Police headquarters renovations exceed allocated budget

by Linda Straker

• Entire roof of former Cable & Wireless building termite-ridden
• Police headquarters at Fort George needs to be relocated
• Fort George is being converted to a heritage tourism project

Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall said that Government has had to allocate more money than anticipated to renovate the former Cable & Wireless building on The Carenage to convert it into the new police headquarters.

“When we purchased the building, we thought we would have to just move in the police with minor repairs to the building, but then we find out, for example, that the entire roof was termite-ridden and we have to change the entire roof,” Cornwall said, responding to a question during a town hall meeting in St Patrick last Monday evening about housing facilities for the police throughout the country. “That is prolonging the time and the amount of money we have had to spend,” said the Finance Minister, who did not disclose the original cost for renovating the building nor the additional amount required to complete the renovation. He further disclosed that the building will not be ready for use as originally projected.

Government is having a series of town hall meetings as part of activities to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the National Democratic Congress administering the affairs of the country. The St Patrick meeting was the first.

Police headquarters at Fort George needs to be relocated because the fort is being converted to a heritage tourism project as part of the OECS Regional Tourism Competitiveness Project funded by the World Bank. A state-of-the-art interpretation centre, vending booths, coffee and gift shops, signage, a parking lot and washrooms are part of the fort rehabilitation.

Answering questions about the dilapidated state of some police stations, Cornwall said that Government is very conscious about the state of some buildings. “We are working to upgrade all our police stations on the island, but I want to assure you that we cannot do all of them at the same time… We are working on bettering the police stations throughout Grenada… however it will take time to get done,” he said.