Yallahs Post Office Gets Facelift

It was a rainy Labour Day in West St. Thomas on May 25, but at every chance of ease from the showers, volunteers, including Member of Parliament, Hon. James Robertson, got busy doing beautification and renovation work in the constituency.
Beautification and minor repair of the Yallahs Post Office was selected as the constituency project. The heavy downpour delayed the start of the project, which began approximately four hours late at 10:00 a.m.
Mr. Robertson, who arrived after assisting with the rebuilding of four homes for the indigent, helped to smear bright hues of blue onto the mailing office.
“The post office is of major significance, as it serves many communities within the Yallahs area and it deserves uplifting,” he said.
Postmaster, Linda Roach, commended the volunteers for their resilience in ensuring that despite the downpour, the project materialised. Assistance at the Post Office came from various sectors of the parish, such as the Friends of Post Office, the Social Development Commission (SDC), and members of Generation 2000 (G2K).
“Persons are here in numbers assisting to make the post office beautiful, planting trees, flowers and repainting the building,” Mrs. Roach said.
About five miles from the post office, residents of Easington were busy clearing shrubbery and effecting other beautification work, as the community’s Memorial Park was chosen as the parish project.
Mr. Robertson explained that the showers had hampered major plans for the Easington Memorial Park, but insisted that they would be completed during the rest of the week.
Among the immediate plans for the park are the construction of a monument in honour of National Hero, Paul Bogle; and the construction of a perimeter fence. The long-term plan is a training facility, to be spearheaded by the Yallahs Area Development Committee and the SDC.
“The Easington Park has cultural significance, it is where Paul Bogle rested in his path from Stony Gut, Morant Bay to Spanish Town,” Mr. Robertson informed.
In 1865, Paul Bogle led a group of men on a march from Stony Gut in the parish to Spanish Town in St. Catherine, to protest the injustice being meted out to Blacks.
More than 170 projects were submitted to the St. Thomas Labour Day Planning Committee, 69 of these from Western St. Thomas, while 51 were from the Eastern side of the parish.
Other projects in the parish were the construction of a bus shed in Trinityville, repairs to an indigent house in White Horses, and the beautification of the Rudolph Elder Park in Morant Bay.