By Nagra Plunkett, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
DESPITE AN assurance by the St. James Parish Council to have the Montego Bay's abattoir in full operation by mid-December, the facility is still closed and there are no indications of a new opening date.
"We had hoped that it would be finished in time for the Christmas season but we missed our December 16 deadline," said Christopher Powell, secretary/manager at the Council, in an interview with The Gleaner.
"As to the updated status, I would not be able say now as I need to speak to the Superintendent (of Road and Works)."
Several efforts to contact Tubal Brown, Superintendent of Road and Works at the Council, were unsuccessful.
Last year June, the St. James Health Department served a closure notice on the slaughterhouse due to its unsanitary state. The closure followed several ultimatums on the Council to address the problems.
As a result, the municipal body requested a sum of $4.5 million from the Ministry of Local Government to carry out repairs. In the interim, butchers have been using four designated satellite sites in Anchovy, Flower Hill, Kensington and Industry near Somerton, all in St. James.
The St. James Council recently received $1.2 million to complete renovation work undertaken at the slaughterhouse last year. The money will be used to purchase and install a boiler and connect the existing effluent system to the National Water Commission (NWC) main.
The facility was an area of grave concern for nearly two years because of the seepage of waste into the Montego Bay Marine Park, an absence of a pre-slaughter area for animals, its leaking roof and inadequate lighting.
