ll have pothole teams, you’ll have drainage maintenance team within the scope of each grid and they will be dedicated to that area. So it provides accountability that if I am in this area I become familiar with the terrain, I become familiar with the residents in the area and it is more responsive. It becomes more responsive. I believe that the system we have in place, where somebody calls and then your team runs out there and goes, fix, hasn’t worked. So what we are doing now is dissecting the city into 24 grids, powered by GIS, powered by a backup system of having the operators in place to respond and having the dedicated team for that specific area. So you are in King Street and we get a call in that potholes are there, that team that is dedicated for that area will be responsible and so they will continue looping around that same zone to have everything maintained, drains, potholes, address, every single complaint that a resident would normally do would be addressed.”

The new system will also require an expanded and fully equipped workforce. Mayor Wagner highlighted that the Council is committed to providing the necessary resources to ensure that all teams are prepared to meet the demands of their assigned grids. 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “Well, we are looking at that because again we have a huge sanitation team, we have a huge maintenance team, we have a huge works team. It will be about getting both skilled workers and unskilled workers on each grid system team, having the heavy duty equipment in place as well to ensure that we have the capabilities to really make the change that we want to see.”

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Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “I have this conversation with the Prime Minister. I think there are areas that are very close to agriculture that agriculture can combine with other areas, other ministries, could perform maybe even better. That decision is left totally to the Prime Minister.”

Reporter: What areas are you thinking ? 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “No, I’m just thinking there are many areas that could synchronize the Ministry of Agriculture’s role but like I said I will leave that to the Prime Minister.”

The Belize City Council is expected to roll out the Grid System in the coming months, with detailed plans and timelines to be announced soon.