Works Minister says Boys Training School is completely refurbished; Cabinet to provide up to $40k for new fittings

After over four years of renovation work at the Boys Training
School, the project, reportedly, has been completed.

Minister of Works Maria Browne is reporting that the facility has
been completely refurbished. However, new furniture and
appliances are now required, and these are expected to cost the
Government up to $40,000.

During its sitting on Wednesday, November 8, the Cabinet
reportedly promised to make these resources available so that the
residents can return to the facility at the earliest possible time.

It was announced in September 2019 that the Boys Training
School would undergo much-needed refurbishing. The decision to
repair the institution was aimed at creating a better living
environment for the boys housed there.

At the time, Government Spokesman Lionel “Max” Hurst had
reported that US$120,000 had been contributed to the project by
the OECS Commission through the USAID Office. 

The then minister of social transformation, Samantha Marshall,
under whose portfolio the School fell, had informed her colleagues
that the Government was expected to provide a matching sum for
completing the renovation work, which was “very likely [to be] in
the form of labour.

Prior to these announcements, the Administration had announced,
in 2017, that the Training School would be rebranded in 2018.
Back then, the institution was expected to be the beneficiary of a
US$300,000 upgrade – part of a holistic push to rebrand the
institution, which aims to reform, educate, and train boys between
10 and 18 years of age.

That funding reportedly had been sourced by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Organisation
of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

These organisations were expected to work closely with the Family
and Social Services Division to transform the facility at Comfort Hall
in Willikies, since it had been in a deplorable condition for some
time.