The Chamber Chatter
NEWSLETTER OF THE PORTLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
AUGUST, 2011 – VOL. 1, NO. 4
CAN „PORTLAND IGNITE‟ DO THE JOB?
A grass roots movement is afoot to bring attention to the neglected Portland Parish. Sparked by a meeting called by Gordon Townsend of Bay View Villas, Port Antonio, and also Caribic Vacations, the project will be taken up by the Portland Chamber of Commerce at its board meeting Thursday night. A core group met at Bay View Villas Friday, Aug. 5, to discuss the possibilities of putting together an “in parish” team to promote the region. Attendees all pretty much agreed that any promotion of Portland by government agencies will pretty much be token or ignored and if there is going to be any advocacy for the area, it will have to come from within. Townsend noted: “Too long Portland has been left on the „back burner‟!! Let‟s move it forward! Lets take our Parish in our hands and collectively make ourselves be heard and seen. All records of Tourism in Jamaica show that it started in Portland... why is it now we are not part of that anymore? ... Our Parish has only gotten more beautiful.” Townsend is asking the Chamber of Commerce to head up the project. Chamber board members Nino Sciuto and Dale Westin, will present the project to the board.
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WHO WANTS TO GO TO “POT”?
For many years we have been hearing all sorts of pro and con talk about extending the runway at Ken Jones Airdrome to handle international aircraft. Thus far it seems likely that‟s all it still is…just talk! One wonders if anyone has put forth the slightest bit of thought about changing the three letter designator for the airfield…POT! Can‟t you just imagine having all your baggage tagged with huge letters POT? As we are living in an era when all baggage is suspect, then this label will surely remove any doubt!!!
IT‟S NOT TRUE ABOUT US BEING THE POTHOLE CAPITAL!
In the rare event you have had the displeasure of driving to Kingston through St. Thomas, you will no doubt know that St. Thomas is the unquestioned king of potholes. If you can drive it uneventfully, you are lucky indeed. Your editor recommends taking at least two spares or better yet; don‟t go!. While National Works Agency got a token amount of repairs done recently in Port Antonio, a lot remains undone to the east of the city, including some areas where the holes were squared off more than a year ago in anticipation of immediate repairs. When you ask a local driver what is the most aggravating thing he or she has to put up with; chances are they will say it‟s the roads.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEET AUG. 11-
The monthly meeting of the Portland Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, at the marina.
STEWART SAYS “NO AIRPORT, NO DRAGON BAY”- In spite of a multi million dollar multi-national Sandals expansion programme recently announced, Chairman Butch Stewart has said to forget about Dragon Bay reopening until Portland gets it own international airport. Dragon Bay and Trident Hotel, now both in mothballs were the two mainstays in the Portland Hotel system in years past and before the current economic downturn. For years, so-called experts have indicated that extending the runway at Ken Jones Airdrome is not possible. However, a recent sixth grade school project, basically using only Google Earth, shows the so-called experts may have had other motives. More recently, some engineers now agree the runway could be expanded by moving the runway closer to seaward. A recent letter to the editor in the Jamaica Observer noted: “The bastard child of Jamaican tourism seems destined to remain in the backwaters of national development despite the pedigreed paternity of the two most successful businessmen in the country. Sandals CEO Adam Stewart says the hotel chain is embarking on a massive expansion involving millions of US Dollars. Yet the Dragon Bay Hotel in Portland will remain derelict until the government builds an airport. Butch, Mike, please put your cookies together and just build the damn thing.” The letter was penned by Michael O‟Donnell of Portland.
PELLEW ISLAND DEVELOPMENT ON AGAIN-
Just a little more than a year after the Parish council said thumbs down to a development plan application, another plan is on the table with reduced size dwellings. The exact scope of the proposed development was not clear at press time, but it was learned from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) which is one of the parties reviewing the plan, that it included one four-bedroom and one three bedroom cottage. Other than a reduction in the size of the proposed residences, it does not seem that the environmental issues on which the first refusal was based, have been addressed. These included “steeply sloping gradients which present accessibility challenges, increased risk of slope failure as a result of the development works, given the geotechnical characteristics of the island, construction difficulties that would evolve given the island‟s terrain and the requirement of “hard engineering works” that would be an “unacceptable intrusion in a pristine and sensitive marine environment.” The island is the property of Beverley Barakat.
BLUE LAGOON BEACH BREACHES HALTED- While most environmentalists will say that the fines were only “token”, nonetheless Devon Wilson, developer of Lagoon Heights Resort in Portland, has admitted liability for breaches of the Beach Control Act. Following the construction of two seawalls and a pylon on his property at Blue Lagoon, Wilson was fined $10,000 for each of three counts in the Port Antonio Resident Magistrate‟s Court July 25.
PORTLAND LABOUR OFFICE MOVES- The Portland Parish Office of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is now located in the former RBTT building at 28 Harbour St., Port Antonio. The phone numbers remain the same: 993-2259, 993-2748, 715-4980 and fax at 993-4978. Their toll free number is 1/888-991-2089. Email address is [email protected]
SHAW: “ BUSINESS CONFIDENCE RISING”- Finance Minister Audley Shaw says the reduction in crime rate has led to “encouraging signs of growing business confidence, which will ultimately result in economic growth. Business confidence is on
the rise, not because of what the Ministry of Finance alone is doing, or other arms of the government are doing, but obviously the business confidence must also be on the rise because there is an increase in the perception that our communities are safer, because the murder rate is down and the overall crime rate is down, ”Shaw noted. Shaw said that as the economy improves, more quality jobs will be created, reducing the propensity for crime in the communities. He further stressed the with the public sector wage issue now settled, workers in that sector should take advantage of the trending down of mortgage rates which he attributed to government‟s policy of encouraging competition in the financial sector.
WASTEWATER FUNDING SCORE: ELSEWHERE-44, PORTLAND -0 Minister of Housing, Environment and Water, Dr. Horace Chang, in late July signed a US$3 million agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to support the implementation of a number of wastewater improvements across the island. No provision was made for any improvements in Portland.
BIODIVERSITY OF PELLEW ISLAND- Often incorrectly referred to as “Monkey Island”, Pellew is actually considerably to the east of Wood Island, off the Folly Peninsula which was also known as “Monkey Island” when Explorer Hiram Bingham brought monkeys from Machu Pichu to the location. According to Caribbean Ecosystems Ltd., the biodiversity of Pellew Island is extensive:
●23 plant species, including shrubs, trees, vines, ferns and epiphytes (plants that grown on others)—four of them endemic
●14 bird species, including two endemics (the Jamaican Woodpecker and the Black-billed Streamertail) identified on or in the vicinity of the island.
●Hermit Crabs, Rats, Ants
●Corals (Massive Startlet corals and Mustardhill Corals, among others.
●Sponges (Brown Encrusting Sponge and Giant Anenome, among others.
●Macro algae (Bristle Ball Brush and Mermaid‟s Fan, among others
●Fish (Blue Tang, Blue Head Wrasse and Dusky Damselfish, among others.)
PORTLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (ltd.)
P.O. Box 93 - 2 Harbour Street
Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica, West Indies
www.portland.org.jm [email protected]
876-426-9098
“Your Business Is Our Biggest Asset”