THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE NEWS item in Monday's Gleaner under the headline 'Cash crunch hits St. Ann Parish Council' prompts me to underline an even bigger dilemma faced by the council, the government and the chamber of commerce in relation to St. Ann, and particularly what I persist in calling the Greater Ocho Rios area.
While there is a super-abundance of vehicles everywhere in Jamaica, it is clear to anyone who goes through Ocho Rios and its suburbs that there is a hum of activity that exceeds what would be considered normal for any larger town in St. Ann. This degree of activity stems from a mixture of high intensity commerce and the tourist trade. Ocho Rios is the business hub for an area that stretches in the south to Mount Rosser, to way beyond Port Maria in the east, and as far as Discovery Bay in the west. There is a constant flow of traffic through Fern Gully, and along the routes to Port Antonio and Montego Bay, which is intensified on a daily basis in what would be called the rush hour times.
But, Ocho Rios will not stand still as, there is a proposal to extend the cruise ship pier to accommodate mega-liners, and there are to be constructed some three or so hotels in the corridor from Drax Hall to Dunn's River. The construction of one such very large hotel is well under way at this time. When these developments and their resulting effects are put into the context of the existing confines of what is today Ocho Rios, and also the scope of a poor struggling parish council, it would be evident that something dramatic and radical would need to take place soon to complement such expanded activities.
DEVELOPMENT
There is need for a level of planning which is beyond the capacity of our already beleaguered parish council. Ocho Rios is bursting at its seams and can hardly accommodate any expansion. On the other hand, the prospects for such expansion exists west of Ocho Rios, to well beyond Drax Hall. This is a good opportunity for the preparation of a master plan for the development of this area to be carried out with the objective of preserving this Greater Ocho Rios area as an attractive tourist spot, as well as the business centre it has become for St. Mary and St. Ann.
Planning should include the improvement and preservation of the area's tourist attractions such as the watershed of Dunn's River Falls, and that of Fern Gully, as well as the marine environment.
As a part of this expansion, I can conceive of a large mall being created somewhere on the flatlands at the Drax Hall area which could take a lot of the commercial load off Ocho Rios, leaving it as a true tourist town within which the tourists may wander at leisure. This requires considerable overhauling of the town itself to make it more attractive as a tourist destination. At the same time, the concept of a large mall requires entrepreneurial enterprise which can only be satisfied by those who share this confidence in and perception of an ever-growing Ocho Rios.
There is enough affluence in the Greater Ocho Rios area and adequate public transport available for residents to get to the mall area, assuming that the North Coast Highway will facilitate easy access..
There is a certain cynicism that exists in the community to the effect that Ocho Rios is a "cash cow" and no one cares about anything else, not even the protection of the cow itself. All of this requires a bold but necessary step if we are to avoid waking up some time in the future to a crisis, which could have been averted by action today.
I am etc.,
DONALD DRAYTON
didraytoncwjamaica.com
Ocho Rios
