Today we start a new series on Jamaica’s parish capitals and major towns, with particular focus on their infrastructure.

Beautiful and breathtaking are among the adjectives most Jamaicans use when speaking of the north-eastern parish of Portland, with its startlingly lush plains and picturesque vales. But on entering the capital town of Port Antonio, one may be taken by surprise by its big-city hustle and bustle.

It feels like just about most of its population of 30,000 are out and about on the narrow streets of the seaside town. So vibrant is the end-of-week activity as residents, some taking the time to enjoy the sights, others making purchases, navigate the sidewalks, which are spilling over with eager vendors.

Along Foreshore Road, groups of schoolchildren assemble, shooting the breeze with the Caribbean Sea in the background, in all its cerulean splendour, gleaming in the late afternoon sun.

But taking a walk inward from the seaward side of the town, a visitor must be prepared to swiftly adapt to the rhythm and jostling of the dense throngs along West Street.

Moving farther along, away from the calls of jerk meats and juice vendors, it doesn’t take long to notice the scores of young people lounging about the town. Even before its mayor, Councillor Wayne McKenzie acknowledges that unemployment is one of Port Antonio’s main problems, residents are quick to point this out.

“One of the challenges we are having as Portlanders, and particularly in the town, is the issue of unemployment. Our long-term plan is to do things that can create some form of employment,” he says.

Garbage collection is another point of concern. Most residents with whom the Jamaica Observer spoke felt the town’s garbage needs to be collected on a more regular basis. That may continue to be a problem for some time yet, as the mayor says the National Solid Waste Management Authority is down to one truck.

Despite the challenges, business appears to be good for at least one merchant. The proprietor of Kamal’s on West Street, Garfield Sinclair, says, “Port Antonio is not a fast town (so) one of our sources of income is people employed to government, and others who get monthly pay. We depend on that.”

Sinclair, whose business has served the town for the past three decades, says residents depend heavily on remittances. “Away from that, there is not much,” he remarks. But, like the mayor, he strongly believes that Port Antonio’s best hope is tourism.

“It is something we could rely on. When the season is on, it’s good. If we could only just get tourism off the ground in Portland. The guest houses are our greatest help,” he says, noting that the rebuilt luxury villa hotel, Trident, “has come in handy too”.

“I get a lot of support from the schools and the hospital. The agricultural school [College of Agriculture, Science and Education] is a great help to us. I get business from as far as Hector’s River. All is not well, but we can survive. We are hoping for better to come. We have to survive in this town on what we have. Remember, the banana has gone,” he says, referring to the days when banana export was one of the town’s main economic activities.

Sinclair recalls that his business suffered during the roadwork, which was recently carried out under a major infrastructure development project, but now that it is finished, the town has benefited.

“I’m waiting to see how the Government is going to break Port Antonio into something new. The answer is to get tourism back on track,” he remarks.

Service station supervisor Shawn Vousdn says his operations, too, were seriously impacted for about seven months while the water, sewerage and drainage project was being carried out. “It’s taking time to build up back. Business has stepped up back a little bit. People won’t come back in all at once,” he says.

Unemployment has not gone unnoticed by him either. “I would want to see the job opportunities increase. It doesn’t look like it’s getting any better. A lot of young males and females in the town are not occupied. Many of them have subjects, but there are no jobs. Factories and housing are needed as well,” he laments.

With the recent roadwork, that was carried out as a result of the $1.9-billion infrastructure project, the main roadways appear to be in good condition, but there are crevices in the sidewalk along West Palm Avenue, in front of Hill Preparatory School, which pose serious danger to pedestrians, particularly children. The crevices, which are wide enough in some areas to trap small feet, are a result of the concrete slabs which were laid to cover the newly built drains underneath, residents explain.

“They’re not bad now… they (were) recently repaired,” Blossom McGibbon, a vendor outside the Hill Preparatory School gate says, at the same time recounting that people have had their feet caught in the holes.

Another resident of the town, Claudette, says she would welcome more regular garbage collection, but does not feel the town was lacking much. She expresses particular satisfaction with the level of service that Port Antonio receives from the police.

Mayor McKenzie echoes similar sentiments regarding security, pointing out that the town remains the safest capital in the island, with just three murders recorded in the entire parish up to this month.

In the meantime, the mayor is upbeat about the water, sewerage, and drainage project, the first phase of which was recently completed. “That project is very important to the town. The sewerage project in particular is important to ensure that the coastal water is clean. A town like Port Antonio, that is an old town, was done at a time when the environmental consciousness was not as high. The water table is high, and for persons who constructed using the soak-away system, that would be seeping to the sea based on our water table. The sewage project would arrest that problem,” he explains.

He emphasises that the project has inadvertently resulted in an improved road network around the town, due to the resurfacing works carried out following the extensive disturbance that was a necessary part of the project.

“You could hardly say we had a proper road network, so we really benefited significantly. A team has been put in place to clean the remaining gravel from the curb and channels throughout the area. We will be cleaning from the Annotto River to East Palm, and Allan Avenue,” he says.

