BARTICA’s first mayor Gifford Marshall, well-known for his affable, warm personality and hospitable demeanor when you’re in his town, is bowing out of office for now. However, he is still bent on continuing the developmental works he started as Mayor – only in a different capacity – as founder of the ‘The Green Town Foundation.’

Marshall, who became Mayor following the 2016 Local Government Elections (LGE), has opted out of contesting this year’s elections because he said he doesn’t want to be remembered as someone with political bias.

He’s not eligible to immediately return as Mayor in any case, but what can happen is that he can be on a List of Candidates, possibly go back as Deputy Mayor, and then after a year, according to the law, return as Mayor. “But I have opted out of that. I don’t want to be on the list; I don’t want to campaign,” Marshall told Pepperpot Magazine a few days ago.

“I would have received support from across the board and I don’t want to go out of office being seen or being known as being politically biased. Politics in Guyana is very dangerous. I think I have good standing with persons on both sides….so I am heading out;

I’ve had my time,” Marshall expressed.

Despite an administration change during his time, Marshall is happy that, “The mandate of the municipality remained unhindered, uninterrupted, and there were no attempts to derail the functions of the municipality.”

Immediately after taking office in 2016, he recalled that a mandate was placed in Bartica to be Guyana’s ‘model town’ and right away, the focus was on sanitation and improvement of the environment. An “aggressive” programme of cleaning was started; placing bins, developing the boulevard, building the West Indian Housing Scheme, doing repairs to Bartica market, the community centre, and several other projects, all aimed at improving the aesthetics of the community.

To Marshall, the ‘Golden Beach’ project was one of the most transformative ones that he pursued, second to that being the massive tree planting exercise where approximately 50 trees were planted across the municipality. The ‘peace sign’ in Bartica was also established “as a reminder to residents that peace and love is the message.”

“I believe we achieved those objectives. I am grateful for the support from the previous administration and of this government in carrying out the mandate of the municipality. I am grateful not only to my family but to the entire community and those persons who would have supported me over the years,” Marshall, a teacher by profession, expressed.

Being Mayor has been quite a learning experience for him, even in the challenging moments. “I am very grateful because those challenges helped me to grow. I am a much stronger person now emotionally and mentally; a better individual than when I first went into office.”

Feeling he’s now in a better position to serve, he believes that his work with the foundation will help him to address some of the major issues affecting Bartica. The foundation will focus on environmental projects such as sanitation, issues with mining, water discolouration, and others geared at improving the aesthetics of the communities. “One of the things we struggled with is sensitisation in getting people to become more aware of their environment and through the foundation, we can be more people centered and focused specifically on educating people, especially young people.”

The foundation will also “allow me to pursue an aggressive tourism product;” tourism in Bartica, he said, being very close to his heart.