KEVON FELMINE | Se­nior Re­porter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

New­ly in­stalled May­or of Point Fortin Clyde James says the new Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil will have to step up to the lev­el of its pre­de­ces­sor.

James, a busi­ness­man, re­placed Saleema Thomas fol­low­ing the elec­tion of May­or and Deputy May­or at the Point Fortin Town Hall on Wednes­day morn­ing. He was sworn-in as an al­der­man along with for­mer coun­cil­lor Bryana For­tune-John, Ko­by Sandy and Kevon Primus King. Coun­cil­lor for Egypt Vil­lage, Kwe­si Thomas, will serve as his deputy.

James said the bor­ough lost a main em­ploy­er in Petrotrin in 2018, but is look­ing to the bor­ough's E-teck Park, new high­way and co­op­er­a­tion with Gov­ern­ment to grow the lo­cal econ­o­my and em­ploy­ment.

He al­so wants to boost tourism in Point Fortin us­ing Guapo Beach and the var­i­ous sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties.

"It is our task to make sure we de­vel­op as a peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ty," James said.

The new May­or thanked Thomas and the coun­cil for weath­er­ing the COVID-19 storm, which saw the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal con­vert­ed to a COVID-19 fa­cil­i­ty.

Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards Jr told the new coun­cil that the peo­ple ex­pect noth­ing oth­er than their best ef­forts.

Richards Jr said he know each coun­cil mem­ber, adding that James was like his adopt­ed fa­ther who sup­port­ed him dur­ing ups and downs.

Richards al­so an­nounced that an­oth­er por­tion of the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way Ex­ten­sion to Point Fortin will open on Mon­day.