A NEW committee, comprising five City councillors, was established on Tuesday to look into the restoration of the Le Repentir Cemetery.

Those serving on the committee are Councillors Heston Bostwick, Patricia Chase-Green, Michael Leonard, Dimitri Ali, and Yvonne Ferguson. Bostwick was appointed chairman of the committee while Leonard was named vice-chairman.

The formation of the new committee took place when councillors met on Tuesday for their fortnightly statutory meeting.

“The plan that I have will cost billions of dollars. And that’s why we put a sub-committee in place to share our views about how to get it done,” Mayor Ubraj Narine told the Guyana Chronicle following the meeting.

According to the plan he envisions, the entire cemetery will be fenced, the ground levelled, and the trenches palled off. He also wants the entire facility to be gated and have security posted there. “It should be maintained and treated like a clinic card so that the maintenance can be up to standard.”

The mayor indicated that the roads inside of the cemetery, such as the one linking Sussex Street to Princes Street, will not be opened to vehicular traffic, unless persons are going for a funeral or some other business.

“I have a plan, but to execute the plan, we need money. We don’t have the money to do it but we’re looking at rates and taxes, re-evaluation of properties, etc.” he said.
Local contractor, Francis ‘Brother’ Anderson, recently conducted a voluntary clean-up exercise at the cemetery.

Narine, along with Councillor Trichria Richards, visited the cemetery where Anderson had commenced the cleaning with the use of this own workers, to set an example of how it should be maintained.

“It’s a pilot project and a public-private partnership with one Mr. Anderson who has been a friend of the council through hard and good times,” Richards said, adding, “He has been doing some volunteer work in the cemetery to show us what the cemetery should look like, especially the new councillors coming in who won’t have an idea how the cemetery should be.”

Richards said the project would serve as the basis for a document which could be taken to the council and, through the Finance Committee, be developed into a sustainable project.
“It’s all in the bigger restoration project to bring Georgetown back to its former glory,” she said.

Meanwhile, the mayor commended the work of Anderson while he encouraged other citizens to join efforts in assisting the initiative.

“There is no payment; no contract and no kind of financial support from council level [influencing this]. I want to give my compliment to him and we are able to see the standard of cleaning which I admire about him and his team,” he said.

He added: “Our loved ones are there and we need to take care of them in this manner. I ask that others – relatives, friends and residents of this Georgetown area, who want to lend some help, to do so. We ask for contractors or so forth [to also come out] who may want to give their input to this voluntary project. This gentleman may not be able to finish this entire cemetery, maybe just a small part to show his skills, but that is what I admire about him,” the mayor said.