TREASURE Beach, St Elizabeth — Renowned for its community tourism model, safety here is expected to be bolstered in another five weeks with plans advanced to install a security surveillance network.

Although Treasure Beach is perceived as one the safest tourism areas in Jamaica, hotelier Jason Henzell told the Jamaica Observer that following consultation with the leadership of the St Elizabeth police, Superintendent Coleridge Minto, an investment of $2.5 million is being made to source and install the surveillance system by next month.

“Superintendent Minto has been doing a phenomenal job, particularly with crime… He has really made a huge impact on St Elizabeth. He revealed the very good news that Pedro Plains along with Lacovia are going to be the two stations in St Elizabeth that are going to be ISO9001 certified, so that is a big deal for us,” Henzell said on Tuesday.

“We caught that momentum and said that let us try and make Treasure Beach a model for community policing, and he [Minto] made the suggestion of putting in some CCTV [closed-circuit television] cameras so persons coming in and out could be monitored to make it a safer community,” added Henzell as he underscored the low crime level in the community and the importance of maintaining that reputation.

“You will notice that nowhere in Treasure Beach really has grills on their doors, and we want to keep it that way, but at the same time we can’t really take anything for granted, so [we are] using technology to our advantage, so BREDS will be making an investment… to buy these cameras. They will be monitored by the police at Pedro and hopefully JamaicaEye, because at the end of the day we really do want a safer community as much as possible for all our residents and our visitors,” said Henzell.

“This will be implemented by the end of June. We have made the order. We paid the deposit. Things are definitely in train, and we are really excited about it, and everyone wants to know that they are coming into a safe community,” he added.

Henzell said economic activity has been restored to Treasure Beach almost seven months after it was affected by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa.

“Fishing is up and down depending on the weather, so we feel very blessed to have such a wide cross section of opportunities especially with the HEART/NSTA Trust where we train and certify persons in different skills,” he said.

“At the same time you can’t take anything for granted, so we thought that this was an initiative that we wanted to support…Let us have that challenge of creating one of the safest communities in Jamaica using community policing, soft policing, and technology, and keep it that way,” added Henzell.

He told the Observer that Treasure Beach now has close to 1,000 rooms when the small, medium and large accommodations are taken into consideration.

“Our large [accommodation] is still small in the scheme of things. Treasure Beach enjoys the lowest density in the country, so we got the density reduced to 30 rooms per acre. The next lowest in Jamaica is 50 rooms [per acre], and we advocated for that. Town hall meetings were held and the [residents] said, ‘this is what we want. We don’t want to lose our sense of community to a large-scale development,’ so that is one of the things that makes it very unique,” he explained.

He said plans are also being drafted to have a fit-for-purpose Treasure Beach Sports Park which can be used as a shelter during national disasters.

“Sustainable development is the name of the game, so we have actually engaged a lot of universities that have architectural programmes and specialise in sustainable building. We want to create a centre of resilience at the Treasure Beach Sports Park to be like a model shelter that can house people safely instead of disrupting our schools, which are traditionally used as shelters,” said Henzell.

He pointed out that the plan is for the sports park to have accommodation like a hostel as well as storage so that it can operate as a multipurpose building.

“We can’t ignore what is happening with climate change and global warming, and you know you want to build in a smart way while at the same time understanding that the low density is an incredibly important cornerstone of the identity of Treasure Beach,” he said.

According to Henzell, BREDS Foundation has distributed some $90 million to fishermen, farmers, and tourism workers through vouchers.

“We have become the model of community tourism, I believe, in the Caribbean, because we have really empowered persons to take up these opportunities, so upskilling is very important… Job security is very important. One of the things BREDS did after the hurricane was we gave a grant to 300 community tourism workers who would have been out of work for three months.

“We are going into phase four, which is one legacy phase, where we are going to build a woodwork shop offering carpentry and joinery with the HEART/NSTA Trust programme and also build the Treasure Breach Health Centre, a clinic to serve this area,” added Henzell.

The Pedro Plains police station where a surveillance system is expected to be monitored from in Treasure Beach by the end of June. (Photo: Kasey Williams)

A welcome to Treasure Beach signage on a boat. (Photo: Kasey Williams)