Newly elected Mayor of the City of Roseau Irene John says that although she would not like to begin her tenure with promises, there are key areas that need urgent attention.
John was giving her first address as newly appointed Mayor at the 11th inaugural meeting of the Roseau City Council at the Arawak House of Culture on Friday.
She said ramshackle properties, sidewalks and vagrants are among areas on her priority list.
“I would not like to start my term as mayor by making promises, but I need to indicate areas which will be given the greatest priority as a matter of urgency,” she said.
“The new council will give priority to the following: the dilapidated properties which are a source of eye sores…to the residents of Roseau, the sidewalks that need to be rehabilitated to allow residents to walk through the city in comfort, the need to address the continued problem of vagrants who need care and attention,” she pointed out.
According to John, the vagrants pose a challenge to the development of the tourism sector.
She also mentioned the “perennial problem of the delinquent taxpayers which causes a strain on the finances of the city council”.
John said the issue of parking will get some attention.
“In addition to the above, the council will put emphasis on the parking problems in the city and the welfare of the sanitary workers who are providing a critical service to the residents. While the items mentioned above are critical and need urgent attention, the other plans for the city, will be outlined in a program to be developed by the members of the council, who are familiar with the problems plaguing the city”.
The former public-servant-turned-mayor added, that in developing such a plan of action, the council will build partnerships with the government, private sector, trade unions, non governmental agencies and civil society.
“Obviously the council will not be able to do all that is required on its own,” she said, and indicated that they will source assistance form contributors who share a common vision, for the city.
Roseau needs a major over hauling. The city is an eye sore i love my country but we need to have pride and keep up the city this is the first place tourist see when they exit the ship.A friend of my went to visit the island on a cruise last year and she told me she thought the city was disgusting, dirty and ugly and much preferred the other islands. Thats not the feedback you want to hear. Make the city BEAUTIFUL .
Peter, evil cannot prevail forever, notice how easy the thorn is removed from your flesh; perhaps now you will have some peace, and no more obstacles will be placed in the pathway of you business place, and your customers will be at liberty to gain access your business without obstruction.
You know I am one who believes problems sometimes takes care of themselves. For twelve years he sat in office, and I am talking about Joseph, he did nothing to change anything in the country, his greatest accomplishment is crashing Liverpool party grabbing on to his Beer, Wine and Rum and handing to his rum muffers outside.
Oh, what a thing, I am sure you are happy to see his face no more!
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
I thought mayors were voted in by the people of the city This is not Democracy hope she will be a mayor of All the people and not a mayor of Reds isn’t her husband the prime minister,s best friend just asking a question.
Hi Peter
I strongly agree with you, It is a shame that an Island like DA that is so Christian orientated does not represent what we believe in.
When I was a child Roseau was buzzing at Xmas we appear to have gone backwards.
Please please considering that the cruise ship docks in the major town there is nothing to indicate that christmas is round the corner. For example DA has so many trees cut one and decorate the place make the place look like we are able to keep up with the Jones. Those are the things that make people revisit places.
fix Roseau, tell the Chines and others to paint ther shops, Astaphan and co, make your buisness respectable.
I am not putting you guys down but I am only safeguarding my country this is a feedback from a friend who recently visited Roseau she said although it was beautiful, there was not a sense of Christmas warmth, not even in people’s.It is not to late to transform Roseau.
you made no promises because you cannot tackle it alone good luck Cecil is better off being childish over the radio.go for it Mrs john
During his tenure as Mayor, Cecil made many promises which he never kept. Mrs. John I suspect, will be a better Mayor then Cecil. It would appear that Skeritt maybe of the same opinion, because so sooner Cecil left, he promised to meet Mrs. John in order, among other things, to discuss making the job of Mayor a monetary position. Cecil should revisit his position with the DLP. Skeritt does not need him anymore, now that the allegations of the U.S $400.000 concerning a Chinese lady is behind him. By the way, I am hearing, should Tim, Tim brake down before the General Elections, the DLP is eyeing Mrs. John.
