By Svetlana Marshall

HISTORY was created on Friday when 35-year-old Gifford Marshall was unanimously elected the first Mayor of Bartica.Marshall and the elected Deputy Mayor, Nageshwari Kamal Persaud, were initially sworn in as councillors of the Bartica Mayor and Town Council along with 16 other councillors representing the APNU+AFC coalition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the Bartica Independent Green Alliance (BIGA).

Starting precisely at 14:00hrs, Assistant Town Clerk of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, Sherry Jerrick, smoothly executed the swearing-in ceremony at the Bartica Community Centre in the presence of Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communities, Emil Mc Garrell; former Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford, Frederick Mc Wilfred, and scores of residents who had gathered to witness history in the making.

Kenneth Williams, Carmel Williams, Lennox Lyte-Rankin, Mark Ambrose, Harry Ramjag, Gifford Marshall, Nageshwari Kamal Persaud, June Shurland, Lloyd Garraway, Hazel Allicock, Stanley Dutchin, Orin Griffith, Deborah Browne and Ivor Melville are the 14 APNU+AFC Councillors who took the oath of office on Friday, swearing to faithfully execute the office of councillor without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and according to the best of their respective judgement and ability.

PPP/C’s George Porter, Sonia Simmons, and Jasmattie Moungla took a similar oath, along with the lone BIGA Councillor, Juretha Fernandes.
Minutes after the councillors were sworn in, APNU+AFC Lyte-Rankin rose to his feet to nominate Marshall for the position of Mayor. Unopposed, the nomination was seconded by Garraway. Deputy Mayor Persaud was also unanimously elected.

CELEBRATION
When it was announced that Marshall was now officially the first Mayor of Bartica and Persaud the Deputy Mayor, the community centre burst into celebration with their council men and women, Government and regional officials, and even residents, rushing to offer congratulations.

“I want to thank God for this opportunity to be a part of the first council,” Marshall told the Guyana Chronicle shortly after he was elected Mayor. He noted that it was emotional not only for him, but for all the other councillors who had taken pride in Bartica.

He said it important for the Mayor and Town Council to move Bartica forward, given the vision outlined by President David Granger for the municipality to be “Guyana’s first Green Town”. As a result, he said, the council will shift into gear almost immediately, focusing on key projects such as the construction of a municipal airport and a Town Hall, in addition to rectifying the waste management system which is in a state of disrepair.

“The Town Hall is a major project for us, because it will be a model building that will be a true representation of what a model community should have… We will design it to produce zero per cent emissions. As such, we are looking at underground parking,” the Mayor said, noting that the walls of the building will be made out of solar panels.

Other areas of concern, he said, are unemployment among young people and teenage pregnancy. “Too many of our young men are unemployed, too many of our young men are on drugs, and they are just liming on a corner; so that will be an issue for this council. I know the money will come, I know that the council will deliver, but it makes no sense for us to deliver and put infrastructure in place but the human element falls apart. So it is very, very important that we pay attention to our youth,” he said.

Young men and women must be educated and benefit from the system, he also posited.

PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT
Persaud said it was a historic day for her as well. “I feel very excited to be the first Deputy Mayor of Bartica. For me, this is a personal accomplishment, and it gives me a great sense of joy to know that I stand as a single mother, as a woman that has faced a lot of adversities in life, to be able to reach this level. It is so surreal for me.”

She said she will be pushing for the town’s landscape to be transformed, particularly in the area of waste disposal and management.

Minister Trotman, in offering his congratulations, said he was pleased to witness local democracy at work.

Not only did he offer his congratulations, but his advice as well, being a former councillor of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council in 1994.

He told the Guyana Chronicle that the Council has been elected at a time when there is a wave of high expectations. “They have to meet the expectation, but of course not go beyond what is possible; and so that expectation has to be managed,” he said.

Minister Trotman added: “They are assuming something that has never existed before, so it is their task to shape it and give it definition and meaning.”

He noted that the council now has an obligation to work out a financial strategy that will enable it to fulfil its mandate. He warned that the task ahead may not be an easy one, but said that with determination it will be accomplished.

“Know that the successful person is the person that, when he stumbles or when she stumbles, picks themselves up. That is not to say that you will never stumble, but you got to know that when you do, you got to look at others and know that all the others that you see before you have stumbled themselves and have found a way to pick themselves up,” he advised.