JRC calls criticisms for People’s Arcade issues unfair

Western Bureau:

The Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) is describing recent criticisms from the St James Health Department in regard to its alleged failure to address several long-standing, health-related concerns at the People’s Arcade, in Montego Bay, as being unfair.

“It is unfair and disingenuous to lay blame on the JRC for this matter when they know the genesis of it, and they know that we have gone over and beyond the call of duty to try and have their input, facilitation, and collaboration, which is the approach we have been advised to take,” JRC Chief Executive Officer Fitzroy Williams told The Gleaner on Monday.

The JRC, which owns the property, has been locked in a long-standing dispute with the vendors who occupy the property and are contending that they have a legal right to their occupancy.

Earlier this month, St James Health Department Parish Manager Lennox Wallace called on the JRC to address several issues at the arcade, including drainage and rat infestation problems, which have emerged as a significant health concern in the western city.

At that time, Wallace criticised the JRC’s management of the People’s Arcade, saying their failure to exercise control over the property was the cause of the facility’s long history of poor sanitation and perpetual rat infestation problem.

Clean-up in Progress

But, in responding to Wallace’s criticism, Williams said that on previous occasions, the health department had failed to attend scheduled meetings with the JRC to address the issues, even as he noted that clean-up work is currently ongoing at the arcade.

“Many times we have gone to have meetings in Montego Bay and invited them to see how we can collaborate and work together. I think we have invited the health department to other meetings and they have not turned up,” said Williams. “There has been some work that has started at the facility. We have implemented clean-up operations in the arcade over and over, over the last few years.”

Williams also noted that the JRC has reached out to Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams for fresh discussions on how to fully resolve the issues at the arcade.

“I got a call from a director in the municipal corporation indicating that the new mayor wants to have dialogue with us and will be writing to invite us to have some dialogue and plan our strategy [concerning the arcade]. I still have not gotten the letter or heard back from the municipal corporation director, but I am not prepared to put out a statement until the board has had an opportunity to address the matter,” said the JRC’s CEO.

When contacted, the Montego Bay mayor said that the municipal corporation has in fact written to the JRC requesting a meeting.

“We have written to the JRC asking for a meeting, but I have not received any correspondence from them yet. As soon as we have met, then I should have something to say in regard to the railway corporation land,” the mayor said.

The People’s Arcade was established in 1996 by former Montego Bay Mayor Arthur Gilchrist to accommodate street vendors who were relocated to make way for the Inter-American Development Bank-funded Montego Bay South Gully Drainage Improvement Project.