Rat ‘attacks’ St James policeman

WESTERN BUREAU:

St James, which is reeling from a perennial rodent infestation problem, primarily as a result of improper waste disposal, was a source of much humour at last Thursday’s sitting of the St James Municipal Corporation, where one councillor described a recent ‘rat attack’ on a policeman.

During the presentation of the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) monthly report on garbage collection in St James, Councillor Michael Troupe of the Granville Division colourfully related the story of the ‘rat attack’.

“Mr Mayor, I do not know if you heard the story about the rat that ‘licked down’ the policeman in Montego Bay,” Troupe said to Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams, prompting much giggling.

According to the report, the officer in question accidentally stumbled on the rat while uncovering a fruit cart, at which point the rodent jumped at the officer before fleeing.

“No, I have not,” said Williams, seemingly quite amused by Troupe colourful description of the alleged incident.

“It is true! It was here in town,” insisted Troupe.

NAME OF THE RAT

“Was he charged for assault?” asked Councillor Charles Sinclair for the Montego Bay Northeast Division, as the corporation’s chamber erupted in much laughter. “What was the name of the rat?”

However, Mark McGann, councillor for the Somerton Division, was in no laughing mood, arguing that garbage pile-ups across the parish, which has historically been linked to the rodent infestation, needs to be properly addressed by the NSWMA.

“With all the jostling going on, the issue we are having is that we have been having these challenges for quite some time now, and we are not getting any real answers as to when it is going to be fixed, or the things that we can do to alleviate it,” said McGann. “On any single day, we get two, three or four phone calls about garbage collection.”

“The public health service is seeing some of these issues that we are having, and they are putting drums in areas where there are already garbage skips; so what you have is a big skip that is being expanded. It is a problem, and we need a solution, something to tell citizens, ‘We are working on it, here is what we are going to be doing in the interim,’” McGann added.

WORKING AFTER HOURS

In responding to the councillors’ concerns, Julian Robinson, the senior public cleansing inspector at the NSWMA’s Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, said the agency takes its role of garbage collection and maintenance seriously, with some of its inspectors even working after hours to alleviate the current backlog of uncollected waste.

“We are hoping that we will have three of the units [garbage trucks] that are in the garage to be out by this weekend, so this should allow us to do additional cleaning,” said Robinson. “It is not that we come here and report and take it as lightly as that. Even last night [Wednesday], the operations manager along with an inspector were on the road doing collection, and other inspectors are out at night, because we see the task we do as very important.”

During the meeting, it was disclosed that 42 communities in St James were experiencing a backlog in waste collection during the month of August, up from 31 recorded in July. Additionally, 11 garbage trucks were in operation up to August, less than the 20 which are required to effectively carry out the NSWMA’s collection mandate.