Turnberry Primary and Infant School gets new walkway

TURNBERRY, St Ann:

In the deep-rural community of Turnberry, the rains showed exactly why a shelter was needed over the walkway leading from the classrooms at the primary and infant school to the sanitary conveniences.

The parish project for St Ann, organised by the St Ann Municipal Corporation, attracted volunteers from the community, who came out to work with the team from the municipality. And while the rains forced the work into an additional day, principal Maureen Cunningham was elated with the assistance.

“It is extremely appreciated and long, long overdue,” Cunningham told The Gleaner. “We are so ecstatic as a community to know that the councillor, Delroy Kelly, and junior councillor, Jordan Grant, who is a past student, made such a tremendous representation and that the municipality came on board to greatly assist us.”

Kelly, a first-time councillor, said the principal had approached him about covering the walkway, which runs approximately 160 feet.

He said that after the initial representation was looked at favourably, when it came to deciding the parish project, he again made representation and was successful.

“I am really elated right now witnessing the project coming to almost completion,” he remarked. “I am very much grateful to all who assisted, the villagers who came out.”

The school has 70 students on roll, with a staff of six teachers, and caters to children from communities such as Turnberry, Castle Kelly, Benbow, Perry, Guy’s Hill, Greywood, Blackstonedge, Middlesex and Top Middlesex.

other projects

Elsewhere in the parish, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association St Ann/St Mary Chapter assisted several health institutions, among other entities, on Labour Day.

The St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital got some attention, while Bahia Principe focused on the infirmary. Jewel Dunn’s River made St Ann’s Bay Health Centre its target, and Jewel Paradise Cove laboured at the Runaway Bay Health Centre.

At Pimento Walk Methodist Basic School, Clifton Reader, managing director at Moon Palace Jamaica, and Natalie Boreland, general manager of Moon Palace Foundation, led a team of 32 that oversaw the paving of the front of the school premises to prevent water from entering the building when it rains.

The team also carried out other tasks, even as the rains persisted.

“In spite of the rain, they are doing wonderful,” co-sponsor of the school, Nova Johnson, told The Gleaner. “We had, as the main project, the entrance to be paved because when it rains, there is a lot of mud and water coming into the school, and in spite of the rain, they are doing it. I appreciate, it and they always help us when we call on them.”

The hotel has been assisting the school for several years, dating back to the days of Sunset Jamaica Grand.