A “back of town” business owner told a town-hall meeting she was “sick and tired of Front Street getting the cream and us getting the leftovers”.Sherma Simmons said she felt City Hall and Government funds were automatically funneled to Front Street, while North East Hamilton was often forgotten.“I’m really sick and tired about this,” she told a Corporation of Hamilton meeting at Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Church on Tuesday evening.Ms Simmons took her seat after telling aldermen and councillors: “I will pick at you if you do not do something about my area.”Later, she stood up again and gave a lengthier speech in which she said fellow business owners in the “back of town” had asked her to speak on their behalf.“I don’t think you lot really understand what’s going on in North East Hamilton,” Ms Simmons said. “You don’t see what I’m seeing. We have to go through hoops and hoops [to get funds spent in the area].“Government aren’t giving us nothing. Front Street gets more money, more business.”She said she didn’t see much worth in the area being categorised as an economic empowerment zone.And referring to multimillion dollar plans to revitalise Hamilton’s waterfront, she said: “When the project is finished, we will get the dregs.”The meeting had earlier heard about increasing numbers of vagrants in Hamilton, as well as from businessman amd former Mayor Wiliam Boyle, who complained that property and business owners no longer had a vote in municipal elections.Ms Simmons told him: “Everything you are going through, we already went through. We had people sleeping outside our doors. When we later complained about it, you all ignored us.“Everything you are going through, we have been shouting for the last ten to 15 years. You know what you are teaching us? That nobody cares about us and that’s not what we want to do.“You have to understand what my people in my neighbourhood are telling me. They are frustrated. We have been going through this forever.“I want what you do for Front Street to be done for back of town. This is one Hamilton, one city and one people. That’s what I want.”Corporation secretary Ed Benevides said a high proportion of street works had been carried out in North East Hamilton by the municipality in the past year.He said the waterfront project was not being funded by City Hall, a point Ms Simmons acknowledged.Mr Boyle said he hoped a lot of money wouldn’t be spent on the waterfront, as it should go to the back of town and other areas of the city.He added: “Front Street, until we get an economic environment much, much better than we have now, is a pipe dream.”Both he and Ms Simmons received rounds of applause for their comments.Useful websites: www.bedc.bm, www.cityhall.bm.