December 23, 2024
Ocho Rios, St. Ann. Jamaica
COVER STORY FEATURE NEWS

KNOW YOUR ST ANN CANDIDATES

CARDELL WICKHAM, JLP

GIBRALTAR DIVISION, St Ann Municipal Corporation

Cardell Wickham says his work speaks for itself all over the large Gibraltar Division in South West St Ann.

It’s a Division that has never been won by the PNP and Mr Wickham says he intends to increase the majority in the February 26 Election “It can only get better,” he said.

MP for South West St Ann Zavia Mayne has been a strong supporter of all the programmes.

Mr Wickham lists a string of roads, drains, retaining and boundary walls built or rehabilitated across the Division.

Similarly, he reels off a list of communities where he has made strong, successful representation to have street lights installed or repaired: Sommerton, Yelland, Lincoln, Gibraltar, Cedars Stump, Jackfruit Lane, Richmond Pen, Broadleaf, Retirement, Watt Town, Glasgow, Friendship, Grants Bailey, Linton Park and others.

Mr Wickham counts among his major achievements getting a garbage truck to regularly service the Division. “That has never been done before. Garbage disposal was a problem.”

He says now the truck comes every two weeks and even when it is late by a day or two people can depend on the service. Mr  Wickham says he has built 10 skips right across the division, ensuring an improvement to the collection and disposal of garbage.

Mr Wickham says hard work and collaborative efforts have led to improved water supply in the division which has low rainfall.

He has built four wayside tanks, maintained several others, and, with support from Rural Water, continues the upkeep of more than a dozen catchment tanks.

The Division thrives on the hard work of farmers and, with the support of RADA, Mr Wickham has assisted them with fertilizer, seeds, and tools. Scores have been sent on the Overseas Farm Work programme.

He says just helping to make life easier is part of his mantra.

Mr Wickham has also been assisting young people in the communities, maintaining playfields, and providing sporting gear. He is actively involved in mobilizing youths at the Police Youth Club and netballers, helping with their transportation.

The Retreat Basic School and Grants Bailey Basic School were also renovated. He’s ready to continue the work.

ON ELECTION DAY, February 26, 2024

VOTE CARDELL WICKHAM, VOTE JLP

 

NORDIA THOMPSON, PNP

GIBRALTAR DIVISION, St Ann Municipal Corporation

Nordia Thompson says that when she told the PNP she wanted to contest the Gibraltar Division there were some raised eyebrows.

She pointed out, to the interviewing panel,  that she had a plan, grew up in Bethany in the Division, knew the communities, and faced the life that so many continue to live. She was fit to change it, she told them, and she is determined to win and represent Gibraltar in the St Ann Municipal Corporation (SAMC).

She has been juggling and calling on her time management skills as the former educator is now a law student at The University of The West Indies, Mona. She finds time to be in the communities knocking on doors, attending parties, funerals, and church services, meeting farmers at their farms, talking to young people on the sidelines of matches and at shop fronts.

She has plans to help ease the travel problems faced by many students.

Ms Thompson points out that there are wide expanses of land between communities in Gibraltar Division and even greater distances between parts of the Division and Brown’s Town or Alexandria where many of the young people go to High School or further still, such as at West Wood High school in neighbouring Trelawny. It’s not only the distance but also the unreliability of transport that sometimes poses difficulties for students, Ms Thompson says.

Ms Thompson says she has started to mobilize partnerships to tackle the transport problem, one of her six planks of service and change. Among her other platforms are: assisting farmers to improve their production expanding sports and cultural activities and even supplementary education through extra CSEC classes.

“The people are receiving me well. Some of them say they never believed they would see a PNP (representative) in these communities. I am overwhelmed by what I see and hear,” she said. “I am blessed and overwhelmed.”

She says she is confident she can provide representation for people from communities as far-flung and diverse as Gibraltar, Watt Town, Grants Bailey, Retirement, Madras, Glasgow, Top Goshen, Retreat, Sommerton, and many more.

ON ELECTION DAY, February 26, 2024

VOTE NORDIA THOMPSON, VOTE PNP