Second Portland councillor dies in six months

Councillor Derron Wood became the second member of the Portland Municipal Corporation to die in office in the last six months.

Wood, a four-time councillor of the Fairy Hill Division in East Portland, died at the University Hospital of the West Indies on Thursday, a day after he was transferred from the Port Antonio Hospital in Portland. He had reportedly contracted COVID-19, the disease that claimed the life of Irvin Brown, councillor for the Fellowship Division, last October.

Paul Thompson, mayor of Port Antonio, said Wood's death came as a shock to him. He said that Wood "developed a bad cough", but for him to have died "so quickly after being diagnosed with COVID-19 comes to me as a shocker".

William Black, a long-time friend of Wood, said he saw him on Wednesday.

"He told me that he hadn't eaten for more than a week and that he was feeling ill, and was very weak," said Black.

Still in shock

"We chatted for a while and then I left his house. I learned that he was admitted to hospital, but I never expected to hear this kind of news. I am still in shock at his death and it will not be easy to accept his passing," he added.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Desmond McKenzie, yesterday expressed sadness at the passing of Councillor Wood.

"It is a bitter blow for us in the Jamaica Labour Party family. Derron was a popular and highly respected councillor, who served the people of Fairy Hill in that capacity for nearly 18 years," McKenzie said.

"I salute the work and the very visible legacy that Derron Wood has left in Eastern Portland and especially in the Fairy Hill Division. He has cemented himself into the modern history of local governance in this part of Portland, and he is already being greatly missed. No words can ease the pain of his passing, but I offer especially to his family, the assurance that he lived an exemplary life, and has made his parish a better place because he stepped forward to serve," McKenzie said.