- The Seventh-day Adventist Church planned to refurbish police stations and posts across Jamaica for its 125th anniversary
- The island has 173 police stations and 11 police posts
- A trial job at Islington, St Mary cost $125,000 and covered cells, barracks, plumbing and wiring
- The church said it would use its more than 730 congregations to carry out the work
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica said it would refurbish the island’s police stations as part of its 125th anniversary, using its network of more than 730 congregations to carry out repairs according to need, the Jamaica Observer reported.
Jamaica has 173 police stations and 11 police posts. The islandwide effort was set for October 25, 2015, and followed work the month before at the police station in Islington, St Mary. That job cost $125,000 and included washing and painting the cells, painting sections of the officers’ barracks, plumbing and electrical work, and donating mattresses and other supplies.
“One of the main ministries of the church over the past 125 years has been to the community in which it serves,” said church president Pastor Everett Brown. He said the church would partner with the Jamaica Constabulary Force by providing equipment so that officers’ surroundings would be “more conducive for work”, and would offer the services of its professionals to help officers cope with stress. The report noted that the force had long struggled with limited resources and stations in poor condition.
Assistant Commissioner Leon Rose, head of the services division, said the areas discussed, including the force’s physical structures, would have “a significant impact” on the partnership. Bishop Dr Gary Welsh, regional director for the International Conference of Police Chaplains, said more than 60 per cent of the 425 volunteer station chaplains were Adventist pastors. The anniversary celebrations, which began on October 3 in Mount Salem, St James, were to end at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville on November 22.
The project shows what a church with hundreds of congregations can do for public buildings. Paint, plumbing, wiring and new mattresses are small jobs one at a time, but spread across 173 stations they amount to a large maintenance programme. The Islington figure of $125,000 gives a sense of the cost per station. Public buildings in poor condition affect the communities around them, and police stations that are fit to work in are part of what makes a district safe to live and invest in. Churches with skilled members can help keep public property in good repair.
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