MONTEGO BAY, St James — Undaunted by the battering Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall, St James, took from Hurricane Melissa last October, the new lessee, local businessman Yoni Epstein, is not overly concerned about damage from another storm.

“Look, the acts of God you cannot control. What we saw with Hurricane Melissa is a once-in-a-generation type of situation,” Epstein told the Jamaica Observer Tuesday following a signing ceremony for a $700-million deal between his Montego Bay Multisports Development Company Limited and St James Municipal Corporation to operate the sports facility.

Epstein is chairman of the company.

“Obviously it is a risk, but in life if you don’t take risks, you won’t have opportunities,” he said.

Epstein and his team now have a 25-year lease for the facility. Improvements they will make include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, among other amenities.

However, the disaster wrought by the Category 5 storm is still fresh in the minds of many. The sports complex and surrounding areas saw massive flooding that damaged its infrastructure and left it temporarily unusable.

Epstein believes work between his company and the State should limit the impact from any future adverse weather event.

“As the mayor mentioned, there are plans that the Government is looking into to mitigate against those things in the future and we have to take certain precautions ourselves. But you have to do things in a mitigated manner to realise the results of your risk,” he said.

The area was inundated after the Montego and Pye rivers broke their banks, submerging the communities of Catherine Hall and Westgreen under water and mounds of mud.

Responding to an earlier question on the matter, Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon explained the measures being taken to reduce the risks.

“The Government of Jamaica is looking at the entire area in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation and they will be guided by the technical persons as to how to reduce the risk associated with any repeat of such,” Vernon said.

“We await that update from the central government and see how we move forward,” he added.

There is now a planned clean-up of the sports facility to remove debris left by the storm.

The municipal corporation will also have a role to play in its rehabilitation. The facility was covered under a $400-million insurance policy and the funds available under the settled claim will be used to do repairs and make it ready for the development work promised under the lease agreement.

“[The funds] will not be given to the lessee, but will be used to deal with the repairs and that which was described under the insurance agreement with the insurance company to fulfil the repairs of the facility,” Mayor Vernon stressed.

St James Municipal Corporation CEO Naudia Crosskill also provided insight into how that will play out for the sports complex.

“The entire facility was insured; the building, the lights and the grounds, all of that was insured. That is what we will be getting the insurance funds [for] to do the repairs. When we get those funds, it will be expended by the council and not by the lessee,” she reiterated.

However, there is still no firm timeline for when the insurance claim will be settled and paid out.

“We have not gotten a date from the insurance company, but we’ve made the submission and so we are waiting on the funds to be disbursed,” said Crosskill.