…promises transparency, accountability

NEW Linden Mayor Waneka Arindell on Wednesday chaired her first statutory meeting at the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LMTC) and promised greater transparency and accountability.

With much pomp, former Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland ceremonially handed over the keys to the office after both parties had inspected a guard of honour by ranks of the municipality who marched through Republic Avenue.

Arindell and her deputy, Wainwright Bethune, were both sworn in last Wednesday in Georgetown by President David Granger. She is Linden’s 10th mayor and 3rd female mayor. She is married, a mother of three and the holder of a Certificate in Theology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography.

She was secretary and president of the Section Youth Ministry for Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), also a former journalist and teacher. She has also worked with Linden Care Foundation and NCERD.

Accountability and transparency top priority
Mayor Arindell related to this newspaper that she will be taking very seriously the responsibility of the council to remain accountable to the electorate of Linden, since it was they who have entrusted the councillors with the responsibility to serve.

She spoke about the need to create a better rapport with the people and in doing so all financial information as well as future plans of the council will be made public.
The works of the council are all public information, all works must be transparent and so the doors of the council are open to all residents of the township of Linden who pay their rates and taxes. You are allowed to come in to find out and to be informed,” Mayor Arindell stated.

The Council will soon have a ‘public day’, where residents will be able to visit her office and voice their concerns. Being a lover of children and the elderly, Arindell said a number of programmes are in the pipeline to benefit these two groups.

For the youths, one of her signature programmes is the initiating of a junior mayor programme geared towards secondary school students. “The main aim of the programme is to have continuity in leadership at the local level. It was birthed out of the struggles councillors faced following Local Government Elections – entering without any prior training,” Arindell related.

Children and youths, she explained, have always been her passion and she will be directing energies towards their education and academic training. “My passion has always been working with children and the importance of each child being able to read and write according to their age; for an educated population is a population that will survive … if we cannot train from the cradle, then we will lose them in their youthful stage and we will continue to have a stagnated population.

“With the rise in oil finds, if we do not have an educated population, then, we will continue to have overseas investors and workers taking all our finances away from our country and town,” she outlined.
The Linden mayor will be seeking the blessings of the council to establish literacy hubs all across Linden and in the future to establish a literacy school, in an effort to help slow learners.

“While I just want to start with literacy hubs, I hope to see a school for remedial work where children who are unable to cope will be able to come into a setting, develop and then be replaced in the system.
“For senior citizens, she will be looking at the renovation of the Dorfolk home located in Retrieve and also to pool resources in having activities available to keep them meaningfully occupied and entertained.

“We cannot do it alone, I cannot do it alone, the council cannot do it alone. We need all stakeholders on board, both the local, governmental and the diaspora.  While we call on the diaspora who have always been with us, we continue to covet that support, but more so to the residents of Linden to rise up and take ownership of your town, give the support, work for your town and help make Linden a town that we all will be proud of,” she said.

Meanwhile new Deputy Mayor Wainright Bethune said that the feeling is no different when he was a normal councillor, since he was always about service to the people. Bethune who focused on environmental protection and waste management as a councillor, said that he will continue to focus on this area. “The plans are no different, we have to ensure we are more efficient in terms of the way we will execute our plans for waste management.
For this to be achieved, Bethune said that networking and collaboration with all the major stakeholders will be necessary. “We have to get all stakeholders on board and let them understand the basic status (of the council), we cannot achieve this alone. We also need a big input from the residents,”

During his two-term tenure as councillor, Bethune said that he would have extended some personal resources debushing a few acres as well as clearing drains for his constituency as well as making representation for the construction of Casuarina Drive.

At the statutory meeting held on Wednesday, councillors and administrative staff of the LMTC presented former Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland with a gift of appreciation, who in turn encouraged the new mayor and deputy mayor to work in unison and to put petty politicking aside as this would stymie progress.