- Norman Grindley Workers cleaning a channel along Marcus Garvey Drive on Friday.
AN extensive clean-up and road repair programme is now under way in several communities in the Corporate Area and St. Andrew in the lead-up to the island's next general election.
But the 20 young men and two females who were literally up to their ankles in sludge in the water channel along Marcus Garvey Drive, say it's work free of political tensions.
"This is no politics thing, it's more of a community thing because right now you have 'Shower' and 'Power' man a work side by side," one man said.
He explained that although the group was a mixed one, there was no hostility as the main aim was to make a living.
"When the voting over and the ballot them done count a we lef to live together. Because look if you cut any of we out here is the same blood. So a better we live in peace and keep the away the police. Greenwich Town all right... we couldn't tell when last the police come through fi arrest anybody," he said.
In a lively show of harmony the men joked about the union sharing symbols of the fist and victory sign.
The work they say has been hard. "A some forty years now the gully no clean so you must now how it stay," one young woman explained. But the atmosphere has been jovial. "When we done work a day time, we catch crayfish and we cook and everybody share. A tell you a some nice set a people fi work wid."
The workers explained that work on the roads started last Friday when residents from the neighbouring Greenwich Town community assigned to work on the Marcus Garvey gully and Industrial Terrace stretch.
The area along Two Miles, Rose Town and Tivoli Gardens along Spanish Town road also had work under way with another large group of men.
This exercise forms part of a project of road repairs for the Spanish Town Road area under the National Works Agency's Urban Road Periodic Maintenance Programme.
The Ministry of Transport and Works, along with the National Works Agency, had signed a contract valued at $76.7 million for the improvement of approximately four kilometres of road between Three Miles and Darling Street, along Spanish Town Road, in Kingston. The contract was signed between the Ministry and YP Seaton and Associates. Several men involved in repairing the curb wall across from the Horizon Remand Centre explained that while the work had not been especially divided up along party lines, each community had been given the section of work in its area to avoid tensions.
"Is really the same work," one man along the Spanish Town Road said, "but because the man dem from the other side caan come over dem just do the work inna fi dem section."
This was confirmed by a representative from YP Seaton and Associates, the company which had been awarded the official contract for the road repairs.
"We are the contractors but we try to utilise local labour and material where possible," he explained. He said that the task had been subcontracted to workmen in the areas for on the ground distribution to labourers.
An extensive clean-up and road repair programme is now under way in several communities in the Corporate Area and St. Andrew in the lead-up to the island's next general election.
But the 20 young men and two females who were literally up to their ankles in sludge in the water channel along Marcus Garvey Drive, say it's work free of political tensions.
"This is no politics thing, it's more of a community thing because right now you have 'Shower' and 'Power' man a work side by side," one man said.
He explained that although the group was a mixed one, there was no hostility as the main aim was to make a living.
"When the voting over and the ballot them done count a we lef to live together. Because look if you cut any of we out here is the same blood. So a better we live in peace and keep away the police. Greenwich Town all right... we couldn't tell when last the police come through fi arrest anybody," he said.
In a lively show of harmony the men joked about the union sharing symbols of the fist and victory sign.
The work they say has been hard. "A some 40 years now the gully no clean so you must now how it stay," one young woman explained. But the atmosphere has been jovial. "When we done work a day time, we catch crayfish and we cook and everybody share. A tell you a some nice set a people fi work wid."
The workers explained that work on the roads started last Friday when residents from the neighbouring Greenwich Town community were assigned to work on the Marcus Garvey gully and Industrial Terrace stretch.
The area along Two Miles, Rose Town and Tivoli Gardens along Spanish Town Road also had work under way with another large group of men.
This exercise forms part of a project of road repairs for the Spanish Town Road area under the National Works Agency's Urban Road Periodic Mainte-nance Programme.
The Ministry of Transport and Works, along with the National Works Agency, had signed a contract valued at $76.7 million for the improvement of approximately four kilometres of road between Three Miles and Darling Street, along Spanish Town Road, in Kingston.
