MONTEGO BAY, St James – UNABLE to adequately fund the maintenance of the more than 80 year-old Pye River Cemetery in Montego Bay, the St James Parish Council has sought the assistance of churches in the parish.

According to the council’s secretary/manager Winston Palmer, the local authority is seeking to partner with churches through the Ministers’ Fraternal to develop and implement a maintenance plan.

This will require religious organisations to collect from worshippers toward a cemetery maintenance fund.

“Many churches already have direct responsibility for sections of the cemetery… we want to streamline operations, so each responsible organisation can effectively sustain its portion/plot of land,” Palmer said.

Chairman of the St James Parish Council, Mayor Charles Sinclair, who insists that the call for an organised approach in maintaining the facility is necessary, is also adamant that the request must go beyond the church.

“I want interested persons to come into the council to discuss the maintenance of their past loved-ones’ burial plots…so we can either work out an arrangement in which the council will have responsibility for the cleaning of the area, or one which will result in these persons seeking to beautify, or to simply ensure the continued maintenance of their spaces through their own actions,” Sinclair explained.

Superintendent of Roads and Works at the council, Bryce Grant, said the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) recently approved $2 million towards the repair of the cemetery’s wall.

“The council is hoping to source additional funds needed to repair the entire perimeter wall, which, once completed, will do well in improving the overall aesthetics of the cemetery,” said Grant.

He believes that a structured system will ensure that the cemetery will be maintained on a continuous basis.

He noted that approximately $500,000 has been spent over the past six months to clean up the burial ground.

The Pye River cemetery — the lands for which were donated to the St James Parish Council by the family of ex-Custos and prominent Montego Bay businessman, Francis M Kerr-Jarrett — has roughly 1,500 burial plots.