MANDEVILLE, Manchester:

A motorcyclist, 54-year-old Walford Mills of a Kingston 8 address, was killed on the Winston Jones Highway in a traffic accident.

Eyewitness reports are that Mills was riding his black Honda motorcycle towards Kingston when he was hit by a Toyota pickup truck going in the opposite direction.

The driver of the pickup drove to the Mandeville Police Station and reported the incident after he became afraid for his life. According to reports, a large crowd from the nearby Greenvale community, descended on the scene.

Mills, who was pronounced dead in the Mandeville Regional Hospital, became the eighth person to die in a traffic accident in the parish this year.

- Angelo laurence

Dental Health Competition closes month

October was Dental Health month and for its part, the Clarendon Health Department hosted the Dental Health Competition Finals and Awards Ceremony at the St Gabriel Anglican Church Hall on Thursday.

Primary and high schools in the parish vied for prizes in the DJ, poster and quiz competitions. Fifteen schools participated, including Chapelton, May Pen, Watsonton and Crooked River primary schools, and Foga High.

Hayes Primary and Junior High, won the quiz competition after defeating Rock River All-Age.

The theme for the day's activities was 'Are you protected?' The competitions were geared towards seeing how well aware students were about dental health.

- AC

Clarendon wells to be overhauled

MAY PEN, Clarendon:

The National Water Commission (NWC) will be carrying out exploratory work on a number of wells in Clarendon to ascertain the reason for their low production.

Dr Horace Chang, minister of water and housing, said the work, which will cost $4.5 million, will also "identify exactly where in the aquifer field we can put the kind of wells that will give us the water we need".

He was speaking at a meeting with officials at the NWC's office in May Pen, Clarendon, on Friday, as he sought to address the problems of inadequate supplies in the parish.

Chang said that focus was being placed on North Central Clarendon, which has a number of problems and the primary systems, which serve the area, namely the low ground wells in Mount Providence, Blackwoods and Mocho, and the McPherson Springs in Rock River. He noted that the low ground wells "have failed us quite miserably".

In the meantime, he said additional, wells were being put into production in the southern section of the parish. He said as part of the investment in water in Clarendon, the May Pen system would be overhauled.

- JIS

Minister seeks solutions for rural schools

MAY PEN, Clarendon:

Minister of Water and Housing, Dr Horace Chang, has said that his ministry was looking at a programme in which schools in remote areas could harvest rain water and solar energy for regular use.

Chang made the disclosure while in discussion with officials at the National Water Commission's office in May Pen, Clarendon, recently.

He said that the ministry was in discussion with the Water Resources Authority (WRA) on the programme.

According to Chang there was a ministry team working on the project and that the WRA was in charge of managing the initiative. "That is something that we have been discussing. We are going to try to speed it up," he said.

- JIS