I remain optimistic. Good luck
Mayor John, please take your first trip, go to St Thomas see how the Tourist ship docks at havensight Mall is done with all the shopping boutiques, stop going to dem communist countries, dem Cuban, venezuealan , Chinese cities mayor cecil Joseph twinned us with for nougyt patat we got.
yes, and whilst you’re at it clean up Donkey beach. It is a disgrace to have the nearest beach to Roseau looking, and smelling like more like Dog beach. Absolutely disgusting….oh, I forgot maybe that is chairman of Canefield Urban Council’s domain??
and oH mayor John, whilst yu at it, please rename Roseau, Chinatown, not one bulb lit, not one christmas tree, not one replica of Jesus in our Christmas, not one manger, not one decoration in town.
Dear mayor John,
First of all congratulations on you being our new Mayor and wish you well. The parking problem in Roseau was the good work of your last Mayor Cecil Joseph and the Tranport board. let me tell you what they did. They turned Roseau into the grand central Bus terminal. yes they did. They stole prome citrty streets and gave it to buses for parking and waiting all day. what nastiness this is. Buses MUST have a buss terminal for the North bound and the south bound. As long as Roseau is a bus terminal on every single street corner, you WILL have parking congestion nd problems. Worse dat mad woman Eugenia Charles put a Tourist ship Docks at Roseau is animal behavior. Put the Ship docks at the canefield airport and turn there into a Shipping Docks for tourists ships arriving. This is creating massive congestion parking nitemares in Roseau. your problem will be immediately solved .
Peter, I was following you until the ‘mad woman’ bit. I doubt you would be happy if I called you an ‘idiot’ or a “hot-head” so why do you see it necessary to refer to Ms Charles in that manner? We need to be civil and respectful of one another (Dead or alive); we can disagree with others and express such disagreement, without resorting to name-calling!
Your City Council is the main blocker of sidewalks. Ever tried to pass on the sidewalks and you have to walk in the road because Vendors have taken over our sidewalks. One day someone will sue alyou!
Eh heh
Major, Now am hearing about business. Keep it up.
Congratulation, we the people of Dominica wish you the best of luck, hope a woman can do the job better than a man ,it is a rather tough job , but i know you can do it. the side walks, trash collections, vagrancy, to many vehicles, why dont we have a designated area where people can park and have them walk around town , or to there destination there by freeing the side walk, and the streets from all those ellegale vehicle parking on the street, and side walk , one can hardly walk the side walk deu to excessive car parking on the side walk, the police see them and dont write out tickets, or citation it look like they are afraid to cite the violators, I have seen the new recruit police men they look very young and afraid of confronting the violators who park illegally. Good luck.
It was there and why didn’t i see it? tot you all trash my comment. My girlfriend works at DNO, so don’t delete my stuff! else I’ll keep R ohm.
DNO, are you guys getting paid to delete my comments? I don’t understand it….
Please bann galvanized fences in Roseau!!!
Congratulations to the New Council & new Mayor!!
Great Plans so far!!! As a resident of Roseau, I look forward to working with the Council and to support the Council. I hope that residents and stakeholders do the same. Because if the council fail, we all fail as a city. We are there to support each other.
So with all the “priorities” such as the dilapidated houses, sidewalks, parking etc…is the money available now to tackle these problems? are we going to China for more loans? What exactly are we going to do with these “eyesores” in Roseau. It reminds me of a “Biblical” story (not a biblical responsibility.”) Abraham was going to offer a sacrifice to God on a certain mountain. His Son Isaac was accompanying his father and noticed that they had the wood, the fire but no sacrifice. The boy Isaac said to his father,”pap, we have the wood and the fire, but where is the sacrifice?” Abraham his father replied, “Son, the lord will provide himself a sacrifice.” Now, don’t tell me that this story indicative of how the Roseau Mayor will get funding for these projects, because they/she did not say the same thing Abraham said. So let’s wait and see where the funding is going to come from. I’m just tired of empty promises. Tell the people what needs to be done; but also tell them how you intend to get it done. We have not heard anything new. We all know for a very long time that Roseau needs the things mentioned in the Mayor’s speech. Nothing new. What the people want to know is how you intend to perform your miracles.
