Cease and desist!
Falmouth mayor warns persons against placing building material on roads
Published:Friday | May 6, 2022 | 12:07 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE MAYOR of Falmouth, Colin Gager, has warned that the Trelawny Municipal Corporation will be taking steps to prevent persons from placing building material along the roadway, as it moves to preserve the surface of roads.
Gager made the comments while delivering the main address at the ribbon-cutting exercise to signal the opening of two rehabilitated roads in the Troy area.
“It has been a common practice for people to store building material on the road. The municipality will be monitoring the roads to ensure that these practices cease,” the mayor warned.
“The building material blocks the drains and force water from rainfall to destroy the road surface,” he added. “This will no longer be allowed.”
One hundred and six million dollars ($106,000,000), drawn from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) Basic Needs Trust Fund Cycle 9, along with the Caribbean Development Bank, was spent to rehabilitate the roads.
Common Road underwent a one-kilometre development and Starapple Lane had a 650-metre improvement. Both are in the municipal division represented by Gager, who gave a history of the involvement of JSIF in the division.
“We have been gifted basic schools in Troy, Wilson Run, and Thompson Town. This latest project is a major contribution to the people, especially farmers,” he said.
“These roads allow farmers to take their yam products to the area where exporters can drive to. It is less work for the mules and donkeys used by farmers as transportation to and from their fields,” Gager related.
Orville Hill, general manager, Finance and Procurement, JSIF, said the improved roads will assist improving the residents’ quality of life.
“This represents a significant investment in nation-building,” Hill remarked. “It meets a part of our mandate to create wealth and employment. It improves the quality of life for these 1,400 residents.”
Given the poor state of the roads previously, residents and other persons traversing the space and Inspector Robert Rhone of the Trelawny division described the project as a welcome improvement, which aids policing of the area.
“We have always encouraged residents to call us when strange people are seen in the districts. Before the rehabilitation our response teams would have to park and walk. Now we can drive through and drop out on the Troy main road,” Rhone expressed.
Trelawny is the main yam-producing parish in the country and 70 per cent of the yam exported are from the parish. A $16-million yam house, where exporters buy to satisfy their export needs, was built in Wait-A-Bit to aid in providing a place for farmers to take their yam.
Hopeton Brown, a farmer for over 40 years in the area who plants a variety of crops, with yellow yam being the main crop, beamed at the advantage to be gained from improved roads.
“Now I can take out my yam crop close to where the people who come to buy from us are,” said Brown. “Less work for us.”
Monique Brown, a member of the Community Development Committee, praised all involved in the rehabilitation and pledged to assist in the road maintenance.
“No longer will we need to wear slippers to the main road before we put on our dress shoes, which we always carry in a bag. Sir, my group will do its part to help maintain the road,” she pledged.