Mayor of Kingston, Councillor Desmond McKenzie, takes a closer look at a drain on Waltham Park Road in Kingston on Monday during a tour of gullies and drains.
Balford Henry, News Editor
THE NEWLY-ELECTED administration of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), had a rude awakening to the magnitude of the problems it faces in terms of local improvements in the Corporate Area, during a tour on Monday.
The tour was just one month into the new administration. Headed by the aggressive Councillor Desmond McKenzie (Tivoli Gardens), it was further testimony to his charismatic style which has lifted him into the Mayor's chair on the wings of the Jamaica Labour Party's smashing win in the June 19 Local Government Elections. But, it was to be the first obstacle in his impatient drive to clean up the long disregarded city.
The theme of McKenzie's administration, he says will be proactivity.
At the first regular meeting of the new Council at the KSAC's Church Street office in downtown Kingston, Councillor McKenzie said that the new Council would be "more proactive than reactive". Hence his decision to tour the Corporate Area with a number of Councillors, last Monday, to see firsthand the drainage problems facing the communities.
The tour started in Bull Bay, East Rural St. Andrew, travelled through Harbour View, in the same constituency, then Rose Town (South St. Andrew), Waltham Park Road (South West St. Andrew), Olympic Way (West Central St. Andrew) and ended in West St. Andrew.
DISABLED DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
The tour party looked at the partially destroyed gullies and other disabled drainage systems in those constituencies, as well as the May Pen Cemetery in the Mayor's own West Kingston area, which has deteriorated into the worst state in its long history.
According to him, the tour marked the start of a $10 million drainage improvement programme in 28 divisions of the KSAC which, he had hoped, would deal with the worst drainage problems in the Corporate Area. But, it actually revealed that the $10 million programme was far too inadequate for the needs of the communities.
"There has to be some adjustment in some areas," he admitted when pressed. "The more we look, is the more we're seeing more problems than were identified before."
"But, let me say this," he tried to reassure, "this is the first phase and we are in the first month of this administration and are trying to do the best we can, based on the resources that are available. But, remember this is just the beginning."
WORST EXAMPLES
Some of the worst examples to be seen were in Rose Town, where the floor of the so-called Shoemaker Gully, on Duff Street, has become so broken up that water and rubbish can no longer pass through and rubbish piles up nearly as high as the walls, in a community where dozens of children roam; and, the Calladium Crescent Gully in West Central St. Andrew, where raw sewage flows several feet high through the community to the disgust of the residents and their children.
Town Clerk Errol Greene tried to explain some of the problems:
"Neglect over the years certainly has something to do with it, but our biggest problem has been lack of resources," he explained.
"This new Council has indicated a desire to do things a little bit differently and we will see how best we can support that, to ensure that we get the best out of the little resources that we have. The Mayor has given his commitment to deal with some of these issues and, whereas, we used to use a band aid approach, or we simply reacted to situations, we're (now) trying to be more proactive and thereby reduce the element of surprise," he said.
Bonitto Brown, Councillor for Trench Town, which includes Rose Town, said that several attempts to deal with the Duff Street Gully had failed for various reasons the latest being the projected cost of the repairs.
SENSELESS
In terms of the, Calladium Crescent Gully, Mayor McKenzie says it would be senseless pumping millions into cleaning it, when the sewage continues to flow through it. He said that he would bring in the Public Health Department and seek the co-operation of the National Water Commission to have the sewage flow halted, first.
But, Mayor McKenzie's greatest challenge could be the historical May Pen Cemetery in his backyard.
He explained that the Chapel had deteriorated and so too had the quarters for the workers, not to mention the over 100 acres of burial ground now overrun with dense bushes. Even the staff of the cemetery has dropped from the usual 10-12 to only three gravediggers.
"I can't state a figure now, but I can assure persons with interest in the May Pen Cemetery that this administration is guaranteeing that between now and the end of the year, the cemetery will get a facelift. We're going to put in the mechanism and that is where dialogue with the correctional services is going to be important, because we feel that one of the ways the correctional services can assist us is by working with us on the maintenance programme," he said.
"If we have to go to the Ministry of Local Government, it will have to be done. How many persons in this country can afford the price of a burial at Dovecot or Meadowrest, or the cost of cremation?"
A burial at the May Pen Cemetery has been estimated to cost approximately $50,000, while burial at the other more expensive cemeteries could cost as much as ten times more.
As Mayor McKenzie insists, "persons buried here are persons who fall within the poverty line and this is a service that, as a Council, we must offer our citizens."
