MONTEGO BAY, St James — A young girl’s appeal has been cited as one of the factors that influenced the St James Municipal Corporation to rehabilitate the intersection of Providence Drive and the north coast highway.

In a video last November Isabelle McKenzie, who was seven years old at the time, called on mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon to fix what was then a deplorable section of the road she has to travel on to get to school.

On Monday morning, city officials officially reopened the refurbished road.

An appreciative Isabelle, who attends Heinz Simonitsch Preparatory School, which is located along Providence Drive, said she was “feeling good” about the work done. She described what it was like before the road was fixed — that feeling of being “unsafe”.

“It made me feel scared because when you are on the other side of the road, the right-hand side, it’s like sometimes the cars would come over on the other side where you are driving in,” said Isabelle.

It took a lot for her to work up the courage to ask the mayor to fix the road. She attended a local government lecture where he was speaking last year but said she “was scared” to ask for repairs to the pothole-riddled road that was a challenge to navigate.

However, with support from her mother, she later sent her request via video which got the attention of the mayor.

Isabelle said she never expected Vernon to respond to her.

Her mother, Tamar McKenzie, could not hide her joy at what her daughter did and the impact it has had.

“You’re coming to school and you see the inconveniences. Even though you are in a car, you see the frustration of everybody, even those walking; their shoes get dirty when the rain falls and you can process that to have a voice about it,” she said.

McKenzie, who is also principal of Heinz Simonitsch Preparatory, said they have longed for the road to be repaired.

“The processes to get here have been tedious, so today we are just grateful because this is going to significantly improve the lives of not just our over-200 students but the parents. Majority of the parents take the children to school every day,” she said.

“This is going to make a world of a difference for the community; not just our schools, but businesses [as] this is the industrial estate for Ironshore,” McKenzie added.

She commended Mayor Vernon for making the time to reach out with a commitment to Isabel that he would get the work done.

“He sent a message, sent a little voice note that she could have processed at her age, which I thought was incredible, because usually our leaders are busy,” said McKenzie.

“I know it will be a core memory and it will shape how she manages things. Because we come from a culture where [when] something [is] not going how we want it to go, it’s the block-road type of mentality. But for you to be able to use forums now responsibly, it makes a difference. And I’m sure it makes a difference for other students her age to see something like that,” the educator continued.

Vernon explained that it is important to try and address the needs of individuals, no matter their age, so they can live and learn in conditions considered to be suitable.

“She was appealing for it to be done soon so as to ensure that her classmates and their parents dropping them off in the mornings are safe; we fulfilled that,” said the mayor who had asked that Isabelle and her schoolmates participate the ceremony to open the new-look intersection.

The road leads to Providence Housing Scheme and a raft of businesses in Ironshore Industrial Estate.

According to Vernon, in addition to Isabelle’s concerns, there were other factors that made it vital to repair the road.

“This was a very dangerous situation. Several reports came in of accidents happening right at the intersection and it was as a result, I understand, of the road conditions,” he said.

“So, today, I am happy to be here to open the road to ensure that we have safe passage and smooth commute to and from this area,” the mayor added.

The political representative for the area, Councillor Charles Sinclair (Jamaica Labour Party, Montego Bay North East Division), agreed. He described conditions before the repairs as “mayhem”.

“I’m most happy with the repairs that have been done to this particular intersection,” he said.

The mayor spoke of the role Sinclair’s advocacy also played in getting the repairs done.

“It has been on the forefront of the appeal from Councillor Charles Sinclair, who has been representing on the community’s behalf. Through council he made this huge request to have this piece of road addressed and reopened,” said Vernon who gave an assurance that the work done will last.

“The project is approximately $4 million; we used reinforcements such as steel and concrete. We did the drain and it also includes the asphalted concrete that will be laid on this surface,” he said.

The asphalt is expected to be laid within days as the team from the municipal corporation wait until the base material is firmly set before they do that part of the work.

According to Vernon, residents and business operators played a key role in the project. They include Jamaica Premix, Arc Industrial, Surdeen Equipment and Trucking, as well as Dujoun Construction.

Councillor Sinclair is now looking for more work to be done in the division.

“Moving forward, it is the expected that the municipal corporation is also going to be doing additional road repairs in this particular area going up into the Providence Heights housing scheme,” he said.

“We are presently doing the estimates to make a submission to have all the roads up there resurfaced. The Member of Parliament Dr Horace Chang, myself, the superintendent from roads and works, we went through the particular scheme with representatives from the National Housing Trust,” Sinclair said.

That bit of work is expected to cost about $60 million.