None of these initiatives will get done without adequate financing. And what is the obvious source of financing? Property taxes of course.
The city must put a lien on all delinquent property tax owners and when they fail to pay within a certain time (say two years) the real property must must be seized and sold at auction to the highest bidder.
Unless we are willing to that the city will continue to be dotted with blighted and dilapidated buildings.
So what Cecil going go do now seeing that the Health minister is going back up.
Wow! great observation and plan of action. I am on board, it takes all hands on deck to make Roseau what it deserve to look like, our First town. Good luck to all of us who cares.
Goo luck. I would suggest parking meters in certain parts of town. This will help generate much needed revenue.
i know this is an ambitious project but building a car park in Roseau is now a great necessity you will see what i mean during the Christmas season/
what happen to the big sidewalk project the former mayor had give his father to do? Anyway Mrs. John like i said before you have a good head on your shoulders and a sharp tongue, try to think of an annual event that can raise funds for the City council, the work that you all do is very essential, i especially like the part where you mentioned your sanitation workers. A dollar per room increase on the house rates might not be a bad idea.
Actions speak louder than word..I patiently await
Give gator pavers a job . Let us turn the town around and also encourage persons to beauty their business places with some palms etc.
Dear Madam Mayor. You will have a lot of support if you carry out these improvements and non-payers of taxes will have no excuse. Take some to court as an example and the others will soon follow. Good luck and thank you.
mayoress great planning what i wolud like to see is for the side walk to stay clear let the people walk freely
What about these old houses,it makes our country look the poorest nation in the world,thats what represent a country the city , when visitors look at the city first when they visit ur shorrs,
Go to it. It is no small task.
Irene, you will never understand how much I appreciate the vision you have, and your intent to tackle, and clean up that little disgusting village called Roseau, I do not know how you are going to do it, nevertheless, I wish you every success!
The fact you have not simply committed yourself to empty promises is an indication you may succeed, and produce some results for the people of Roseau, and Dominica in general. There are some who are content to dwell in the filth; they appreciate the nasty dilapidated, rundown thirteenth, and twelfth century buildings.
They cherish them, and has no ambition to move on.
Personally, I yearned for a long time that someone with your vision would come along and recognized that we are in the twenty-first century, and living in a modern world, therefore it is time to do something about the city, thus making it more attractive to the people visiting our country.
Earlier I read on DNO under the caption:
SHAPE praises new Lagon look
Dominica News Online – Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 at 11:12 AM
The following in the quote is what some backward Dominican said.
“The capital has always been appreciated by visitors as a quaint charming Caribbean Town.”
The following is a brief of my response to that in the quote above.
“Reading such nonsense makes me worry about the thinking process of such people: which visitor gave the writer, author that impression? If that was the case our island would be the biggest attraction in the Caribbean, we would have more foreigners craving to become residence to our country, however we see the opposite.
Roseau is one, if not the most disgusting place in the Caribbean to visit, it repels visitors; the sooner we realize that and the quicker we do something about our nation architecture the greater the sore eye will become.”
In any event if you can change Roseau from the bleeding infectious yaws it is now, chances are at some point and time you will become Prime Minister of Dominica.
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
Twelfth and thirteeth century buildings? Man, we would be the wonder of the world seeing that Columbus did not get here till the the very end of the sixteenth century when Roseau was just “woso”.
Why use few words if you can use many, not so Francisco?
I just want to be as critical as I could be in this case: maybe Columbus and his men built some of dem eh:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
You know in the late 1960’s I read in the then Dominica Chronicle where a priest named Jolly, wrote he heard a visiting tourist exclaimed that Dominica reminds them of “France.” I knew that to be a lie, because I have been to France, and have yet to see anything in France that remotely resembles Dominica.
