Construction to resume on multimillion dollar Falmouth police station
FALMOUTH, Trelawny – Construction of the multi million dollar building to house the Falmouth police station on lands at Rodney Street in this north coast town, is expected to resume within another few weeks.
Work on the facility – which began in 2006 and was scheduled to be completed before the start of Cricket World Cup 2007 – came to a halt just over a year ago.
According to permanent secretary in Ministry of National Security, Gilbert Scott, the work stoppage was due mainly to contractual disagreements between his ministry and the contractors, Astrom Building Systems.
He added, however, that the disagreements have been ironed out and there should be a resumption by month end.
“There were some issues between us and the contractors that took a while to be sorted out, but those have been resolved now and the contractors are now mobilising,” Scott explained.
More than four years ago, former National Security Minister K D Knight broke ground for the new station but construction for the proposed building never got off the ground until 2006.
Over the past few years, several civic groups, as well as the parish’s health department have complained about the poor state of the Falmouth Police Station. The existing building, they said, have been falling apart and had become a health hazard.
The matter of the poor state of the existing building was also raised by Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin at last week’s 65th annual conference of the Police Federation, at the Starfish Resort in Trelawny.
Describing the facility as a “little more than a fowl roost”, Lewin told the conference that despite an amount of $250 million in this year’s budget to recommence work on the building for the new station, the police high command was working feverishly to have police personnel occupying the existing station relocated.
“We are aggressively pursuing the matter of a temporary location, and I personally am going to take up that one,” Lewin told the lawmen.
When completed, the new station is expected to house a crime investigation branch, a traffic unit, a radio control unit, canine and marine divisions, a holding area for seized vehicles, recreational facilities, a regional remand centre and a cafeteria.
