PAY UP!

Pay up or face the full weight of the law, is what delinquent shop operators are being told by the Kingstown Town Board (KTB).

Letters informing the shop owners of the Town Board’s intention to get this money from them were prepared this week by the chambers of Williams and Williams to be distributed to about 50 shop operators who collectively owe the KTB just over $200,000.{{more}}

“The Town Board can’t continue to allow this delinquency to continue because it is the board that has to face the consequences,” veteran attorney Arthur Williams told SEARCHLIGHT earlier this week.

“If they do not pay we will be taking them to court to make them pay,” said Williams who also said that it was time that the KTB showed that they were serious about recovering the monies owed to them.

The 50 delinquent shop operators are spread among the Central Market, Little Toyko, China Town, and the George McIntosh Market shop areas.

Meanwhile, KTB’s Warden Carl Williams told SEARCHLIGHT that in addition to the shop operators, property owners owe the Town Board over $700,000.

Property owners in Kingstown and its environs pay their property taxes to the KTB unlike those outside of Kingstown who pay to the Inland Revenue Department.

Williams said that the KTB will be using the same process that it used with the shop operators to recover those arrears. He said that within the next couple weeks they were going to organize meetings with delinquent property owners to see if arrangements could be made for them to pay up.

“If this doesn’t work then further steps will have to be taken,” said Williams, who insisted that the Town Board is adamant that payments be made by the persons involved, both the property owners and more immediately the shop operators.

Just about a year ago the KTB held a meeting with shop operators when it was revealed that they owed arrears up to $70,000.

A year later and the outstanding monies have more than doubled and the KTB is saying that the days for talking are over.

The KTB is currently in debt up to $5 million, which is owed to the National Commercial Bank. This figure is up by $1 million from the $4 million figure quoted last year February.