Bath to Beacon Hill Road in St. Thomas to be Repaired

Repair work on 2.3 kilometres of roadway between Bath and Beacon Hill in St. Thomas is scheduled to begin by the end of October.
The project, to cost some $10 million, will be carried out under the Parish Infrastructure Development Programme (PIDP) of the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport.
Lancelot Comrie, Councillor for the Bath Division, told JIS News that a proposal for the project was submitted to the PIDP three years ago, but the work, which should have started in October last year, was delayed because of heavy rainfall.
“I’m happy now that it is going to be done. The people of Beacon Hill deserve a proper road,” Mr. Comrie said, adding that for the past eight years, the alternative road from Bath to Barrett Gap had to be patched and cleared several times for persons to travel to and from the district.
Recently, Beacon Hill was cut off from other communities with the passage of Hurricane Ivan, and relief supplies had to be flown in by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).
He noted that the repair had to be done under the PIDP, because the Parochial Fund “could not go far in completing that road”.
“To spend $10 million for one road out of the Parochial Fund would be very difficult and would take a long time to complete,” he added.
Mr. Comrie pointed out that the project would benefit over 350 farmers in the community who depended on farming for their livelihood.
“The farmers in Beacon Hill will be happy now to be able to get out their produce on Fridays to take to market. People depend on farming in that part of the constituency, so I’m happy for the farmers,” he said.Mr. Comrie said life would also be much easier for children attending schools in Bath, since they would be able to travel by taxis to and from school.