Parish reps look to construct public sanitary convenience in Junction
Published:Wednesday | June 22, 2022 | 12:07 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Plans are well underway to construct a public sanitary convenience for the town of Junction in St Elizabeth after parish representatives say several attempts have failed over the years, and the town is in dire need of the facility.
Hamlet Stone, vice-president of the Junction Development Area Committee (DAC), and Deon Holness, coordinator for sports, shared with The Gleaner efforts to get one constructed over the years.
They say persons who traverse the town are left to the mercies of the business owners who are sometimes unwilling to assist as the complaint is that they have to buy water.
According to Stone, the Kiwanis Club of Junction attempted to address the problem before, but the expenses proved too much.
“Several members in the community and other surrounding communities ... said we need to have a public sanitary convenience in the town, so we draft up our plans. We said we want a convenience, a tax office and a proper drainage and sewage system.”
The initiative got off to a start on Labour Day – May 23 – as it was made the parish project – the ground was excavated and the pit dug. Stone says the next move is to cast the pit.
On Saturday when the Gleaner team visited, members of the DAC were getting ready for a walk through of the town to secure pledges and donations to continue the project.
The work is projected to cost approximately $5m, with the Labour Day work valued at about $1.4m.
Sharing plans for the public convenience, Stone said it will include three male and three female bathrooms.
“We gonna also have a baby changing room and have one for physically challenged as well as a bathroom. When people come in town to work, they can come and use it, so that is our aim. We don’t think everything will be done one time but hopefully, gradually we will get everything done,” he says.
He said so far he received a donation of $500,000 from councillor for the division, Cetanya Holness, and a pledge of another $500,000 from Franklyn Witter, member of parliament for the constituency.
However, he said he was informed by the Municipal Corporation that he could not have access to that money until the building has been erected and was ready for decking.
Meanwhile, a small row has developed over the ownership of the project.
The Gleaner reached out to Derrick Sangster, mayor of Black River, who confirmed that it had been designated a Labour Day project, following the closure of a sanitary facility which had been in existence many years ago.
“The councillor has now initiated this project to put back a sanitary convenience there and we are aware of it, because we have given assistance to it. It is the councillor for the Junction division project,” he stressed, adding that it is his brainchild. Sangster also notes that the CDC is working along with the councillor.
But when contacted by The Gleaner, Cetanya Holness said he placed the DAC in charge of the project, with Stone as a member of the DAC and not as the conceptualiser. He affirmed that it is his project.
However, a copy of the letter sent by the DAC in 2020 showed the committee lobbying for assistance for the project for its then aborted parish project due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stone insists the CDC had to lobby for finances as he maintains the project is being carried out by the DAC.
“We are the ones that lobbied for that, but they are behaving now as if it is their project,” he said.