More than a dozen informal car washes have sprung up in violence-prone Spanish Town over the past six months, providing jobs for about 100 youngsters. And while some see this as a positive development that may help reduce the town’s crime figures, there is some concern about the mushrooming businesses, some of which are located along busy main roads.

Spanish Town mayor Raymoth Notice is glad that jobs have been created, but he has some concerns.

While the council that he heads has no power to act against those who are squatting or trespassing on roadways that are the property of the National Works Agency (NWA), Notice plans to ensure that the car washes do not have a negative impact on the streets of the town. Some car wash stands are either erected on the side of the street or at intersections of a major highway.

“I will be having dialogue with both the NWA and these people who have set up car wash business on the roads, because we want to keep the town as clean as possible,” the mayor said.

There was a danger of the roadways being damaged by the water that flows from the car washes, he said, as well as mosquitoes breeding in pools of stagnant water.

“We will have to speak with them so as to prevent more people doing that kind of thing,” Notice added.

But it may be hard to stop more shops from opening. Washing cars appears to be a lucrative business, jobs are hard to come by and there is a good deal of open land on which to set up a small shop.

Courtney “Joe Bless” Francis has run the Lay Kaz car wash along violence-prone Old Harbour Road in Spanish Town for more than a year. The business, his life-long dream, is now well-known and others have seen the potential to make a decent living from washing cars.

Francis started with a car vacuum and a power hose which he says he bought for $45,000. He hired two workers, but there weren’t many customers in the first two months.

“It was so bad, I had to fork out money from my pocket to pay workers,” he said.

But he persisted, he said, because he knew he could provide jobs for youngsters in his community.

“As a man who grow up in the Homestead area, I believe that I should do something worthwhile to provide employment for my schoolmates who can’t find a work to eat a food,” he explained.

He now employs a 15-man staff which swells to 22 on weekends. He would not discuss his weekly take from his flourishing business.

Now, Francis’ business venture consists of two 400-gallons water drums, 10 high-power mobile washer machines and four vacuum cleaners. He has converted a 40-foot container into an air-conditioned lounge, equipped with a television, a CD player and piped music for the comfort of customers waiting for their cars.

But Francis has even bigger plans.

He wants to install a 35,000-gallon water tank to supplement the 400-gallon drums, and a generator.