MONTEGO BAY, St James — ADMINISTRATOR at the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), Joy Crooks, has welcomed the announcement by Central St James Member of Parliament Lloyd B Smith to repair the roof of the building that houses CUMI’s administrative offices, as well as the roadway leading to the facility, by year end.

Delivering the keynote address at the launch of the Sixth Tryall CUMI Come Run at Robin’s Prime Steakhouse in Montego Bay recently, Smith declared “in the next three to four months’ time I will fix the road and the roof there. That is my gift to CUMI.”

CUMI has occupied the St James Parish Council-owned building located on Rectory Drive off Brandon Hill in Montego Bay for the past 23 years.

But over the years the roof of the building has fallen into disrepair, while the roadway leading to the facility has been in a deplorable state for a very long time.

Crooks told the Jamaica Observer West that CUMI was not in a position to undertake repairs to the roof, arguing that if they were to do so, they would have to curtail some of their services.

“A few years ago we had an estimate done, and then (at that time) it would have cost about $250,000, which we just can’t afford,” Crooks said. “If we were to fix it, then we would have had to cut a number of our services to our clients.”

She pointed out that a few years ago a section of the roof had to be removed, after parts of it became infested with termites. That section, she noted, has not been replaced.

CUMI provides rehabilitation services for the psychologically challenged in the parish of St James.

The annual CUMI Come Run is the major fundraising activity for the non-profit organisation.