MONTEGO BAY, St James — When the postal agency in Flanker, St James, became too run down to operate in 2020, an elderly Rhoda Christie, who cannot get around without using a walker, asked a friend to collect her mail in downtown Montego Bay. After her friend died, Christie often had to charter a taxi to collect her mail herself. On Monday, Christie was among residents who happily turned out for the reopening of the refurbished facility.

“We glad for it, man,” an elated Christie told the Jamaica Observer following the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“I was saying, ‘When them going to open it?’,” she added.

The facility was rehabilitated using $3.5 million from the St James Municipal Corporation’s Divisional Infrastructure Social and Economic Programme (DISEP). Charles Sinclair, the councillor for Montego Bay North East Division, in which the Flanker community sits, said when the opportunity came up he immediately knew which initiative he wanted to pursue.

“The post office came to my mind and I put that forward as the project. The committee that goes through and vets these projects approved it, and we started the building,” he said.

“[It has been] fully renovated with a more modern look with respect to how the windows have been put in; it has all the amenities there,” added Sinclair.

Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon spoke of the role the postal agency and other places, such as libraries, still play in the community.

“Because of the information age… persons tend to say that they are dated, we no longer need them, but that is not the case,” he insisted.

“They deliver services [for] persons not yet over that hurdle and in the information age. For example, even though we are shifting to the online platforms to do the communication, to pay money and to do all of those services, there are some persons who are just not there. These institutions are needed to deliver those services at the community level,” said the mayor.

He spoke of the importance of making services accessible to people in their communities.

“It is situated in a space that also has the primary school, the health centre [and] other institutions surround it which makes it a complete space, [a] proper ecosystem for the community,” noted Vernon.

An elderly Enel Reid agrees.

The postal agency is just a stone’s throw from her home. It is where she collects her pension and other mail. When it was out of service, she had to make the trip downtown.

“Sometimes I can’t go and I have to ask somebody; and so I am feeling very happy for the [reopened] post office,” Reid gushed.

Fellow resident Janice Thompson said it is sometimes challenging for senior citizens to get a ride back home as their varying conditions sometimes lead to them being sidelined by impatient drivers.

“It’s a blessing that the post office is here… Most of the time the drivers don’t want to take them up and so they suffer downtown to get taxis to come up,” she explained.

“When they are in Flanker now, they can walk and come to the post office. So it’s definitely a blessing that it is back because they would have to pay fare to go down and to come up,” said Thompson.

Angela Davis is among those who have been feeling the economic pinch.

“It is kind of tedious at times to find the fare to go downtown and to get your mail,” she said.

“I am so happy to know that we are getting back our post office. It’s long overdue and we are thankful for all who are involved,” Davis declared.

A team from Jamaica Post was on hand Monday to receive the keys to the newly refurbished postal agency. They, too, expressed joy that the building has been repaired and they will once again be able to provide service to the general public, and especially to the elderly.

“For those older persons that would have to travel to Montego Bay Number One [post office] and Montego Bay Number Two for their PATH and their pension and to collect their ordinary mail, I am really happy that we have brought it back to the space where they can enjoy coming to their postal agent and being in the community where they feel safe,” regional manager for Jamaica Post, Montego Bay, Mytha Bahadur, told the Observer.

Postal agent Marva Davis opens the door to the newly renovated Flanker Postal Agency on Monday, March 9, 2026. Sharing in the moment are Councillor Charles Sinclair (left); mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon, regional manager for Jamaica Post Montego Bay Mytha Bahadur (second right); and branch manager, Montego Bay Number One Post Office, Rebecca Palmer.

The symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony during Monday’s opening of the refurbished Flanker Postal Agency saw participation from Councillor Charles Sinclair (front row left), in whose Montego Bay North Eastern division Flanker is located; regional manager for Jamaica Post Montego Bay Mytha Bahadur (front row centre); Flanker Community Development Committee president Sandra Munroe-Clarke (front row, second right); and Flanker resident, Shevon Green (front row, right). Sharing in the moment are mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon (back row third left); Flanker resident Denise Whitter (back row, left); contractor Peter Hibbert (back row, second left); branch manager, Montego Bay Number One Post Office Rebecca Palmer (back row centre); Principal of Flanker Primary Collette Barnes (back row, third right); and postal agent Marva Davis (front row second right).