Business community divided in St Elizabeth

Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer

Western Bureau:

Despite the glaring need for an umbrella organisation to unify the parish's business community, a major rift could be in the making in St Elizabeth as two of its main townships have established their own chambers of commerce within recent weeks.

Western Focus has learnt that less than a month after Santa Cruz businessman Howard Hendricks spearheaded the formation of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, businesswoman Cynthia Hill has made a similar move in the parish's capital, Black River.

Cognizant of the fact that two similar organisations in the same parish, serving the same interest could be counterproductive, Wendy Freckleton, the president of Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is now seeking to find a solution to the potentially contentious situation.

"As one of the most self-sustained parishes in our country, a vibrant and unified chamber of commerce is crucial to St Elizabeth," Freckleton told Western Focus. "Based on the fact that whatever happens in St Elizabeth affects Manchester, we feel that helping our sister parish to put a workable situation in place is a no-brainer."

As a first move, Freckleton is seeking to bring the leadership of the Santa Cruz and Black River business communities together with a view to getting them to devise a way to work under one umbrella.

ALTERNATIVE

"What I have encouraged the two groups to do is to have one chamber of commerce, but each major township will have its own chapter," said Freckleton "I am sure the Junction/Treasure Beach business group will also be putting things in place to come on-board in short order."

While there is no guarantee that the model suggested by Freckleton will gain the desired traction in Santa Cruz and Black River, renowned businessman Jason Henzell, arguably the most influential voice in the Treasure Beach area, relishes the idea and is ready to support it.

"The best structure I see is the one suggested by Wendy Freckleton," said Henzell, who is also chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Develop-ment Committee (PDC). "In the PDC, we have established district area councils, and this is the way we ensure that all the areas are represented."

Henzell believes that if Freckleton's model is adopted by all, the formation of a united chamber of commerce would become a reality as he believes the business sector in Junction/Treasure Beach would gladly join in the fray.

"I am sure steps will be taken for the Junction area to come on-board, and I think we should make agro and sports a point of our focus," said Henzell, who leads the charitable organisation BREDS.

It is interesting to note that the parish of St Elizabeth once had a vibrant chamber of commerce and industry; however, logistical problems, including the distance between the major townships - Junction, Black River, and Santa Cruz - resulted in a haphazard operation. Finally, it came to a standstill 10 years ago.

CHAMBERLESS FOR A DECADE

"The parish has been without a chamber for about a decade, but our chamber has been working with business interests in St Elizabeth, and we have been making some headway," Freckleton said.

In the more than 10 years since the St Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce stopped functioning, the parish has been negatively affected, especially with regard to the non-staging of business expositions, the absence of joint-venture arrangements, the stagnation of potential private-public sector partnerships, and the lack of representation at the national level.

Under the model Freckleton is suggesting, Black River, Junction, and Santa Cruz would all function as individual chamber chapters but would unite to select a parish president and executive for national representation. If the relevant stakeholders can agree to the suggestion, St Elizabeth could again have a fully functional chamber of commerce before June.