Councillor Junior Garrett, one of 15 constituency representatives on the Georgetown City Council, died today.
Garrett, who was an accountant, died just before 2 pm at the Woodlands Hospital after collapsing.
Less than an hour before his death, he had been present at a meeting of the city’s Finance Committee, which was working to finalise the municipality’s 2018 budget.
Chairman of the Committee Oscar Clarke told Stabroek News that Garret, who was well known for his impassioned style of debate, had been vigorously arguing a point before he had to leave to handle a personal matter.
“Fifteen minutes later, we got a call that he had fallen and was taken to the hospital. Then we heard that he died,” Clarke said.
Garrett, a long standing member of the PNCR, was elected as an APNU+AFC candidate at 2016 local government elections to represent Constituency 3 (Bel Air Gardens, Bel Air Springs, Prashad Nagar, North Ease & North West Campbellville).
He had been a member of the council for almost 16 years and had previously served as Chairman of the Finance Committee.
In seeking re-election in the 2016 polls, he had voiced his expectation that the change in central government a year before would mean a new start for local governance as well. “This is a new government now and things have changed, so I believe things will be done… Look at what happened after elections; persons got up and voluntary went in to trenches and cleaned without any money,” Garrett said. “Campbellville, like Georgetown, had been neglected and town council could not have done certain things because of lack of finance… The political structure at that time was preventing development of the capital city.”
Garrett also said that during his years as councillor he had been able to provide service to the council by improving its accounting.
He said he was elated to see young people taking the opportunity to become leaders of their community, but opined that as an experienced elder in society, persons like him are needed. He said that persons with experience are the ones who would mould the young minds into making positive decisions.
He said that once he returned as councilor, he would work to improve the city’s finances by looking to increase revenue generation.
