Holness tours Boundbrook centre as government rolls out hurricane recovery projects

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness visited the Boundbrook Urban Centre in Port Antonio, Portland, on Friday to review progress on the $4.2 billion development, which is now 58 per cent complete and scheduled to finish in February 2027. The Factories Corporation of Jamaica is carrying out the work through a public-private partnership.

Holness said the project supports the government's push to create modern urban centres that bring public services together with commercial and professional activity. "What we are doing here is to build spaces that can make your lives better. In the Boundbrook Urban Centre we will have all the government services in one convenient location that is easily accessible," he said. He added that the one-stop facility should ease traffic in the town, improve how Port Antonio functions and encourage new investment. A new bypass for the town sits behind the site. Officials expect the centre to generate significant economic activity in Portland and create an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 jobs during construction and operations.

Holness noted that many town centres across Jamaica no longer meet demand, with weak sidewalks, parking and market standards, and said the administration is tackling ageing infrastructure. While in Portland, he said the National Social Housing Programme is being mobilised to deliver 2,500 modular semi-permanent housing solutions for Jamaicans affected by Hurricane Melissa, including at a handover in Cane Wood. The units were purchased from China and imported, but require concrete platforms before installation. NSHP will work with the NHD and ADPM on that task. "Now, when those 2,000 units are put in place, we will monitor them. We will study them to see how well they stand up to Jamaican conditions, to see potentially how long they will last," Holness said.

The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development has received US$1 million in cash and relief supplies from the JN Foundation and Lutheran World Relief for Hurricane Melissa recovery. The package includes US$416,000 and 545 disaster relief kits with quilts, educational materials, baby care items and personal care supplies, benefiting about 30,000 people through the Poor Relief Department at infirmaries and drop-in centres islandwide. Infirmary rehabilitation work is nearly 85 per cent complete. Funds will help buy hospital beds, bedside tables, lockers and a double-door refrigerator for the Trelawny Infirmary, with about US$1.25 million directed to equipment for rebuilt facilities there.

The government has allocated a little over $310 million to upgrade St Elizabeth Technical High School, among institutions severely damaged by Hurricane Melissa. Education Minister Dr Dana Morris-Dixon said the investment forms part of a multi-billion-dollar effort to rebuild more than 400 schools. Works at STETHS include redesigning male and female dormitories with reinforced concrete slab roofs and supporting columns, upgrading the teachers' cottage and principal's residence, and strengthening the grade 11 block and wider campus against storms. STETHS will house Jamaica's first high school mechatronics and robotics laboratory when students return in September.

Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said 200 posts under this year's Youth Summer Employment Programme will support community disaster management from July through December, with an estimated 10 to 15 workers assigned to each municipal corporation. They will assist disaster coordinators, visit vulnerable communities to locate sick and disabled persons living alone, and assess road infrastructure and streetlights. McKenzie said the move responds to gaps exposed after Hurricane Melissa. Over the past decade, WISEP has provided jobs for more than 100,000 young Jamaicans.