Fix it! - Residents want improvements to Benbow Postal Agency

The community of Benbow, situated about one and a half miles from Guy’s Hill, St Catherine, has had a postal agency serving residents of adjoining communities dating back to the early 1950s.

The building has fallen into disrepair over the years, and no attempt has been made to improve the facility which serves residents of communities such as Middlesex, Copper, Bonnet and Moreland.

Void of any form of sanitary convenience or electricity, a situation that has led the St Catherine Health Department to hint at a possible closure, the residents are claiming that such a move would greatly disadvantage them, especially the senior citizens in the communities that it serves.

The usefulness of the facility in its present location, according to the residents, has taken on added significance since the closure of the main post office in Guy’s Hill on January 15 for repairs to the leaking roof.

“This postal agency is extremely important to this community and the surrounding ones, even now that the Guy’s Hill main office is closed for repairs, the elderly citizens who collect pension and other benefits could come here instead of going all the way to Linstead, which is what is happing now,” said 42-year-old Patrice Nelson, who was born in Benbow, and has utilised and continue to use the services of the postal agency.

“It is so inconvenient for the elderly to have to compete with everyone else to go to Linstead on taxi, and sometimes they have to come back home without their mail, it is so difficult, especially in a time of COVID,” she told The Gleaner.

Seventy-one-year-old resident Maurice Hinds, who was born in Benbow, and remembered collecting letters for his parents while on his way home from school as far back as 1962, said the community definitely needs the facility which has served the citizens well over the years.

‘I Born Come See It’

“This building has been around since the ‘40s. I born come see it. I think it was first used for a postal agency in the ‘50s. People are used to having this service here. I remembered seeing men riding around delivering telegrams back in the day when I was going to school. Right now, a lot of seniors collect their pension, bills and other benefits here, so the facility is needed, even if the main office in Guy’s Hill is functioning,” Hinds declared.

“What I would suggest is that they find another building in the community to use, and establish this one as a historical monument for the community,” he opined.

Residents also pointed to an issue with the main Guy’s Hill office that is of concern to them, as 77-year-old John Palmer highlighted the difficulty the elderly faced climbing the steps of the building.

“The steps are steep, most of us can’t manage to climb them, so even when they fix the roof, there will still be problems for the elderly,” he disclosed.

He pointed to a $400 round trip taxi fare from Guy’s Hill to Linstead, which he claimed is burdensome to the elderly who are NIS and PATH beneficiaries as another issue of grave concern.

Valda Reid who has been the postmistress at Benbow for the past 36 years said. She continued in her job despite the challenges because the residents in the communities depend on her to be there to serve them on a daily basis.

“The postal agency has been serving its purpose over the years, and even though there has been no attempts to improve the structure that has passed through at least two hurricanes, including Gilbert, I remained dedicated to my work here,” she told The Gleaner, adding that its usefulness cannot be overemphasised.

Meanwhile, Chief Public Health Inspector for St Catherine Grayson Hutchinson observed that the facility is in a very bad state, but insisted that there is no final decision on when the department will order its closure.

editorial@gleanerjm.com