Hanover business owners unhappy with 300th anniversary celebration
Published:Friday | August 23, 2024 | 12:10 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The low-key treatment of the 300th anniversary of the establishment of Hanover as a parish is not sitting well with several business owners there, who are now seeking an explanation for why the year-long celebration, which should continue until November, has seemingly come to a halt.
“I know that the Hanover 300 planning committee was planning a number of events, even up to February/March this year. I reached out to them then and asked what was happening, and they said that they were going to call a meeting to talk about the events, and a meeting was held,” Shermaine Anderson-Gayle, president of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce (HCC), told a recent meeting of that body.
In the lead-up to the start of the celebrations, a special anniversary committee was established that was co-chaired by Reverend Glenroy Clarke and Lucea’s deputy mayor, Andria Dehaney-Grant. The committee was tasked to develop and implement plans for the duration of the one year of celebration.
Now, with weeks to go before the conclusion of the celebrations, questions are being raised about the efficiency of the planning committee, whether the committee had secured government funding and, if so, what has happened to those funds.
The event, which is sanctioned by the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), had listed several events to take place over the year but, while some have unfolded, others never came off the drawing board.
Among the events that were listed are: The Hanover Lucea ‘night out’ in December 2023; a Hanover 300 walk/run in January 2024; a Hanover 300 banquet and awards ceremony in March 2024; a Hanover 300 homecoming celebrations in August 2024; a business and economic symposium; a school quiz competition; community clean-up events and community sporting events across the parish.
When Clarke was contacted, in his capacity as co-chair of the planning committee, he told The Gleaner that while the HMC was the main sponsor of the Hanover 300 activities, support also came from the Hanover business community, and government and non-government organisations. Funds were also generated from fundraising events staged by the planning committee.
“There was never any direct funding from the government, that is a rumour, nothing like that,” said Clarke. “One or two of the planned events were not held but most were held, and there are others on stream still to be held before the close of the celebrations.
“The truth is, events were slated like a walk/run, that did not take place because that was interrupted by the local government election, and there is an event that the chamber of commerce should have spearhead, namely, the Hanover business forum. I do not know what they are doing with that,” added Clarke.
He also stressed that the celebrations are not over but are expected to end in fine style with a special event on November 12, which has officially been dubbed ‘Hanover Day’.
“There is a closing event, the Hanover 300 banquet, that is slated to take place later in the year, and Hanover Day on November 12, are the events that are still slated to take place,” said Clarke.
Hanover was established in November 1723 by the then Jamaican House of Assembly after it passed the necessary laws to recognise a demarcated section of the parish of Westmoreland, as a new parish. The parish of Hanover is approximately 177 square miles or 458.43 square kilometres in area.