Jean Pierre’s neglected complex

NOT EVERY athlete becomes a household name, but netballer Eugenia “Jean” Pierre did. She became the captain of the national team, having been a member of the team which was one of the joint winners of the 1979 World Netball Championships.

Then she served as Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and held the Port of Spain South seat in Parliament once occupied by Dr Eric Williams. She was bestowed this country’s two highest awards.

Despite such a storied life, the sporting facility named in Ms Pierre’s honour – the Jean Pierre Complex at Wrightson Road, Port of Spain – today stands in a state of disrepair.

The roof is leaky. Seats, windows and electrical outlets are broken. Paint is flaking off walls. Mould and moss have covered surfaces, including once pristine courts that hosted the world’s greatest. The facility remains shut while the Sporting Company of TT (SporTT) does “detailed assessments.”

It is a reminder that no monument, no matter how grand, is immune to the vagaries of time.

It is also an indication of the challenge mystifyingly faced by the State when it comes to maintaining all sporting facilities in the country, old and new.

The issue of the lack of upkeep of infrastructure is not limited to sporting facilities. At times, it is hard to reject the notion that this country is simply bad at maintaining anything: whether hospitals, schools or heritage buildings (though some progress has been made in relation to the latter). No building or other structure will remain forever new or even usable if it is not looked after.

Even the Prime Minister this week openly conceded the country’s roads need repair. For him, the situation relates to scarce resources amid a pandemic and the demands on the State in relation to the covid19 pandemic.

But neglect was not invented in the last two years. It’s been a problematic feature of governance for decades.

The Jean Pierre Complex is a case in point. Though many of its problems today relate to maintenance issues over the last two years, and though it got some reinvestment in 2010, its decline began long before then.

“It has never been developed further in any way,” says TT Netball Association president Sherry Ann Blackburn.

The impact of the complex being shut has been severe on the local sport. Not only does dispersal across several often heavily in-demand venues make it harder for athletes to train, but there’s no central venue that can comfortably accommodate crowds and showcase talent.

All this points to the fact that when the State conceptualises projects, insufficient attention is paid to maintenance and long-term use. Sods are turned, ribbons cut, and then buildings and other facilities are left to fend for themselves.

Because they often perform multiple functions and play useful roles in communities, the deleterious impact of this neglect is felt well beyond the court, and well beyond national pride.