By Rayon Dyer, Gleaner WriterBLACK RIVER, St. Elizabeth:
MAYOR OF Black River, Councillor Franklyn Witter has announced that a total of 322 street lamps will be allocated to the parish of St. Elizabeth between 2004/2005 across the 15 parish council divisions in the area.
Mr. Witter made these comments while speaking at the monthly general meeting of the council in Black River last Thursday.
He outlined to the meeting that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors will get 25 of the lamps and the People's National Party (PNP) councillors will get 23 lamps each for their divisions.
He also said that the mayor and deputy mayor will get 30 and 28 street lamps, respectively.
"Under the agreement, the Jamaica Public Service Com-pany (JPS) will install the street lamps in all the divisions on a phased basis. All the lights will not be installed at once, so we, as councillors, have to exercise some patience until the process is completed," Mr. Witter said.
NOT YET INSTALLED
But even while the 2004/2005 project was being announced, some of the councillors present were adamant that they are yet to receive their allocation from the 2002/2003 projects.
According to JLP councillor for the Lacovia division, Broderick Wright, his division is yet to get the amount of street lamps that were allocated to him last year. He said that a list was submitted to the council of all the areas where the street lights are needed but none was install.
"I don't really understand how street lamps are being allocated and they are not being installed. I am hereby calling on the JPS to install all the lights in the Lacovia division by December 15 before we move on to the next phase of the installation process", Councillor Wright told The Gleaner after the meeting.
PNP councillor for the Myersville Division, Winston Sinclair, agreed with the other councillors who are complaining about the JPS's lack of performance in the parish.
He said street lights are critical to the functioning of any community and as such they should be addressed with urgency.
No representative from the JPS was present at the meeting.
