St John’s Fire Station to undergo major renovation

By Aabigayle McIntosh

The St John’s Fire Station is in line for a major facelift. The age old building will be demolished and rebuilt.

Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst said the government of Antigua and Barbuda has secured funding from the Green Climate Fud (GCF) to facilitate the process.

He also added that a lot of work went into securing the funds.

“This is a fund that we fought hard, the island states fought hard to procure in order to ensure that some of the damage that is done to our infrastructure in our islands as a result of global climate change and these horrible hurricanes, for example, can be repaired using funding that is intended to address this whole question.”

He explained the new and improved fire station will take around two years to be built and workers there will have to be relocated to a temporary location adjacent to the current building.

“The Global Climate Fund is footing the bill not only for the fire station but also for critical renovation to three key clinics including All Saints,” Hurst said.

He added, “It’s very important because the All Saints clinic serves a number of communities. All Saints is about the largest village community that we have in Antigua outside of St. John’s. About 60 percent of the population lives in St. John’s and about 20 percent or so live in All Saints.”

The upgrade to the clinic will address leaky roofs, weakened walls and other issues.