Host­ing a grand mil­i­tary pa­rade, San Fer­nan­do marked its 36th an­niver­sary as a city with cel­e­bra­tions ho­n­our­ing two icons —for­mer cy­cling cham­pi­on and may­or Ian Ather­ly, and Joan Yuille-Williams, the for­mer man­ag­er of the world cham­pi­onship-win­ning net­ball team on Sat­ur­day.

How­ev­er, the cel­e­bra­tions drew com­plaints from some busi­ness own­ers as a mil­i­tary pa­rade moved through the streets caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant traf­fic dis­rup­tions and ham­per­ing busi­ness op­er­a­tions. Guardian Me­dia was in­formed that hos­pi­tal work­ers were un­able to get through the road­blocks.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia af­ter col­lect­ing his award, Ather­ly, who won a Com­mon­wealth Games medal in 1974, ex­pressed mixed emo­tions about the recog­ni­tion, not­ing that it had been a long time com­ing.

“It has been al­most 50 years since I won that medal. Af­ter all that time, I fi­nal­ly feel seen. For 48 years, I was the cus­to­di­an of that medal, but noth­ing was said about me or my con­tri­bu­tions to the sport. The city has made me proud to­day. I can fi­nal­ly let go of the fight for recog­ni­tion,” he said.

He re­count­ed his con­tri­bu­tions to cy­cling and the com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing his in­volve­ment in the cre­ation of the Skin­ner Park cy­cling track.

“When the track was opened, I wasn’t even in­vit­ed, de­spite my ef­forts to get it built. It was Patrick Man­ning’s brain­child, and he was so ex­cit­ed about it. He loved cy­cling, and I re­mind­ed him every Fri­day night about our plans," Ather­ly re­called.

Joan Yuille-Williams, who man­aged Trinidad and To­ba­go’s net­ball team to a world cham­pi­onship vic­to­ry, re­flect­ed on the sport’s lega­cy and her on­go­ing ef­forts to re­vive it.

“Net­ball is one of those sports that start­ed with school­child­ren. At that time, I took chil­dren from San Fer­nan­do schools and moved through­out the world to the San Fer­nan­do Net­ball League. Net­ball in Trinidad and To­ba­go is still alive, but I want to bring it back to its for­mer glo­ry days.”

She an­nounced plans to work with UDe­COTT to im­prove fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing the net­ball court at Skin­ner Park. “We are go­ing to have that net­ball court in use again. It’s pop­u­lar, and I will make it my du­ty to en­sure it hap­pens.”

May­or Robert Par­ris com­mend­ed both hon­orees for their con­tri­bu­tions and ad­dressed con­cerns about the traf­fic dis­rup­tions caused by the mil­i­tary pa­rade.

“We need to go back to civic pride. This mil­i­tary pa­rade is not about van­i­ty for me. We should cel­e­brate San Fer­nan­do and its 36 years as a city in fine style. I apol­o­gise for any in­con­ve­nience caused. It was not our in­ten­tion, but this is some­thing we should all be proud of," he said.

Pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of Com­merce Ki­ran Singh said no­tices had been giv­en pri­or to the pa­rade.

“Traf­fic con­ges­tion may have ham­pered busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty, but it al­so brought peo­ple in­to San Fer­nan­do to ex­pe­ri­ence our cul­ture. No­tices were is­sued to high­light the routes be­ing used, but the po­lice must en­sure es­sen­tial ser­vices have easy ac­cess for pa­tients and the pub­lic," Singh said.

San Fer­nan­do East MP Bri­an Man­ning em­pha­sized the val­ue of Skin­ner Park as a com­mu­ni­ty re­source.

“Skin­ner Park is open for busi­ness. Peo­ple may not re­al­ize that fa­cil­i­ties like cy­cling, foot­ball, net­ball, and ten­nis are avail­able. The whole of San Fer­nan­do should be proud," he added.