{"id":3395,"date":"2020-03-02T17:28:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T17:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3395"},"modified":"2020-03-02T17:28:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T17:28:39","slug":"round-the-rugged-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3395","title":{"rendered":"Round the rugged road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take this\nany longer, it is extremely bad!\u201d These are the words of a disgruntled Dianne\nDixon of Pearlene Stream in East Central St. James, who is just one of many\nresidents taking Member of Parliament, Edmund Bartlett, and Councillor Uvel\nGraham to task for what they say is the dreadful condition of the roads in the\ncommunity. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been ongoing for decades, nobody seems to care\nabout us. Despite our numerous appeals, we are neglected and not on the radar\nof either the Member of Parliament or the councillor, the works agency or\nanybody, we simply don\u2019t matter, or seem to exist,\u201d Dixon said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The residents bemoaned the fact that taxi operators have\nflatly refused to ply that route, arguing that they do not have roads to drive\non and chancing to drive on this rugged pathway would mean extreme damage to\ntheir vehicles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have roads. If there was any road, it does not\nexist anymore. What we have now is a rugged, jagged track that has large stones\njutting out, that make it difficult for the elderly and very young to use. It\nis affecting every aspect of life – people going to work, people coming home\nand children going to school all have problems,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miss Dixon says concerns continue to heighten as residents\nfear that should there be a medical emergency in the area, no ambulance or any\nother emergency vehicle would be able to travel to the community to deal with\nthat urgent matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAJOR DETERRENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaye Brown, who recently convened the Pearlene Stream\nCitizens\u2019 Association, echoed similar sentiments, adding that the deplorable\nroad conditions continue to be a major deterrent to other infrastructure\nimprovement that the community so desperately needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an aging population here and no ambulance or any\nother vehicle would come here should there be a medical emergency. The nearest\nhealth centre is at Adelphi, which is more than seven miles away; this is not\ngood. The road has not been fixed now for more than 30 years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says while she has been in contact with some residents\nliving overseas, who would want to return home to retire, they are wary because\nof the concerns being expressed by those who are living there now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI personally made\ncontact with the Councillor for the area, Mr. Graham, and he has not responded\nto the concerns.  We would like to\nundertake some projects; we need a health centre and a community centre where\nwe can organize activities to engage the youth and also the elderly. We would\nlike to do this with assistance from the politicians and others, but they are\nnot responding to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 She says they are\nhaving a crisis and no one seems to care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an infrastructure issue not a political one. We\ncannot have prosperity with these bad roads, people need ease of travel to get\nto and from work and that is not possible under the present circumstances. This\nhas gone on for far too long. Please, please fix the road, that is what we ask\nand then we can work on the other matters,\u201d pleads Miss Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis has been ongoing for decades, nobody seems to care about us. Despite our numerous appeals, we are neglected and not on the radar of either the Member of Parliament or the councillor, the works agency or anybody, we simply don\u2019t matter, or seem to exist,\u201d Dixon said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1775,628,1774,1772,1773,1776,30],"class_list":["post-3395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-east-central-st-james","tag-edmund-bartlett","tag-pearlene-stream","tag-roads","tag-rugged","tag-uvel-graham","tag-western-jamaica"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3397,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3395\/revisions\/3397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}