Western Bureau:

After close to 15 years without a proper fire station in downtown Montego Bay, St James, the second city is now poised to receive a new state of the art fire department with construction to start this year.

Montego Bay's mayor, Councillor Homer Davis, who is also Chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation, made the announcement during he recent monthly meeting of the corporation.

According to Davis, a decision was recently taken to construct the new fire station on the same site Barnett Street location, which once housed the old fire department.

"Last Monday, along with the superintendent of the St James Fire Department and members of Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), I did a site visit to the old fire station and at the end of the visit, a review and discussion took place, where it was decided to now use that location to build a new fire department for Montego Bay," explained Davis.

"The timeline is before the end of the year. They are looking at any time after August. The plan is already drawn and everything, even the money, to commence the project is in the house," added Davis.

The mayor recently extended an invitation to citizens in St James with suitable unused lands to consider donating a piece of their property for the building of a fire station in order to effectively respond to fires in and around Montego Bay.

However, time appeared to have been running out, because, according to the mayor, the money for construction will be withdrawn if work does not begin soon.

"So from the look of things, they will start this year because if they don't start, they are going to withdraw the money," said Davis.