Green Island High School welcomes swift response to sidewalk parking matter

WESTERN BUREAU

An air of calm has returned to the Green Island High School community in Hanover as the matter of motor vehicles being parked along the sidewalk outside the gates of the school compound has been addressed.

This had followed complaints from several parents and guardians that several motor vehicles, owned by workers on the construction site of the Princess Hotel in Green Island, were routinely being parked in the vicinity of the school and along the sidewalks outside the school compound, posing a danger to the over 1800 students who were forced to then navigate their way between the vehicles to access the school grounds.

When The Gleaner visited the school on Wednesday, August 30, there were no vehicles parked in the vicinity of the school, and students and their parents and guardians who attended for an orientation and registration session had free passage along the sidewalks.

“We are extremely happy for what has happened, it could not have been better,” Principal of Green Island High School, Maxine Evans, told The Gleaner on Wednesday morning.

“We have had a few deaths at the school gate (involving students), and we would not want a repeat of that situation. (S0) we are really just happy for the management of the Princess Hotel Jamaica, that they have acted so swiftly. I believe that they are concerned about us, and we are equally concerned about them,” she stated.The school will officially open for the new school year on Monday, September 4, when all its registered students are expected to be in attendance.

Mayor of Lucea, Sheridan Samuels; inspector of police in charge of the Green Island Police Station, Mervin Hodges; and councillor for the Green Island Division in the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), Marvel Sewell, had all decried the parking situation, which they agreed could not be allowed to continue into the new school year.

Evans said that following a meeting with stakeholders of the school, the management of the Princess Hotel had taken immediate action. She said the school’s board of directors, the HMC, the Ministry of Education and the Hanover Police were all involved in the meeting.

Meanwhile Inspector Hodges told The Gleaner that the Green Island police officers are equally happy about the new situation, noting that it is a good example of all stakeholders trying their best to meet each other half way.

“We feel great about it, because the citizens’ concern is always the problem of the police, so going forward we expect the partnership (between the stakeholders) to continue throughout the Green Island space,” he stated.

He promised a strong police presence in the vicinity of the school, and monitoring of the traffic situation in the area, when school reopens on Monday.