HOPEWELL, Hanover — Unimpressed by the police commissioner’s promise that Hanover will soon get a long-awaited police station, mayor of Lucea Sheridan Samuels has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the delay.

“I thought that when we handed [the building] over, it would be like two months down the road. Now I am hearing that it is going to take a few months,” groused Samuels.

As the Jamaica Observer reported in July of 2021, the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) opted to forego earning $251,000 a year in rent from the property, instead offering it up to be used as the site for a police station for Hopewell. The arrangement was for the HMC to lease the building to the Jamaica Constabulary Force for a peppercorn rate of $1,000 per year for 50 years. The move was in response to concerns that Hopewell was fast becoming a crime hot spot and the nearest police station is located approximately three and a half miles away in Sandy Bay.

On Tuesday, Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson expressed gratitude to the HMC for making the building available and also sought to explain the reason for the delay.

“Let me say thank you for allowing us to use it because we needed it and the community needs it,” he said during a meeting with stakeholders of the coastal town.

“One of the things is, you know when you go into a building and it looks okay…I thought it was a coat of paint and then we were in,” said Anderson, who added that adjustments are currently being made to the building.

Unlike the mayor, former president of the Hopewell Citizens Association Vernal Campbell was sympathetic to the commissioner’s reasoning. However, he had a suggestion for the police chief.

“Based on what is happening [with crime], I would have told them to put in some temporary structure for them to operate in until they complete it,” stated Campbell during an interview with the Observer.

“At the end of the day, if a man goes into a building and he is not comfortable, he is not going to give you the results that you want,” he added.

Commissioner Anderson said work on the building, which is approximately 70 per cent complete, is expected to be finished in a few months.

The building will house a Criminal Investigations Branch (CIB) office, a Community Safety and Security Branch office, traffic office, interviewing room, and adequate accommodations for the men and women who will be working there.