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Mt Salem Primary School building condemned, JSIF to effect repairs

Published:Wednesday | November 18, 2020 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
SWEENEY
SWEENEY

Western Bureau:

Omar Sweeney, managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), has said a section of the Mt Salem Primary and Infant in St James has fallen into serious disrepair and has been condemned.

The condemned building is under the JSIF’s radar to be fixed, and according to Sweeney, the repairs will commence before the end of the fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

“The main building for the primary school was condemned because the structural steel flooring between the floors is compromised,” Sweeney told The Gleaner, who was in Montego Bay for the just-concluded Caribbean Sustainable Cities conference, which was hosted by The University of the West Indies West Jamaica campus.

“We are looking at a solution that would seek to retrofit the school back to compliance and allow it to reopen as a place of learning. We had it assessed by our structural engineers as well as Tankweld. ” added Sweeney, who noted that, with the school not involved in the face-to-face classes at this time, it provided more time to properly rehabilitate the facility.

“Funds have already been approved by the board of JSIF. We intend to now get that through procurement as quickly as possible for an early start in 2021,” said Sweeney, who did not reveal the value of the project and the scope of work to be contracted out.

“We anticipate that the school’s repairs will come on stream early next year. We are going to change the way we are approaching the rehabilitation of the school,” noted Sweeney.

Dr Ann Shaw, the principal of Mt Salem Primary and Infant School, said that should face-to-face classes resume during the period of rehabilitating, some students would have to stay home, as if the Ministry of Health and Wellness safety protocols are to be followed, there would not be enough space to accommodate all the students.

“That would be dependent on JSIF carrying out the repairs on block two, because the two buildings that I am supposed to get, I don’t know when that is going to happen. I don’t have the space, and we are not in a position to build,” Shaw told The Gleaner.

According to her, the problem with the flooring on the condemned block was discovered as far back as 2005, but worsened this year when the island felt the impact of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which occurred some 80 miles off the nation’s coastline.

“When I went there (the school) 15 years ago, I discovered that the flooring of block two was ‘sinking’ and an application was made to JSIF, and they decided to respond,” the principal said. “The Ministry (of Education) had closed off the top floor of that building, but with the earthquake, I decided that I was not going back in there because, with the intensity of that earthquake plus the pre-existing conditions, it would not be suitable.”