Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Res­i­dents of Old Ground Branch Trace, Gold­en Lane, led by their rep­re­sen­ta­tive Zor­isha Hack­ett, have ho­n­oured fel­low res­i­dent Ho­choy Charles, the first Chief Sec­re­tary of To­ba­go, by re­nam­ing the street af­ter him. It will now be known as Ho­choy Charles Heights in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions to the is­land’s pol­i­tics and au­ton­o­my ef­forts.

Hack­ett, who ex­pressed pride at the re­nam­ing ex­er­cise, said it was part of a larg­er ef­fort to cel­e­brate Charles’s con­tri­bu­tions to To­ba­go.

“We sin­cere­ly love and re­spect him and will con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate his un­wa­ver­ing de­ter­mi­na­tion and tire­less fight for To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my and self-ac­tu­al­i­sa­tion,” she said

Hack­ett said she was men­tored by Charles and he played a back­ground role dur­ing her po­lit­i­cal cam­paigns. She said his guid­ance and ad­vice had been in­valu­able, help­ing her avoid mak­ing the mis­takes of for­mer rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine and Trevor James, the Sec­re­tary of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries, and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment, whole­heart­ed­ly sup­port­ed the ho­n­our.

The ini­tia­tive be­gan in Au­gust when Hack­ett asked Ros­ton “Cul­ture B” Si­mon to start a pe­ti­tion with res­i­dents of Old Ground Branch Trace for the re­nam­ing ex­er­cise.

She ex­plained that“Heights” was in­clud­ed in the street name, not on­ly due to the topog­ra­phy in the area, but be­cause the Chief Sec­re­tary agreed with Hack­ett that this “gi­ant of a man” need a street name that rep­re­sent­ed his prowess in the pol­i­tics of the is­land.

The street sign was in­stalled on Sep­tem­ber 29 by staff from the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, Quar­ries and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment led by Sec­re­tary Trevor James.

Hack­ett said Charles, who is known for his mod­esty and aver­sion to grandiose cel­e­bra­tions, pre­ferred this qui­et and un­der­stat­ed ap­proach.

She said the re­nam­ing of the street was the first in a se­ries of ini­tia­tives by res­i­dents of Gold­en Lane, the elec­toral dis­trict of Bethes­da/Les Coteaux and the is­land as a whole, to demon­strate their love, sup­port and ad­mi­ra­tion for To­ba­go’s first Chief Sec­re­tary.