BECAUSE I AM ALWAYS LOOKING for news stories I tend to pay attention to things that most people don’t even notice.
You go into some business to pay a bill; I go into the same business to do the same thing, but I also see a news story.
You go out to dinner and see only food; I go out to dinner and on the napkin I write notes for tomorrow’s front page.
You take a quiet, relaxing drive through the country and see only the beauty of nature; I take the same journey and return with stories to last a whole week.
That’s why I feel qualified to tell Acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith that the folks at the Black Rock Station have a problem developing right under their noses.
Mr Commissioner, if you are not careful what I am seeing could turn out to be as entrenched as the male prostitutes who have been selling their goods just outside the gate of Central Police Station for years, or the ladies of the night who are now an institution on Bush Hill, a stone’s throw from the Hastings Police Station.
Becoming unbearable
I travel through Eagle Hall at least six mornings per week, so I am qualified to tell you that the officers at Black Rock don’t appear to be seeing what I have been seeing almost daily for more than a year. I’m speaking out now because it is becoming really unbearable.
It seems minibus and ZR operators don’t like using the bus stop at the junction with President Kennedy Drive so they line up all the way from the old gas station beside Mapps Shop all the way to Sawh’s Shop. And when they do they cause a backup of traffic in every direction.
They also cause many close shaves because daily motorists become frustrated with the delays and act rashly. And it can get worse when their colleagues heading to Bridgetown stop awkwardly at the lay-by opposite the old Plantrac complex.
So please, Mr Commissioner, tell the station sergeant at Black Rock to tell his officers about the problem. If the operators want to create their own bus terminal at Eagle Hall let them pay the Treasury with a barrage of tickets for illegal parking, picking up passengers other than at a bus stop, driving without reasonable consideration or anything else that can be applied. (RRM)