Mayors, Deputies sworn in
―Revision of city by-laws focus for Mayor Ubraj Narine during 2nd term
DPI, Guyana, Monday, December 30, 2019
Re-elected Mayor of Georgetown Pandit Ubraj Narine has highlighted the revision of regulations governing the capital city as one of the areas of focus for his second term.
The mayors and deputies of nine of the 10 towns were sworn in on Monday with the New Amsterdam mayor being unavoidably absent.
Mayor Narine told the DPI that he hopes to make statutory changes aimed at restoring Georgetown to the Garden City it once was.
A recycling plant is one of the ideas he is exploring.
“I want to focus as well on the way we dispose of our garbage and maybe set up a recycling plant or something, and I am looking for private-public partnership,” Mayor Narine stated.
Re-elected Mayor of Linden, Waneka Arrindell, told DPI it was an honour to be re-elected, as, in her view, it was a higher form of service. “When you are elected by the people you are fit to work for them, to serve them.”
Mayor Arrindell said visibility in the community would be paramount in the new term as Linden celebrates 50 years as a town in 2020.
“The hope is that Linden will start transforming, we want to make Linden into an eco-tourism destination, so we are going to start community projects that transform the face and astatic of the township. That’s where we heading this year and of course, we are hoping to bring those investments in. The Linden/ Lethem road is going to start and the road to Kwakwani is going to start, that’s going to increase traffic,” she said.
For Bartica, re-elected Mayor, Gifford Marshall, said the support of his councillors heartened him, and going into 2020 even greater attention will be placed on achieving the town’s green agenda.
“In 2020 we look forward to a great year, a year where we want to fast-track the development of the town, so much more emphasis will be placed on the general aesthetic of the town, improving the environment. We would have made significant strides where solid waste management is concerned, but we still have a very far way to go,” Mayor Marshall noted.
Sporting facilities and educational programmes for school leavers are also on the mayor’s agenda.
Meanwhile, Mayor of Lethem, John Macedo, acknowledged the developments in the region in recent years while admitting that the council needed to figure out other ways to earn money for itself.