Well into his history-making term as the first directly elected mayor of Portmore, George Lee appears to be on a collision course with members of the Half-Moon Bay Fisherman’s Co-operative (HMBFC) in Hellshire, St Catherine, in a simmering dispute over re-building plans after Hurricane Ivan.

The battleground is the Hellshire Beach, a 10-acre stretch whose popularity with frolickers has drawn over 250 residents and business people, most of them fishermen, cooks and craft vendors who do brisk business there.

Last month, 200 notices were served on persons in the area.

Lee laid down the law, insisting that no permanent structures should be rebuilt within 100 feet of the high water mark, saying some people had gone as close as 30 feet of that point with structures that contravened the building code.

He also had concerns about the growing number of squatters in the area and the lack of adequate sanitation facilities.

“There are destructive elements outside of the co-op who are moving onto the beach and it is obvious that even some co-op members are afraid of them. We are in favour of the co-op, not these people,” Lee told the Sunday Observer last week.

But co-operative members, angry at what they have described as Lee’s failure to communicate with them, are still reeling from the notices they were served. They are willing, they said, to comply with the rules and keep their structures away from the water, and Lee would have known this if he had simply talked to them.

The Half-Moon Bay Fisherman’s Co-operative, established 11 years ago, officially counts 114 members. Chairman Malcolm, a 42 year-old dreadlocked fisherman who was born on the beach, said it was he who first wrote to Lee, on October 19, complaining about one squatter who had moved into the area and was erecting a concrete structure. The mayor, he said, responded by serving them all with notices.

“A little after the hurricane, we had a problem with one resident who is a non-member of the co-operative because he was re-building without our permission.

So we asked the mayor’s assistance. But instead of even writing us he made a statement on the Nationwide radio programme (Power 106-FM) that he was issuing notices to all of us. We got the actual notices about a week after that,” Malcolm explained.

Co-op members have also taken issue with Lee’s claim that the sanitary conveniences in the area are inadequate.

The co-op’s former chairman, 27 year-old Chris Brown, showed off some of the facilities that had been put in place.

“This was approved by the ministry of health upon their visit,” he said as he opened a door, marked ‘Public Convenience’, that led to a toilet. “We now have a $2.1-million grant given to us by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica in 2004 that is to erect six more bathrooms.”

A topographical study had already been done on the area in respect to those sanitation plans, Brown added.

The problem, Malcolm insisted, is that Lee “doesn’t communicate with us”.

“After that announcement he made on radio, we wrote to him asking for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would seek to ensure that he speaks to us before making public comments. But he’s done it again with this (JIS) article,” the co-op chairman said.

Malcolm produced a letter to Lee which said, inter alia, “the co-op would like to improve the level of co-ordination and communication with the municipality. we suggest quarterly meetings, an MOU to establish communication protocols as we strive to avoid surprises by contacting and informing each other prior to enforcing actions.”

According to a letter that Malcolm produced, the mayor, in part, responded: “The permanent structures built after Hurricane Ivan should be demolished. we agree to temporary improvements to those buildings which are further than 100 feet from the water mark and that were there before the hurricane, but oppose any new building within the 100-foot zone. We agree to an MOU. This would cover communication with the co-ops.”

Co-op members have accused Lee of failing to keep his word, however, the Portmore Council has dismissed the co-op’s complaints.

There had been a “milestone” meeting two weeks ago, insisted chief administrative officer David Parkes, where the council gave a full explanation of its concerns and outlined a plan of action. Hurricane Ivan – which had damaged all the structures in the area – had shifted the high water mark, he explained, and a maximum of six of the rebuilt commercial structures would have to be moved as they were now too close to the mark.

The major problem, Parkes maintained, was that most of the residential structures have no toilets and this was compounded by the strain of supplying sanitary conveniences for customers who flock to the commercial area.

Both Parkes and Mayor Lee stressed that every effort was being made to resolve the issue amicably. Another meeting will be held with co-op members soon, Parkes said.