WESTERN BUREAU — Secretary/manager of the St James Parish Council, Christopher Powell has said that the local authority is working feverishly to complete repairs of the Montego Bay Abattoir in time for Christmas.

“We are working very, very hard to get it (the abattoir) ready for Christmas… and I think that we are going to,” Powell told the Observer earlier this week.

The repair of the facility, which is located along Howard Cooke Boulevard in the resort city, got underway in May of last year and should have been completed over a six- week period. But even after 18 months the work has yet to be completed.

It was, however, the intervention of the parish’s health department that prompted the repairs when it ordered the slaugher house closed because of the council’s failure to address the insanitary conditions there.

Shortly after the closure order was served the council began repair work at the facility. The repairs were to cost an estimated $3.8 million and later got underway through a $2-million allocation from the Ministry of Local Government, which promised to provide the additional funds needed to complete the work.

The work, according to the council, was scheduled to be carried out in two phases, and was to include:

* the repair of the roof and the installation of proper lighting;

* the installation of a boiler to sanitise the equipment and utensils used for carcass preparation and inspection;

* the implementation of a proper waste disposal system;

* the implementation of a holding area that would also provide shelter for the animals; and

* the fencing of the property.

The secretary/manager told the Observer this week that most of the work had been completed.

“All we have to do now is to install the boiler, which we have already sourced, and to connect the fittings on the waste disposal system,” Powell said, adding that the council had recently received additional funds from the ministry that should be sufficient to complete the work.