The ten newly instated councillors of the Diego Martin Borough Corporation will be getting a boost to their ability to provide services to their burgesses with the corporation’s recent acquisition of two additional police vehicles.
Diego Martin became a borough after the Miscellaneous Provisions (Establishment of the Borough of Diego Martin and Borough of Siparia) Bill, 2021 was passed in Parliament in June.
On Friday, the new councillors were sworn in at the Bagatelle Community Centre, Diego Martin.
Returning to the position of councillor were Alina Renn, Keeda James, Avanelle Boyce, Amber Caines and Marcia Marslin. New to the job were Samuel Carter, Kevon Williams, Damian Fournillier, Lisa Richards-Cole and Chelsea Mendez.
All ten are PNM candidates that won their seats in the recently concluded local government election on August 14.
Speaking to members of the media after the event, the corporation’s outgoing chairman, Sigler Jack, said he handed over two vehicles to the municipal police earlier that day. He said the corporation got one vehicle about two months ago but believed a minimum of five vehicles combined with working with the TT Police Service, would help with “challenges with elements” in certain areas.
He said workers ocassionally asked for police to go with them or workers would refuse to go into an area because they felt threatened, so crime was impacting service in the corporation.
“Let me just say that we know we are nowhere near to how many more vehicles that we need to do our patrols and all the different things we have to do. However, our stock of vehicles right now is three. And I believe that if we get two more very soon, it will help much better.”
He added that the municipal police currently had 34 officers but the corporation was aiming for 100. He hoped a full complement would be available soon as training was ongoing at the Municipal Police Academy in Marabella.
He said he was told the corporation would have three or four aldermen who should be sworn in next week along with the mayor and deputy mayor.
In addition, Jack praised the corporation’s disaster management unit. He described it as one of the best in the country and said the corporation was ready for any adverse effects of the hurricane season.
[caption id="attachment_1032227" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Diego Martin councillors after their swearing in at the Bagatelle Community Centre, Diego Martin, on August 25, 2023. Photo courtesy the Diego Martin Borough Corporation. -[/caption]
“However, I want to caution the public that our job as a corporation when dealing with disaster is to make people immediately comfortable. Our function is not actually return and supply everything you may have lost. We have agencies for that.”
In his address during the swearing in ceremony, Jack called the councillors agents of change in the new system of local government reform, saying they were the first respondents to the public’s every need.
He advised them not to abuse their privilege for their own “personal aggra
