Several roads in Maroon Town division to be repaired

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie iis assuring residents of the Maroon Town Division in St James that the roads in the area will be rehabilitated.

The minister was speaking with journalists following a tour of the Maldon, Flagstaff, and Maroon Town parochial roadways in Southern St James on August 30.

While not giving a definitive date for the commencement of roadwork in the area, McKenzie said that a technical team in the ministry would work in tandem with the St James Municipal Corporation to do the necessary assessment.

“We are not going to be able to physically deal with all the roads at the same time, but we are committing a significant amount of funding from the ministry through the Equalisation Fund,” he said.

The Equalisation Fund was created in 1997 and is financed by 10 per cent of the money collected islandwide from property taxes.

All the 13 Municipal Corporations are allocated a percentage of the fund to carry out critical infrastructure work in their various divisions.

McKenzie noted that while certain portions of the roadway in the area were well built, a lack of maintenance contributed to the deterioration of the road network.

Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister and Member of Parliament for Southern St James, Homer Davis, while thanking the minister for his visit, told journalists that the condition of the roadways could also be attributed to erosion, which has taken place over the years.

Accompanying the minister on the tour were Councillor of the Maroon Town Division, Everes Coke; Deputy Superintendent of Road and Works at the St James Municipal Corporation, Saad Campbell; and Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, Dwight Wilson.

- JIS