Westmoreland — Residents of Beeston Spring, who now have to trek six miles to Whitehouse to collect their mail, will soon have a new mail collection facility in their community. The old one was destroyed by fire last week.

According to businessman Donald Chin, whose business place is situated in front of the old post office, he is repairing an unfinished section of his business place to house the new post office. The facility, Chin said, is to be rented to the government.

“I am doing a thing right now to rent them. And within the next two weeks I am going to (turn the building over) to them,” Chin explained.

He said his commitment to the community had influenced his decision to allow his building to be used as the post office.

“When you think of the pensioners, and the cost to go to Whitehouse to collect their pension you have to help out,” he said. The roundtrip cost to go to Whitehouse from Beeston Spring is $80 per passenger.

According to Chin, the post master general had previously asked him to house the post office in a section of his building because of the frequent break-ins at the old location.

The former post office, which was a five apartment wooden structure, has been heavily targeted by criminal elements. Reports are that the facility was razed after would-be thieves set it afire after several failed attempts to break-in.

In December, the residents said burglars attempted to break into the post office two times.

“Them break the post office plenty times. So it seems like them come to break it and them can’t get the money, so them burn it down,” theorised area resident, Millicent Allwood. “It affect us plenty because you can go down to Whitehouse and you no get any letter; and probably you have to go there five times for the week.”

According to the Constabulary Communication Network, at about 3:00 am on December 27, residents were awakened by a loud explosion, and saw fire coming from a section of the post office. The fire quickly spread, engulfing the building.

The Fire Brigade was summoned, and one unit from the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Department extinguished the blaze. But the residents have a different version, charging that the post office was already gutted before the firefighters came on the scene.

Beeston Spring is more than 15 miles away from Savanna-la-Mar. The residents complained that the lack of telephone service in the community was a big hindrance in getting information to the Savanna-la-Mar Fire Department. Some people who own cellular phones, also charged that the signals are very weak and the phones are often unable to work in that section of the island. As a result, the residents are now appealing to Cable and Wireless to install telephones in their community.