I supposed in those days the Roman Catholic Church owned the Chronicle, and Jolly was simply trying to boost sale of the paper and that was his way of trying to promote sale.
Indeed what we the old buildings that we see standing in Dominica must be of some sort of French influence because Dominica was once a colony of France, needless to say to say they neglected the island, the same as the Spain. I saw a house in Wesley with two doors on one side, with a window in the middle of the doors.
When I had a mouth full to say about it the owner, I was informed that was a very popular stile in Guadeloupe, patterned and brought to Dominica by one who lived in Guadeloupe, however even at that I’ve been to that island also, and never saw anything such as I saw in Dominica.
(Us, we’s) Dominicans are in a category of our own by ourselves, nothing in this who wide world compares to what we have in Dominica oui!
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
I love the red dress. I have heard that same speech before. Tim, Tim was absent, the war has begun. TIM v Cecil v Irene, Mr. Danny Lugay will be smiling all the way to Parliament.
Your Lady,
We need to think much broader than sidewalks, dilapidated building and vagrancy. What extending the Bayfront all the way to the port with casinos, duty free shopping and pubs in order to give the city a much needed ambiance? What about a couple of skyscrapers in the middle of Roseau? As for your remarks regarding “vagrants”, the last time I check there is nothing within the constitution which forebodes a vagrant from being in Roseau. Sidelining “vagrants” and removing them from the city is highly discriminatory, unconstitutional and people cannot be an eyesore to others from a humanitarian perspective.
If this new Mayor is like Cecil I want to let Her know that the Town Council Office has a step on the road.Yes the road not the sidewalk the actual road. So before She goes after those that Cecil went after She should fix the Council office .then She can go after the restaurant that took the sidewalk on Hillsborough street then She can tackle all the other houses that have their grand stairways occupying the sidewalk including the Madame Speaker .After all that is done then talk to Acme Garage in a soft tone .
I am confident that the Mayor has been to other cities in the Caribbean and observed the revitalization of places such as St.Johns Antigua, and Front Street in St. Maarten. A comprehensive plan followed by the necessary funds to execute that plan is what is needed to bring Roseau into the 21st century.
A very good plan but I hope they give you the funding for that, really I cant under the side walk from the time I used attend the vocational school, the side walk were like that, I am 62 year’s old and every time I come to Dominica I have stripe and fall in Roseau, my says to that I am weak, but no the side walks a no good, I only have wear snicker in da, All I can say your plans a good , wish all the best
the ” perennial problem of delinquent taxpayers causing a strain on the city councils finances,should be highlighted,and should be prioritized,if not you are not going get any changes done,madame mayor,that is your biggest and foremost problem,wishing you the best.
You’re on point. Thanks!
“The new council will give priority to the following: the dilapidated properties which are a source of eye sores…to the residents of Roseau. The sidewalks that need to be rehabilitated to allow residents to walk through the city in comfort, the need to address the continued problem of vagrants who need care and attention,” It looks like the Mayor only concern is “the residents” are they the only ones who use the city what about the tourists or other nationals. I think it is time that things are looked at from a broader perspective not just local what about national and international? Another question is why are the homeless called vagrants, why are the drug addicts vagrants. yes there is a problem in the city with homelessness and drug addiction. and it is becoming major but there are other problems to tackle so that these problems can be solved.
Sounds all good, but actions are louder than words. Let’s see what action you take in the next couple of months.
for a start..you are right on track with what needs urgent attention in our city..im glad you didnt make these plans to be worked on as a promise but something to begin worked on immediately .. we love people who are honest and let their word be their bond. i believe you are going to transform our city in what its suppose to be.. good luck..
I particularly like the vagrant bit. There was supposed to be an effort to do something about the vagrants for the present tourism season. Up to now, nothing.
Great stuff, wish you the best, Lady Mayor!
Hmmm………..
Great! Hope u fullfill your promises!! It was about time Cecile come out from there..
co why didn’t join them, I think people don’t know hw to please all you.
Good stuff!!!