Port Maria needs new police station, says St Mary chamber president

President of the St Mary Chamber of Commerce, Frederick Young, is appealing to the authorities to begin construction of the long-awaited Port Maria Police Station for which ground has been broken twice in the past three years under separate national security ministers.

Young is hoping that the facility will finally get off the ground this year and become the catalyst to further reduction in crime in St Mary.

“Although we have reasonably low crime, we can improve on that. The long-awaited Port Maria Police Station is on the agenda in the new year; we’ve been waiting too long now for it to be constructed,” Young told The Gleaner in an interview to mark the new year.

“We would have had two groundbreakings under two different (national security) ministers and to date, nothing has been done really,” he added.

The facility is expected to house the Port Maria Police Station, the St Mary Divisional Headquarters, and the Area Two Police Headquarters, but despite several promises and actual groundbreaking, the facility is yet to get off the ground.

Fire destroyed the Port Maria Police Station in 2006, forcing the Government to rent property to house the station.

On March 7, 2018, then security minister, Robert Montague, broke ground for a new police station, which was supposed to be a three-storey facility costing $60 million, for which work was to commence in May of that year and completed in 18 months.

Montague was, however, reassigned to the Ministry of Transport and Mining just days after the groundbreaking. National Security Minister Horace Chang then broke ground on February 7, 2020, for a revised four-storey complex costing $250 million, which was earmarked for completion by December 2022. On both occasions, the National Housing Trust was named as funding agent.

In August 2021, Matthew Samuda of the Ministry of National Security promised that work would begin on the facility in early 2022.

Young pointed to the fact that the neighbouring parish of Portland has had two stations, Port Antonio and Buff Bay, completed since the first groundbreaking in St Mary. Additionally, the fact that the police are housed in rented premises is even more reason to get the station ready, he argued.

“We need to have it in the coming year as an achievable goal for the parish of St Mary and the men and women who work there,” Young said.`

At the same time, the chamber president is hailing the construction of a new fire station for Port Maria, which he indicated is “probably 95 per cent” complete.

A contract valued at $217 million for the building of the fire station was signed in October 2019, with the project being funded by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund.

The station is built to house up to 80 firefighters, and will also be used as a venue for regional conferences and training sessions for the Jamaica Fire Brigade.