SPANISH TOWN, ST CATHERINE:

The St Catherine Co-operative Credit Union, as part of its community development programme, has donated more than $800,000 to several students under the Winston Pasley Scholarship.

The credit union also issued grants, which will be sustained over a four-year period.

Among the beneficiaries of grants were Hubert Goldbourne and Suzie Wilson, both of Newlands in St Catherine, who lost all of their childrens school material during the passage of Tropical Storm Gustav. They were given vouchers to replace the material at the Spanish Town Bookstore.

They told The Gleaner they were very thankful for the gesture.

We lose everything and it is very good that the St Catherine Credit Union is helping us to buy these necessary items for the children to go back to school, remarked Goldbourne.

- Rasbert Turner

BLACK RIVER, ST ELIZABETH:

Two men were shot, a firearm was recovered and a motor car seized, following a shoot-out with the police in Cedar Spring, St Elizabeth, on Monday.

According to reports, two men travelling in a Honda Civic motor car went to the Accompong Maroon Village in St Elizabeth enquiring where they could purchase bullets.

Two off-duty police officers, on hearing that the men were in search of bullets, went on the hunt for them.

The cops caught up with the two at Cedar Spring and engaged them in a shoot-out.

The men were shot and injured and a .38 semi-automatic pistol with a magazine containing two live rounds were recovered.

One of the injured men was rushed to the Black River Hospital where he was admitted under police guard.

The other escaped by running into bushes in the Cedar Spring community and is being sought by the St Elizabeth police.

- Neville Paul

SPANISH TOWN, ST CATHERINE:

The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission continues to awaken the consciousness of the youths with their second Schools National Heroes Summit.

Seven schools from across Jamaica gathered, along with other persons at the Twickenham Park Open Bible Church, to give speeches, displays and do re-enactments involving Jamaicas National Heroes.

Assisted by the National Inter-School Brigade, representatives from the schools marched behind band members carrying flags bearing the faces of National Heroes.

Marcus Garvey Technical represented Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle High and Norman Manley represented the Heroes for whom their schools were named, while William Knibb presented Sam Sharpe, College of Agriculture Science and Education stood for Nanny, and Clarendon College represented Sir Alexander Bustamante.

- Rasbert Turner

Councillor of the Malvern division, Donald Simpson, has pleaded for urgent attention to be given to the catchment tanks in his division.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the St Elizabeth Parish Council where Minister of Water and Housing Dr Horace Chang was in attendance, Simpson said there were some 10 catchment tanks in the division and most of them were in a state of disrepair.

The matter was critical, the councillor said, because only 10 per cent of the division had access to piped water.

- Rayon Dyer

Kelly

The Portland Parish Council is warning vendors with outstanding vending fees to settle their accounts immediately.

The council has said if this is not done, vendors in arrears will not be allowed entry into the temporary facility being made available while the Musgrave Market undergoes repairs.

Former mayor, Rupert Kelly, reiterated the importance of collecting the outstanding fees, which amounts to over $1 million. According to Kelly, the fees would play a part in funding the refurbishing of the Musgrave Market, which is supposed to cost approximately $45 million.

The council has to find $20 million of that figure while the Tourism Product Development Company will assist with the rest.

- Gareth Davis Sr

MAY PEN, CLARENDON:

The scene-of-crime officers had a busy Wednesday night processing three different scenes after gunmen struck in the Nineteen Miles community, Juno Crescent and Rectory Road, leaving two persons dead and two others hospitalised.

In the first incident, two men were at a meat shop in the Nineteen Miles community when two men approached them and opened fire, hitting them. They were taken to the May Pen Hospital where they were admitted in critical condition.

In the second incident, residents of Juno Crescent heard explosions and summoned the police.

When the police arrived, the body of 41-year-old Garfield Williams, a plumber of Juno Crescent, was found in the vicinity of a bridge in the community. His body had multiple gunshot wounds.

The third incident occurred in the Rectory Land community, when Anthony Mitchell, a 24-year-old labourer otherwise called Foodie of Sandy Bay, Clarendon, was shot and killed.

Mitchell was among a group of persons in the Rectory Land Community helping to unload produce from a truck when a man on foot fired several shots, hitting him in the upper regions of his body. He succumbed to his injuries at the May Pen Hospital.

The Clarendon Homicide Unit is investigating.