With the newly renovated Skinner Park set to reopen on February 4, San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello is hoping to collect millions of dollars in rental fees owed by the National Carnival Commission (NCC) and the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians' Organisation (TUCO).
Interviewed by reporters at the San Fernando City Corporation following the council's first Statutory Meeting for the year, Regrello said the facility is already booked for three main Carnival events including the Calypso Fiesta and the National Chutney Soca Monarch finals.
However, he said, "I hope that TUCO and NCC will pay the outstanding bills that they have for us for Skinner Park over the years. We are yet to receive rental fees for Skinner Park because, at the end of the day, our responsibility is to do the engineering aspect, the physical infrastructure, the sanitation, the plumbing, and the electrical, and that bill stays with us. So it cannot be goodwill as it was in the past."
Unable to give the exact figure, he said, "It would be seven digits... I’ll have to look at the past 15 years or so and add it up…They haven’t paid us," he said.