Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer
HANOVER:
The Hanover Health Department has been granted $500,000 by the Ministry of Health, to aid in its rodent eradication programme in the parish.
Chief Public Health Inspector for Hanover Derrick Storer made this announcement during the Regular Monthly Meeting of the Hanover Parish Council on Thursday.
According to Mr. Storer, the funds which were granted to the Ministry by the Culture Health Arts Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund, will go towards the continuation of the Rodent Eradication Programme in Lucea, which the Health Department undertook last year.
"Stipulations are that the money must be spent in one community, and that a comprehensive programme has to be conducted, a programme in Lucea, and Lucea is in quite a fair condition," Mr. Storer said. "We will revisit Lucea with this programme in the first instance, because this is just the first allocation."
He added: "More (funds) will come, so we will address the concerns in other areas of the parish. We want to make a concerted effort in Lucea and do as best as we can with the money, and we hope that by the end of it, not one mouse will be in the town," he added.
Last August, the Hanover Health Department held its first rodent control seminar in Lucea, which was attended by more than 70 people from within and outside the parish. The programme heralded the start of the rodent control programme for the parish capital which included a public education phase, a garbage collection phase and a rebating phase. The programme was recently expanded to the town of Hopewell in Eastern Hanover
