This morning the Minister of National Security, and senior officers of Eastern Division joined Belize Rural North Area Representative Edmond Castro in
Crooked Tree to inaugurate the new Police Station. Of course, it's timed to give Castro a nice boost going into his divisional convention. The station
has been operational since October 2013, but the ceremony was held today, weeks before the convention.
Pure politics, but the speakers took it dead serious, recounting the difficulties that they faced in trying to get the station to a useable state:
Hon. Edmund Castro - Area Representative, Belize Rural North
"When I got elected there was a shell that was here that we called a police station which it was impossible for any policing activity to take place.
That old police station shell went through 3 area representatives before me and I promised the people of Crooked Tree that we will make sure that we
will try to get a better facility for them here at Crooked Tree. And we lobbied and lobbied along to the minister of National Security, Hon. John
Saldivar and also to the prime minister and cabinet for assistance in helping the construction of the police station in Crooked Tree. Here we are
today, inaugurating the police station here in Crooked Tree - which can easily facilitate 2 officers and enough space for the holding cell and office
and so forth."
Resident of Crooked Tree
"On behalf of the people of Crooked Tree, I extend my good thanks to the government once again, thank you."
Hon. John Saldivar - Minister of National Security
"I can recall, the challenges you had to live with prior to the opening of this police station. Those arrangements were not only inadequate but
unacceptable and I think we've said quite a bit of what those were."
Resident of Crooked Tree
"Who all remembered the little board one that they had back here, somebody burn it down and nobody didn't want to say thank you for burning it down.
Because as long as it was there, the statement was Crooked Tree have a police station that need repair. So when it went, Crooked Tree never had none.
So we want to say thank you very much for that."
The Crooked Tree Police Station's upgrade is estimated to have cost about 295 thousand dollars.
Of course, Crooked Tree is just one station. The stations in Maskall and Sand Hill – for example –are also in a state of disrepair. Castro told the
press that all the police stations in rural north have either been renovated, or are in the process of getting repaired:
Hon. Edmund Castro
"That's no longer the case, we renovate the police station in Maskall over the past few months, I think about a month ago. It has been about 90%
complete. So the officer, Inspector Gordon promised me that as of Monday - or this weekend the police officer now responsible for Maskall can now move
into the police station in Maskall because the renovation process has been completed. We're also in the process of renovating the police station in
Sandhill. The person just won the bid, I think it was last week Tuesday or Wednesday. We also had done some repair work and renovate the police station
in Bermudian Landing. I think that is all the police stations in Belize rural north area."
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