MAYORS and deputy mayors from the municipalities of Linden, Bartica and Madhia on Monday, February 4, 2019, paid a courtesy call on Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine, to applaud him on his election as Mayor, and to discuss means by which mayors across the10 municipalities can cooperate and support each other.

The mayors praised Narine on being possibly the youngest mayor in the history of Guyana, taking up the post at the age of just 27 years. A member of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Party, Narine won a seat on the council, after he won Constituency One. He was then elected to the mayorship by the councillors. He officially took over as mayor from the beginning of January, 2019.

“We’re having a discussion here on possible areas of cooperation and how we can continue to support each other. Mayor Narine, being a new mayor, he will definitely need support to be successful and we’re here to offer him that support. Also, Mahdia being a new town, will also need some support in terms of capacity building,” explained Bartica Mayor Gifford Marshall.

“We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Mayor Narine on his election to office. He is perhaps the youngest mayor in the history of Guyana and we thought it best to do a courtesy call today, offering our support,” continued Mayor Marshall

Narine noted how pleased he was, not only about the courtesy call but to see the municipalities forming lasting associations for mutual benefit.
“I’m extremely happy. I like to say I’m not building walls but bridges. This is a sign. We can reach out to others and, we as mayors have to work together to build our city. I feel blessed to have the few mayors here, that we can be able to show and demonstrate to our nation that working together is a good foundation to start,” Narine noted.

Mayor of Mahdia David Adams was also very grateful for the exercise. Adams is Mahdia’s first Mayor, with the community ascending to township just last October.
The Mahdia municipality is still working on setting up its office, and hiring the necessary staff.

“I’m here on a fact-finding mission, really, to find out what I can get out of it, and I look forward to working over the next year with them. This meeting, here for me, is one to build a relationship with the other mayors. I’m new, they might have some more experience on how things are done. I intend to seek their advice and their guidance on what I should do and make my job easy,” Adams related.

Though Narine and Adams are new to life as mayors, Marshall, and Linden’s Waneka Arrindell have some amount of experience in the arena.
Marshall has reigned as Bartica’s Mayor since the ‘Township’ was established in 2016. After serving as a Deputy Mayor for two years, Arrindell was first elected as Mayor in 2017. She was re-elected to the post to serve from 2019.

Marshall noted that while Monday’s meeting involved just four of the 10 municipalities across the country, the meeting was considered a starting point.

“This is the first of many, many things. We will also be reaching out to New Amsterdam, Rose Hall, Corriverton and so forth, and see how best we can learn from each other. We all can learn from each other. There are many areas we can start discussions on. One such area is the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS). While Bartica is a `green’ model town we believe that all towns will embrace the policy of greening. So we will discuss that. Finance is an important aspect of the council. We will talk about that. We can learn about economic policy; that is also key to any town,” Gifford noted.

Arrindell noted that working together as mayors was very important.
“The point is, if we work together we will be able to be more effective across the country. If we can unite entire regions can become better. So this opportunity is for us to share our ideas, to see where we can assist, where we can help each other, where we can build on each other. Georgetown has a lot of history and a lot of information that we can use in our smaller towns to be able to build. It’s a privilege to be here. He is the youngest mayor but he will get the support, as much as he needs us to stand behind him as we move forward,” Arrindell said.