BLACK RIVER, St. Elizabeth:
EIGHT OF nine councillors in the Parish Council here voted in favour of renewing the contract of commercial services manager Willard Thompson after it expires on November 30.
A proposal was put to the councillors to determine their support for the renewal of the manager's contract for another year.
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Councillor, Broderick Wright, who declined to support the renewal of Mr. Thompson's contract, told the monthly meeting of the St. Elizabeth Parish Council last Thursday that the officer has done little or no work since he started working with the agency.
"Look at the amount of illegal vendors on the streets of Black River and Santa Cruz," he said. "Every day we go out there are more and more illegal vendors coming on to the streets. Over the past year Mr. Thompson has failed to remedy that problem," Councillor Wright said. "I am putting it to the Council that someone else be recommended for the post."
Among the councillors who supported the renewal of the contract were Councillors Phyllis Clarke, Donald Horne, Ernest Hendricks, Derrick Hendricks, Vernon Ebanks, Dorothy Buchanan and Shirley Myers.
And chairman of the St. Elizabeth Parish Development Committee, Jason Henzell, formally presented a Global Positioning System (GPS) 2000 to the Parish Council to assist with the work load in its planning department.
Accepting the GPS on behalf of the agency, director of planning, Delroy Brown, said the equipment would place his department in a better position to deliver a more efficient service to the public. He also noted that data management at the department would be better secured.
The St. Elizabeth Parish Council was the first of the island's parish councils to be equipped with a GPS.
