ANGUILLA , THE ROCK: Cleophas Gumbs Announces A New Project
Publishing date: 17.03.2006 10:02
Cleophus Gumbs of Little Dix is a well-known figure on the local political scene and an advocate for steering Anguilla in the right course. He is also making another name for himself by revolutionalising the stone-cutting business for the construction industry in a big way.
Mr. Gumbs has just commissioned an impressive limestone-cutting Cobra “S” Travelling Bridge Diamond Saw which slices massive boulders into colourful slabs. When taken to another machine, the already smooth rock is further cut into squares of different sizes ready for special and attractive tiling of walls or floors by builders and home-owners. Other cuts can be used for decorating gardens.
The operation of the plant, particularly the computer-driven automatic travelling bridge saw, is something which must be seen to fully understand and Mr. Gumbs is opening the facility to visits by the general public including school children. The saw, operated by his 600-watt 3-phase generator, is cooled by large amounts of recycled water supplied by two large cisterns on the compound. The plant is situated on family-owned land in the Wattices area.
Mr. Gumbs invited The Anguillian to the site, where he spoke about the facility. “We are looking at two stone-cutting machines – one is the big gantry saw carrying a 6-foot blade and the smaller one which cuts the big slabs into 8-inch, 10x12 or 12x12 pieces, whatever the customer requires,” he explained.
“Anguilla is growing and I saw that this type of business would do well on the island,” he went on. “A lot of stone is imported from various places, such as Santo Domingo and we have the same stone here but did not have the facilities to cut it…The equipment was brought in form Minnesota. The big machine runs on a gantry track from left to right. We load the rock and programme the number of cuts we want from each block and set the saw on automatic. The machine can cut all day without any interference and when the last block is cut, we enter zero zero and the saw automatically shuts down.”
The rock-cutting machines are a far cry from the conventional hand-chiselling activity which is also supported in a limited way by other small-scale machinery systems. It took Mr. Gumbs ten years to bring this larger project to fruition, mainly because of the need for financing which he has now managed to meet from his own pocket.
I have a lot of faith in the people of Anguilla and I have a lot of faith in Anguilla on a whole because the island and its people are beautiful,” he stated. “Despite the behaviour of some of our youth, we all must carry Anguilla forward and this project is one of the ways to do so. We have to steer Anguilla in the right course.”
Mr. Gumbs added: “The public can come here and I invite teachers to bring the school children to see this. It is not the first rock-cutting saw on the island, but it is one of the most modern and largest machines In Anguilla.” It is certainly an education to visit Mr. Gumbs’ project.
