BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — The planned launch this month of two long-delayed projects is providing quiet satisfaction and great relief for the People’s National Party (PNP)-led St Elizabeth Parish Council.

The two projects, a transport centre in the bustling commercial town of Santa Cruz and a rebuilt market in Black River — the picturesque coastal town which is the political capital of St Elizabeth — date back to 2009 and 2011 respectively.

For three years, vendors in Black River have been forced on to the streets as their market was rebuilt at snail’s pace with frustratingly long stops. The project was originally scheduled to take just months when it was launched with much fanfare by the then Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government in October 2011.

And for five years, the transport centre in Santa Cruz has awaited parliamentary gazetting so that taxis and bus operators can be legally compelled to desist from parking on the already clogged streets and byways.

Word came in September that gazetting of the centre, which will serve westward transport operators, had been formalised. And after several weeks of upgrading work and “sensitisation” of stakeholders, the authorities say there will be “zero tolerance” for illegal parking by taxi and bus drivers starting December 1.

“This has been a tedious process, it has taken far too long but we are relieved the long wait is finally over,” chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Council Everton Fisher (PNP) said of the parliamentary gazetting.

The parish council will celebrate formal opening of the market and transport projects as part of Local Government Month. November 27 will be the opening date for the Santa Cruz Transportation Centre and on the following day Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will visit Black River to cut the ribbon at the market.

Shortage of money has been the real reason for the delay in the Black River market project. Fisher, who is also mayor of Black River, told the Jamaica Observer on Friday that “about $69 million” had been spent on the project which he said had been “scaled down” from the vision in 2011 outlined by then JLP member of parliament for South West St Elizabeth Christopher Tufton.

Back in 2011, Tufton said the market project would be a centrepiece of community tourism and then mayor of Black River Jeremy Palmer (JLP) claimed the planned investment of close to $100 million was the biggest in the tranquil town centre in “a hundred years”.

Fisher told the Sunday Observer that the project, as it now stands, includes the market house, which has been raised to prevent flooding — a bane of the old market building — as well as vendors’ stalls, a meat house and sanitary conveniences.

The Constituency Development Fund, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Local Government, Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and private sector company National Continental were among those providing funding.

Longer-term plans for a second phase — with no time frame or costing yet decided — will involve a bio-digester plant, rainwater catchment and storage, retail shops, and what Fisher describes as “possibly a solar energy plant” to reduce electricity costs.

Fisher told the Sunday Observer that vendors now on the streets surrounding the market will be expected to take their places inside the market building immediately after formal opening.

“No parallel market will be tolerated,” he said.

The mayor told the monthly meeting of the St Elizabeth Parish Council last month that the reopening of the Black River market and of the transport centre in Santa Cruz will ease congestion and disorder in the streets of both towns approaching Christmas.

The St Elizabeth police have consistently complained about the situation in the two towns, insisting that congestion is undermining law and order.

Other notable events for Local Government Month in St Elizabeth include the official opening and naming of a mini-park close to the town centre in honour of late, former mayor of Black River JAG Myers and repainting of the Black River Police Station.