Residents of Trelawny are now benefiting from major infrastructural work done on the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) network in the parish, the company has said.

Since the start of the year, 71 poles have been replaced while 639 poles have been rehabilitated. The company has also changed out 912 pieces of equipment and installed 197 lightning arrestors.

The announcement was made by president and CEO of JPS, Emanuel DaRosa, at a town hall meeting last Thursday evening in Falmouth. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, in collaboration with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

Pole rehabilitation is a process which sees ageing poles being fortified with steel and iron reinforcements, to give them another 15 to 20 years of life. The process is highly cost effective and ensures that service delivery will not be compromised by weakened or substandard poles.

Communities benefiting from the 639 pole rehabilitation exercise include Falmouth, Ulster Spring, Deeside, Jackson Town, Alpha, Greenwood and Hammersmith.

Lightning arrestors, a critical element in the protection of the JPS network, have been installed since the start of the year in Jackson Town, Sherwood, Greenwood, Fontabel and Reserve in the parish. Lightning arrestors assist in mitigating the damaging effects of lightning storms on the network, thus reducing the number of outages due to this weather phenomenon.

The company said that it remains committed to ongoing improvements in the network and customer service, as it seeks to deliver the highest standard of customer care across the island.