The mayor, like Sinclair and several other Portlanders with whom the Sunday Observer spoke, sees tourism and entertainment as major income earners. This is why the council is setting up a restoration committee to focus on the development of the town.

“We realise that people continue to say nothing is happening for Port Antonio. We cannot continue to say that, so that committee will specifically focus on the development of Port Antonio,” he discloses. The committee is to be headed by the dean of education at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, Norma Williams.

McKenzie says he has big dreams for Navy Island — the famed former home of late Hollywood film star Errol Flynn — which he feels can be made into a casino gaming site to attract visitors.

“The east harbour development too, if executed, would be another great thing,” he says, adding that the local authorities are hoping to engage a major hotelier on development plans for Dragon Bay, which could provide direct and indirect employment.

“Tourism started here. We are always speaking of preserving our heritage and therefore we should bring back tourism into Port Antonio as part of that heritage. We have several trails, we have the Nanny Falls, Reach Falls in the east, Sommerst Falls to the west, the Blue Lagoon, the bicycle tours in the Buff Bay valley, and we have rafting on the Rio Grande. We have sufficient sites for persons to come and enjoy a day in Portland. Anywhere else in Jamaica you go, when a ship comes, you have to take the persons to several other places outside that parish. We can develop tourism in such a way in Portland that we can take two mega liners without having to send anyone outside the parish to enjoy a day,” the mayor says.

A craft vendor inside the market agrees that Port Antonio, and the entire parish, has lost its footing in the tourism industry, and desperately wants to see a turnaround.

“We haven’t seen much tourists for about a year now,” she says, but notes that this could perhaps be attributed to the opening of another craft market on the main thoroughfare of Allan Avenue. However, says the vendor, whose only source of income is selling craft items, “Jamaicans don’t roll over. I don’t know how I manage, but we always find a way”.

A small group of tourists who milled about looking at ground provisions eventually peered inside the craft section, but did not enter. Inside, unoccupied vendors anxiously remained beside their stalls for the next sale.

The mayor says he does not want residents simply awaiting help to light a fire under tourism. “I don’t want us as Portlanders to just sit and rely on talks, but rather be part of the process to engage the Government and stakeholders. We need to demand, by proactive action, to bring to bear plans that might have been made, and ensure that commitments are being met,” he says.

In the summer of 2014, as drought and chikungunya ravaged the island, so too did bush fires negatively impact a number of parishes. Portland did not escape. Some of the fires caused serious damage.

McKenzie notes that over the past six years, there have been increasing incidents of bush fires in the parish. He says the resources of the fire service are “woefully inadequate”, stating that “We would want the fire brigade to be better equipped… (also) we are still a cruise port, and even though we don’t have any (ships) now, we still have private yachts, and therefore we would love for the fire brigade to be supported with a fire boat”. There are currently only two units serving the parish.

He feels health care services, too, could use a hand up. The mayor points out that with the Port Antonio Hospital serving locals and visitors alike, it should be upgraded from a Type C facility. “It is time for the main and only hospital in the parish to be better equipped — for it to have more specialists. We are hoping that the ministry will upgrade the hospital to even a Type B,” he says.

Where street lighting is concerned, the relationship with the Jamaica Public Service Company is one of give-and-take, with most issues being resolved within reasonable time, McKenzie says. He notes, however, that the concerns have more to do with insufficient number of lights, not faulty ones.

The town braces for water lock-offs at least two days per week, in most areas, but McKenzie is hopeful that when the new well is commissioned in Berrydale this will be resolved. At the same time, he says the infrastructure development project had resulted in all pipes in the area being replaced, and that this has improved the water pressure, but not reliability.

Port Antonio, cushioned between the Caribbean Sea, and the majestic Blue Mountains, came to popularity in the 1880s, when it was marketed as a luxury destination for the wealthy. Later, with tourism booming, Port Antonio, and by extension Portland, became world renowned as the place where author of the famous James Bond series, Ian Fleming, settled and wrote several of his masterpieces after arriving in the island in the 1940s.

The parish is known for the cultivation of vast acres of bananas and coconuts, but both have all but fallen off in recent years, leaving Portlanders to grasp at the hope of reviving the lowest hanging fruit — tourism.

WAYNE MCKENZIE

Mayor of Port Antonio Councillor Wayne McKenzie says Portlanders should become fully involved in bringing tourism back to the parish.

TRIDENT

A view of the Trident Hotel.

WASTE COLLECTION

It’s waste collection day in Port Antonio.

SIDEWALK

A section of the sidewalk on West Palm Avenue.

SIDEWALK 2

A resident points to a section of the sidewalk on West Palm Avenue that has fairly large crevices between slabs, which cover the new drainage structure.

KAMAL’S

Kamal’s has served the town and surrounding communities for over 30 years.

SIDEWALK 3

Residents say repairs were recently done to this sidewalk.

PT ANTONIO

A busy section of the town.

MARKET

Visitors browse inside the market on West Street.

STUDENTS

Students interact by the seaside while they await transportation.

CRAFT MARKET

An array of items on display inside the craft market.