Two-month ultimatum for St James garage operators – Mayor Vernon
Published:Friday | April 26, 2024 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
MONTEGO BAY Mayor Richard Vernon is urging garage and workshop operators in St James to get their businesses regulated within the next two months. Vernon warned that enforcement will take place after that period against any such business in breach of health and safety standards.
The mayor, who is the chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation [StJMC], made the declaration on Monday while addressing the operators during a meeting at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre in Sam Sharpe Square.
“We are going to work on the regulation to ensure there is safety within the shop space, and safety within the space that the shop is located in, so that persons who are passing by or live in the area are not adversely affected by your operation. If we say to you to get your house in order and your businesses in order within two months, is that too much to ask?
“Our municipal police officers will be serving notices, especially where we identify breaches with the two months, to get your house in order, and after that it is straight enforcement, because I am not going to take the blame for something I did not do,” Vernon said resolutely.
“Persons talk about what the government is doing and not doing, but sometimes the criticism comes from the very persons who are breaching and contributing to the ugliness of the space, or the pollution in the space. They say ‘government not doing anything, the place is nasty’, as if I am ‘nastying up’ the place. So, because I do not want to take responsibility for things I have not done, I will do what I have to do, which is to enforce order in the space,” Vernon added.
More than a decade earlier, in 2012, the StJMC, then known as the St James Parish Council, spearheaded a similar initiative in collaboration with the St James Health Department, the St James Police Division, and the National Solid Waste Management Authority.
That initiative, dubbed ‘Operation Clean Up MoBay’, was geared toward putting an end to illegal vending, as well as halting the proliferation of illegal taxis, roadside cook shops and garages which were functioning outside of the regulations that guide business operations.
Vernon also pointed to various breaches which are often identified among the complaints received by the StJMC regarding roadside workshops and garages, to include pollution, waste disposal, and congestion of the road spaces which often put pedestrians and motorists at risk.
As a specific example of the potential dangers, he cited a fire which destroyed an auto parts business on Hart Street in 2019, with the fire also affecting a neighbouring meat shop and several nearby structures. That fire resulted in damages worth $120 million.
“From a safety standpoint, you all have a role to play, within your operations and within the context of the public. If the person who is operating the woodwork shop is the person carrying out the actual work in that shop, you need to have on your safety gear, your goggles and other necessary things to prevent damage, and your things must be properly stored inside to prevent fire. I recall a situation at Hart Street some years ago where an auto parts place was burned and a meat shop was burned, and the fire started in the auto parts place,” Vernon recounted.
“There are things that, if mixed together and exposed to heat, it can cause fire or an explosion; so it’s not about us regulating you, it is for your own safety, and I want to remind you that you do not operate in a space by yourself. The meat shop was next door, plus perhaps some other businesses to the other side, and within the space that you operate, you too can identify other properties beside yours. If your property is a hazard in itself, then you put the other operations at risk,” said Vernon.
The meeting with the garage and workshop operators preceded a similar meeting to take place with members of Montego Bay’s local business community.