Negril gets facelift

NEGRIL, Westmoreland:

The heart of Negril received a welcomed touch recently as employees of Sandals, Beaches and Grand Pineapple Negril conducted a beautification exercise in the vicinity of the resort town’s community centre.
The group of volunteers worked for much of the morning painting sections of the centre’s main car park and kerbs along the craft market area, as well as mowing the lawn at the forefront of the facility. Several persons also cleaned a section of the surrounding seven-mile beach.
“Negril is a continuously growing community and tourist destination, home to our resorts, and hundreds of people either utilise this particular zone or traverse downtown on a daily basis,” stated Sandals Negril General Manager, David Latchimy.

“We were therefore happy to come together as a team to lead this project, which is aimed at enhancing the look of this very important public space. At our resorts we take great care in keeping our infrastructure impeccable and we want to bring that same level of care to the wider Negril,” he said.
The project was the latest in a series of activities piloted by the Sandals Resorts in Negril to beautify the resort town while promoting environmental sustainability. The companies, along with other local environmental organisations and schools, have also conducted cleanup activities along the Negril Marine Park and Negril Great Morass. As recently as August, volunteers transformed a heavily littered section of the beach and collected 54 bags of garbage containing plastic, clothing and other personal items.
According to Beaches and Grand Pineapple Negril General Manager, Adrian Whitehead, there is more work in the pipeline. “We hope to continue with this Negril development programme over the next few months and as early as next week we will be revisiting the community centre to facilitate the repair of some of the railings leading to the roadway,” he shared. “We also intend to restore a small part of the driveway and hope to roll out a full eco-awareness campaign with the erection of appropriate signage, a bi-monthly clean-up as well as related sensitisation sessions,” he added.
The Negril community centre is housed alongside several agencies such as the Negril area Environment Protection Trust, a craft market and the Negril Marine Sea Park.