MAY PEN, Clarendon — Councillors at the Clarendon Municipal Corporation were left shocked and dumbfounded when their colleague Joel Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, Denbigh Division) reported that May Pen Hospital had no electricity for hours last Wednesday.

Williams made the report during the corporation’s monthly sitting on Thursday as they discussed the status of street lights in the parish.

“I want to bring to the attention of this council that the May Pen Hospital was out of electricity for almost the entire day yesterday. They were calling JPS [Jamaica Public Service] with no success. So someone called me and one call to [JPS customer service representative Kareen] Jackson and within less than five minutes they were able to call me back to say the JPS team was on the compound,” said Williams.

“I commend Ms Jackson even though that was not her responsibility, but she is the only person I could call. Mr Chairman, I am not sure who has responsibility for that area but I am going to ask you to write to that person and ask that every council meeting someone is here to report to us on street lights. We cannot continue to pressure Ms Jackson and the person who has that responsibility is not answering to us,” said the obviously peeved councillor.

Councillor Carlton Bailey (People’s National Party, Milk River Division) also used the opportunity to air his grouses as he complained that there are several street lights in his division that need urgent attention.

“There are a number of poles that are toppling over and you report it and nothing is done. But even when I stand at the location and report it via the app, it’s still asking for my account number. Some adjustment needs to be made to the app where you can input the information at the exact location and the GPS coordinates pick it up,” he said.

“Ms Jackson is the only person that pays us some attention and it is sad, very sad because Clarendon is under a SOE [state of public emergency], and based on that you can tell that criminal activities have stepped up. So we need the lights, people afraid to go out at night now. The weakness is that there is no [JPS] office in the third largest parish; you can’t leave it open so. Whoever took that decision should be fired,” Bailey argued.

Clarendon is one of the parishes left without a JPS office after the utility company closed seven locations in 2021.