MONTEGO BAY, St James — As part of activities being staged in St James to mark Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of Independence, the fountain in Sam Sharpe Square and nearby areas will get a multimillion-dollar facelift.

Work began recently and is expected to end in July.

“The scope of work will include the upgrading of the fountain; modernising the operations to include pumps, to include the jets; and the lighting and the general aesthetics. The whole process will cost some $21 million,” chief executive officer for the St James Municipal Corporation, Gerald Lee told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

The general vicinity of Sam Sharpe Square will get a fresh coat of paint — with railings, kerb walls and the pedestrian area around the fountain set to sparkle in time for any celebrations planned.

The move will also see the removal of huge monitors that now display ads.

“We have decided to remove the video boards around the fountain because some citizens are complaining that it is actually blocking the view of the fountain,” explained mayor of Montego Bay, Leeroy Williams.

He however, said that the revenue-generating big screens will still be in the square, just relocated to another section.

While work continues in the city centre, there are also plans to do at least three murals in Montego Bay. One will be located on Howard Cooke Boulevard, one at Jarrett Park, and the other at the clock.

The mayor said the private sector is also expected to play a role in efforts to “nice up the place”.

“I am going to call on the business people, through the chamber of commerce, to see if they can do some facelift to their buildings. Hopefully they’ll do that, paint up their buildings and so on. Let’s hope some of them will do something,” he said.