GIVEN a choice between a police station and a multi-purpose community service facility, the inner-city Grants Pen community in St Andrew opted for the latter, apparently because of lingering bad feelings about police lock-ups.

The police station was recommended by the United States-based Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) earlier this year. But the crime-ridden community turned down the offer. Instead they chose the multi-purpose service facility that is to be constructed by Amcham (the American Chamber of Commerce), under its Peace and Prosperity Project.

The facility will offer an array of community services and is to be sited on a 1/4 hectare (3/4 acre) lot of land at 35 Grants Pen Road where the 43 year-old Edna Manley Health Clinic is currently located.

“During the community policing consultation process in Grants Pen last Spring, the community was asked about its preferences and they said they did not want the police station with lockups and so on,” PERF community advisor, Ronald West told the Observer.

He said the community felt that the service facility would offer numerous benefits, including a Peace Centre with police presence and space for temporary detention “but no police lock ups”. Among other features, it will include a day-care centre, sports complex, banking, Internet kiosk, mediation office, postal facilities and adult literacy class.

Last Friday, West accompanied Karen Turner, the new mission director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on a tour of the Grants Pen area. USAID is helping to fund the multi-purpose facility and Turner used the tour to familiarise herself with USAID-assisted inner-city development programmes.

West said architects were now looking at the site to develop a plan. But he could not say if the 43 year-old clinic named after the late wife of National Hero Norman Manley would be destroyed.

“We are looking at the whole process and I can’t say what decision will be taken on it as yet,” he said.

Delroy Chuck, the member of parliament for the area, was upbeat about the multi-purpose complex, explaining that Grants Pen Road was chosen for the complex because it was a neutral political area.

Turner said there was no architectural design and survey work done for the building as yet; it was left up to the police and the community to say what would be done. However, after the paper work was completed, there would be a nine-month completion deadline, she noted.

After walking through Grants Pen where she met community leaders, toured the Peace Centre, the proposed community facility site, the Stella Maris Foundation and the New Day Primary and Junior High School, Turner said she had positive impressions of the residents and the projects.

“However, the people must take on the projects for us to make it work because it is a partnership. There is the need to make people aware of positive things that are going on. I think the people of Grants Pen are aspiring to do positive things, good things, because as I see it the idea to create a product is useful,” she said.

Turner also promised to solicit help from other international donors.