– outgoing Mayor thanks LMTC colleagues for sterling support during tenure

SHE’S not ruling out her chances of being elected to office again, but just in case she doesn’t make the cut this time around, she’s happy to have been of service to the people of Linden.

What’s even more heartening, says outgoing Mayor Waneka Arindell, is that she’s not only left a legacy, but that she did it in just eight months.

That legacy of which she speaks, Arindell says, is what she’d like to call her signature project, this being the Junior Mayor Project, which she not only holds close to her heart, but is already gaining traction amongst secondary school children.

“That project has been a baby for me, and it is evolving well so far. It is something we do wish the new Council stays on board with,” Arindell said, adding:
“It is something new to Guyana, but it will help our children to be more open; to be able to articulate; be able to stand up for themselves.”

With the help of the junior mayor, currently 18-year-old Devon Beckles of Christianburg, members of the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LMTC) hope to achieve this lofty goal of theirs by visiting schools in the various Linden communities and form student council bodies, so that together they will work on community and other projects.

She’s also immensely proud of her networking skills, which has seen her start conversations of her own with the city of Newark in New Jersey, and Stonecrest in DeKalb County, Georgia both in the USA.

It’s a leaf, she says she took out of the book of her predecessor, former Mayor Carwyn Holland, who first started conversations about twinning with the city of Chongqing in China, and Newark.

Arindell said she was able to take those conversations even further, and that they will soon bear fruit.

Those talks, she said, would have seen a number of doors open for the LMTC in terms of investment opportunities; sponsorships, educational and otherwise; and philanthropic and medical outreaches among other areas of interest.

“One of the things we will gain from that twinning,” Mayor Arindell said, “is that we will be able to utilise the knowledge of how they did their river-front park.
“And of course we can use that to develop our river-front; more so, we are moving towards tourism. The Council has voted towards the twinning of Newark, and so we will be able to pass that on.”

SISTER CITY INT’L
Those networking skills she’s now become so adept at have also allowed the LMTC to join Sister City International, an organisation that allows cities from developed and developing countries worldwide to interact and share best practices.

“Linden will have the opportunity to gain knowledge, training and support in many areas,” Mayor Arindell said, adding:
“This will augur well for the municipality, and improve its efficiency of service to the town.”
Speaking of her other achievements during her short tenure, which she readily conceded would not have been possible without the aid and support of her hardworking teammates on the Council, Arindell pointed to the successful clearing of the dyke that allowed for the beautification of the township; collaboration between the US Embassy-led Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP) and New Horizons, which will see the building of a women’s home and training centre; and the introduction of the Competitive Industries and Innovative Program (CIIP) project at Bamia, which saw employment coming to the community, amongst other things.

And while those were external achievements, Arindell noted that more importantly, the Council was able to accomplish institutional strengthening since it inherited several issues, many of which were solved.

The administration of the Council is now working under better conditions and while the Council is still heavily indebted, monthly payments are being made to alleviate this.
“I do believe the past six months have seen the Council really evolve into something more,” Her Worship said.

“There have been actual things that we have put in place; we have set a foundation. I know we would have had our ups and downs early, but I do believe that in this final term, the Council did come together, and we did work strategically to improve not only the standard of the workers in the municipality, but we did what we could have done to improve the township.”

In closing, she would like to encourage whoever will be taking over the helm of the ship to take the time to identify the strengths of each councillor so that expertise can be exploited to the maximum.