Labour Day Spirit Alive In Westmoreland

The true spirit of Labour Day was alive across Westmoreland on Thursday (May 23) as residents came out in their numbers to participate in various projects. 

The main activity was the construction of an additional ramp at the Cornwall Mountain Health Centre to improve ease of access to the facility by the disabled, among other improvement works in keeping with the Labour Day theme, ‘Ramp up di access… show you care’.  

Mayor of Savanna-la Mar, Councillor Danree Delancy, said the health centre was chosen as the parish project after consultation with residents as well as councillors from the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.  

He noted that the focus of this year’s Labour Day is important, as too often the disabled community is overlooked.   

Councillor Delancy commended the residents of Cornwall Mountain and its environs for turning out in their numbers to participate in improving the health centre.  

“They have shown that the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well in Jamaica,” he said. 

He noted that several projects were being executed across the parish, including in Savanna-la-Mar, where the New Town playfield was being rehabilitated.  

“We are putting marl on the access road to the facility as well as the installation of some goal posts,” he said, adding that lights were also being installed at the facility. 

Outlining other projects, Mayor Delancy, who is Councillor for the Bethel Town division, said that a ramp was being installed at the Bethel Town Primary School, and a drain cleaning exercise was being conducted in the community’s housing development.  

Overall, the Mayor informed that five Labour Day projects were taking place in each of the 14 divisions across the parish.  

Providing further details about Westmoreland parish project, Councillor for the Cornwall Mountain Division, Dawnette Foster told JIS News that the ramp being built at the health centre would improve disabled access to the restrooms.  

“We are ramping up the access from the clinic to the  restroom for persons in wheelchairs, and also covering [the corridor] so in case of rain, persons can access the restroom just the same,” she said.  

The scope of works at the health centre also included painting of several areas, bathroom and gutter repairs, and sprucing up the sign.  

Former resident of Cornwall Mountain, Vincent Myrie, who came out to support the parish project, told JIS News he was happy to take part in the improvement of the health centre, as he was raised in the community and benefited from the facility as a child.  

“I am a regular visitor of my community. This is the clinic in which I was nurtured, so I take it as my profound duty to stop by to [help] build my community. This is the clinic that my mother, my grandmother, everyone used this same health centre,” he said. 

Mr. Myrie welcomed the focus on enhancing access for the disabled for this year’s Labour Day. “It is excellent,” he told JIS News. 

Labour Day activities in the Cornwall Mountain Division also entailed roof works at the home of a citizen in need, and commencement of repairs on the home of another resident.