The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

AN extra $10,000 worth of repairs will be invested in the home of a World War II veteran seemingly forgotten during a previous cycle of the Urban Renewal Commission’s Small Home Repairs programme.

Algernon Allen, Urban Renewal’s co-Chair, said yesterday that the organisation will also ensure that the “most competent of contractors” is made available to complete repairs on the home of 90-year-old Royal Air Force Ivan Simeon Rolle, whose house was first constructed in the late 1940s. Mr Allen said the repairs will commence on December 1, which, he said, marks the start of the next cycle of the Small Homes Repair programme. 

Mr Allen also said it is “regrettable” that officials were unable to do all the work initially, saying that there was only “limited funding which was expendable in relation to each home”. He subsequently thanked The Tribune for its “investigative journalism”, because he and co-chair Cynthia “Mother” Pratt “were not aware that the funding which had originally been put in did not go far enough to alleviate the suffering of this distinguished warrior”.

Earlier this month, Mr Rolle’s daughter Sherice Rolle, alerted The Tribune to her father’s poor living conditions. 

Ms Rolle, 45, said that the Urban Renewal Commission began repairs in April on her father’s rundown home at Toote Shop Corner, off Centreville, but had not returned to finish much needed renovations on the old structure. 

According to Ms Rolle, months after Urban Renewal promised to return to complete renovations, there has been no action despite her direct appeals to the organisation and to area MP, Prime Minister Perry Christie. 

She outlined the level of assistance given by Urban Renewal as an unfortunate symbol of how some veterans are treated in the Bahamas. She said she understands that Urban Renewal is under no obligation to repair the home, but added that she would have expected a veteran to be treated better.

When The Tribune initially visited the home, the house was in a shambolic state, with open spaces in the roof and limited places to walk and manoeuvre. 

Outside, a cesspit could be opened by children who play in the area, as it was not tightly sealed. Ms Rolle said the conditions in the home are so bad, that rats have crawled on her father at night. She said the family had to get a cat to deal with the rat infestation. 

When contacted, however, Mr Allen said The Tribune’s initial report on the matter caused him and Mrs Pratt to make “further inquiry” into the matter, and they are now committed “to make the necessary repairs to alleviate some of the suffering of the distinguished veteran of the wars”.

“It is regrettable that we were unable to do all in the first exercise, but there’s only limited funding which was expendable in relation to each home,” he said. “But this time we will not only put an extra $10,000 of repairs into the home, but we will ensure that the most competent of the contractors is made available for that purpose. 

“But I want to thank The Tribune for its investigative journalism, because we can only do what we know, and unfortunately the co-chairs were not aware that the funding which had originally put in did not go far enough to alleviate the suffering of this distinguished warrior.”

Mr Rolle served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Today he lives with Ms Rolle and two of his grandchildren in a dilapidated structure that was first constructed in 1948.