Billion-dollar upgrade for Montego Hills Police Station
MONTEGO BAY, St James — The nation’s security minister continued his tour of the constabulary’s facilities across the island last Saturday and revealed that a major upgrade of Montego Hills Police Station in St James will begin in short order.
“The projected cost is about $7 billion,” he told reporters. “We are advanced with that planning and we may be able to break ground in the [upcoming] financial year.”
Chang said that the new facility will be a complex capable of meeting the demands of police stationed there and the people they serve.
“The station there will be refurbished and you’ll have a community station along with residences for some near 300 officers,” he explained.
He said that the growth in tourism in western Jamaica had impacted the decision to upgrade the station as the availability of rented accommodation space becomes more challenging, particularly during the winter tourist season with the increase in visitors and Jamaicans coming into the area to work in the service sector.
Chang also indicated that other police stations in the parish capital will be upgraded, among them the Freeport station where work will be done on the dormitory.
“It can accommodate about 200 [members of the police force] so we don’t need to have rented premises,” he said.
Additionally, Amity Hall Police Station will be rehabilitated and reconstruction work is scheduled for the station at Granville in the new financial year.
Chang also said there are considerations for the Area One headquarters to be relocated from its current Sewell Avenue address.
“We’ll have to look at the area headquarters, which is an old house in deplorable condition. It is just old, it was poorly constructed, [and] the roof is falling,” Chang said, adding that land at another police service facility nearby is being looked at to accommodate the relocation.
“We took a look at what is the Orange Street facility, which very few people are aware of — [it’s a] big enough space to build new facilities. That will be a little bit in the medium term,” Chang revealed.
However on Saturday the team looked at office space at Barnett Tech Park where, according to Chang, the thinking is to move the area headquarters there for a short while.
