Mayor looks overseas for help to restore May Pen Cemetery
KINGSTON’S mayor, Desmond McKenzie, says he is seeking the support of international agencies to restore the May Pen Cemetery in West Kingston.
“We have just completed the documents, including costing and plans for the various phases, to send to international agencies that we have had discussions with and I am expecting to get some positive responses,” the mayor told the Observer.
McKenzie was conducting a tour of the cemetery Wednesday with representatives of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC), whose support he is also seeking in restoring the cemetery.
“I am hoping that by February we will be able to make an announcement as to when we will start and what kind of funding and technical support we will get from the US and Canada,” McKenzie said.
He said that he has also been having discussions with the Italian Embassy, the Nigerian High Commission, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund to assist with the restoration of the cemetery.
According to Louise Valle of CIDA’s Programme Support Unit, her agency has not made any decision yet on whether it will or will not support Mayor McKenzie’s plans for the cemetery, but she toured the venue in order to get a first hand view of its needs.
“We are here to listen to his plans and we will be considering various options to assist the city of Kingston and this is mostly in terms of providing technical assistance,” she said. “We are interested in assisting local government as much as we can and this is an important part of local government.”
Also on the tour was Morin Seymour, head of the KRC, who confirmed that both he and the KRC were committed to the project.
The overgrown cemetery has been an embarrassment to city officials over the years. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to bush the property, but poor maintenance has kept it in a run-down condition. The last attempt of regular bushing was the use of low-risk prisoners. But this programme later collapsed.
