HMC contemplating move from mould-infested headquarters

Western Bureau:

With the conditions at the mould-infested Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) building, in Lucea, still in an environmentally unsafe state, Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels says the corporation is now considering moving its operations to safer locations.

“What we have done is that we have held discussions in the planning committee meeting, and we have identified some places that the chief executive officer (David Gardner) is now looking at, for us to get some of the departments out of the building,” Samuels, who is also the chairman of the HMC, told The Gleaner yesterday.

“For example, we have been looking at the Watson Taylor Park situation, where the Youth Empowerment Centre is, and has not been used for the longest while, also a space on Watson Taylor Drive where the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) office was temporarily located,” said Samuels.

Over recent months, staffers at the 300-year-old municipal building, including the mayor, have been battling bouts of illness associated with the building, which the health authorities have found to be unhealthy due to mould-infestation. After declaring the building unsafe, the health authorities made several recommendations to address the issues.

With only minimal work done to improve the unhealthy situation, the HMC’s planning committee has been tasked to seek out alternative accommodation to move the corporation’s operations to a safer location or locations.

According to Samuels, they are seeking space inside the town of Lucea for the relocation of some of the departments, where staffers are regularly reporting sick. He said that, based on the health department’s recommendation, deep cleaning is taking place in some departments and general repairs to the building have started.

“We have been doing some repairs to the roof itself, because it is from there that the water is soaking to the inside. We are also looking on the ceiling, for which estimates have been done and submitted, and the deep cleaning is in progress,” said Samuels.

He indicated that, at present, the priority is to get the planning department out of the building as soon as possible, but whatever is done has to follow some bureaucratic policies that are in place.

“That area is really one of the more troublesome areas,” said Samuels. “Based on the Hanover Health Department’s environmental report, the planning department is one of them.”

The report also outlined seven recommendations for corrective measures, which were considered critical if the building was to remain open, accommodating the 46 employees.

When Th e Gleaner contacted the HHD with regard to what will happen next if its recommendations are not followed in totality, Chief Public Health Inspector Fritz Francis said the mayor, in his capacity as the chairman of the Local Board of Health, will make that call.

When The Gleaner spoke to corporation’s CEO, he said he would be travelling to Kingston this week to have meetings with officials of the Ministry of Local Government regarding the way forward with the problematic building.

editorial@gleanerjm.com