On the Corner with EPOC | Solar car wash to save our sons - Nannyville businessman seeks aid to establish community-based project
Published:Thursday | May 17, 2018 | 12:00 AMSyranno Baines/Gleaner Writer
The large number of unattached youth in the sometimes volatile community of Nannyville Gardens provides the potential fuel for any fire in the area, but businessman David Chambers has a plan to address this.
Chambers, a long-time resident of the southeast St Andrew community, has devised a plan to get at least 20 youngsters off the corner and placed in a job.
To this end, Chambers, along with other residents, formed the Young Entrepreneurs of Nannyville Gardens group in 2012, with the intention of kick-starting a community-based car wash.
Fast-forward to today and the venture hasn't taken off, and key persons who conceived the idea have either left the community or lost interest, but not Chambers. He remains extremely passionate about the prospect of creating a livelihood for these unattached young people.
"It would be a totally green car wash. We wouldn't have anything to do with the electricity grid. We would have our tanks which we would full with water and that water would be recycled.
"It would run totally on solar and sludge tank," said Chambers during the latest Gleaner On the Corner with the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) forum in Nannyville, last Monday.
While he has already acquired some equipment via pooled funds, Chambers, who previously managed a car wash, said the venture would require at least $3 million to get off the ground.
"We have vacuums, air compressors, power wash machines already, and we've identified an unused space across from the clinic, so I'm seeking any form of technical assistance to lease a piece of the land.
"We wouldn't be putting up any building, so leasing is ideal. It's just fencing and a container to use as an office and waiting area, and we already have the container and we have identified the person to put up the fencing," said Chambers, as he pleaded for help to acquire the rights to the property.