MONTEGO BAY, St James — Councillor Michael Troupe (People’s National Party, Granville Division) believes mismanagement of the Retirement disposal site in St James is to be blamed for repeat dump fires.

Troupe, who was speaking during last Thursday’s sitting of the regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, argued that far too many untrained personnel were being allowed access to the disposal site.

“The Retirement dump needs management. Anybody who works at the dump is supposed to be a trained person, but anybody go up there go work and we are going to always have this problem about the Retirement dump,” he said.

There were at least three dump fires at the Retirement disposal site between last December and January of this year. They are all believed to be the work of arsonists.

Troupe argued that ineffective management of the disposal site has been negatively affecting residents he was elected to represent.

“And who suffers? The people in Granville Division, they are the ones who [are] suffering because of the lack of management at the Retirement dump,” he told the corporation on Thursday.

The councillor’s concerns about the dump came on the heels of a report given by Dramaine Jones, the acting regional director for Western Parks and Markets, a division of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA). Jones noted that the agency is aware of the smoke nuisance that has been a sore point for people living in close proximity to the disposal site.

“The Retirement disposal site has been a rather sore point for the last part of the year and this resulted in two fires erupting. We were, however, able to respond quickly enough. However, we know that these created quite a nuisance to the citizens of Montego Bay and the surrounding areas,” Jones said.

He noted that the solid waste management team has reported the dump fires to the police and is hoping to cover the various sections of the site.

“We suspect them to be arson, and investigations are ongoing. We have also, during that period, engaged in covering activities and currently 60 per cent of the disposal site is now covered. We intend to seek funding to cover the remaining areas, excluding the tipping phase, before the end of March,” said Jones.

Last Wednesday executive director of the NSWMA Audley Gordon said the authorities have been receiving tips from residents who have grown increasingly incensed about the fires which are taking a toll on their quality of life.

“We are getting some information which we believe will be very useful. We won’t disclose the details… Neither will we disclose what we are doing, but we are going to put a stop to it; it’s going to end. We are not going to tolerate this; [this] is not who we are,” Gordon said.

He noted that repeat dump fires have also been affecting the health of the workers at the Retirement disposal site.