As he prepares to bow out…Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland satisfied with his accomplishments

Jan 08, 2018 News

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Linden’s Mayor Carwyn Holland will be demitting office at the end of March.
Looking back upon his tenure, this Gardenia Street, Wismar resident has expressed satisfaction with quite a few things that he was able to accomplish as chief citizen.
One of his proudest moments he says was the day the Kara Kara toll booth was re-activated. That has led to the garnering of much needed funds for the former cash strapped municipality.
So much so, that municipal workers were shortly after granted a much needed salary increase.
Of course, the return of the toll booths was one that the Council had been clamouring for incessantly under former IMC Chairman Orrin Gordon.
Those efforts were however futile until a change in administration saw the return of Local Government Elections and Holland’s subsequent swearing in.
The new Mayor lost no time in taking over the fight which the Council successfully won in 2016.

Gratifying
Elderly persons in the town found it gratifying to know that they had lived to see a born Lindener become Mayor in their lifetime. They have expressed nothing but love for this vibrant young man with a passion for progress and Holland of course, loves them right back!
Having lost his father a few months after he became Chief Citizen, Holland adopted almost every senior citizen he came into contact with as his surrogate mom and dad and developed a close relationship with them.
And ever since his installation he has made his presence felt at every activity for the seniors and his honouring in October of over 100 seniors at his residence provided a capsule of his connection with the older folks.
The elderly were treated to live entertainment by calypsonian Sweet Kendingo, and were presented with food, drinks, clothing and hampers and health supplements.

Youth:
Youths seem to have received the most attention from the outgoing Mayor during his tenure. As the youngest Linden Mayor to be elected, Holland is credited with restoring confidence in youths across Linden. He is known to have worked assiduously with youth groups on several projects, assisted with scholarships, personally sponsored activities for youths, found jobs for some, and founded the Linden Youth Leaders Group which is among the most successful youth groups in the mining Town. In his first address as Mayor, Holland admitted that the morale of Linden youths was at an all-time low and since then he had expended much energy incorporating youth and youth initiatives in his daily activities. The most recent example was the short term employment of youths to provide landscaping and sanitation services on the Wismar shore during the Christmas season. This initiative, he says, was part of the elderly care project which provided a platform to merge his two greatest passions, empowering youth and caring for the elderly.

Youths were also exposed to several training programs and have since built a solid relationship with the United States Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP) team. The youths also staged a “Riderthon and family Fun Day”, partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to host an Agro-Processing Fair, Human Rights Walk and other social activities, including the recent “Linden Boat Parade and Bridge Light-up”.

The Mayor was never short of engaging school children and visited schools, spent time in classes with children, sponsored school books and uniforms for underprivileged youths, honoured the top 30 NGSA Students in Region 10 for two years with bicycles, tablets and laptops. He also invested from his personal resources to have teachers trained in phonetics and assisted many schools and youth organizations in executing events. Holland also worked with youths to develop an APP for Linden Town, which is available on ITunes and the App Stores. The app promotes Linden Tourism and businesses and is still in the developmental stage.

Ousted?
In answer to the question as to whether there was any truth in the theory that he had been ousted from his position as Mayor because of his “perceived” anticorruption stance, alluded to by one letter writer recently, Holland said that he prefers to let sleeping dogs lie!

Helpful Child
Even as a child, Holland was always willing to do chores for the elderly ,a few seniors recalled. Today, he still possesses the same zest for helping out, and recently visited his home village during the Christmas Season and assisted in cleaning up the yards of many senior citizens, who could not afford to pay for such services.
The initiative was part of the Elderly Care Project which he had recently launched to render assistance to the elderly. The project also has a component whereby doctors and nurses are hired privately to do periodic check-ups of seniors, in need of such attention. The initiative was hailed by many as “transformational thinking”, which eases the stress and fatigue of many elderly persons who struggle to get to the hospitals for healthcare. Holland has credited the experience he gained caring for his late father as the reason he is so passionate about the elderly.

Garbage Collection
Linden has seen significant improvement with garbage collection and many residents who had to burn their solid waste a few years ago are no longer doing so because of an improved garbage collection system at the municipality. This improvement could be attributed to several factors, including an additional skip bin tractor being added to the fleet, repairs to one of the compactor trucks which is now fully operational, an improved sanitation work force, better salaries for sanitation workers and employment of a works supervisor to bring stability to the municipal service. The municipality has also deployed several skip bins and garbage bins around the town to ease the littering, while a fixed workforce cleans the main streets, markets and other areas daily. The Mayor had also recently lobbied BOSAI Minerals for a new compactor truck which should be arriving in Guyana before he demits office, while the municipality just purchased two trucks on its own which will also be arriving in February. According to the Council, efforts are being made to fully furnish the municipality with the necessary equipment to maintain the cleanliness of the town.

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