SXMElections.com

SOUTH REWARD – On Thursday evening, December 8, Prime Minister William Marlin attended the St. Maarten Community Collective, South Reward Public Meeting, which took place at the Milton Peters College (MPC).

The community meeting was held with the intention of gathering members of the South Reward Community as a means to inform on current works that’s in progress by the association as well as to have an open floor allowing attendees to voice their concerns on various community issues, contribute their ideas and/or opinions of possible solutions, and togetherness in building a much stronger and better South Reward.

Concerns made by residents were noted by the Prime Minister’s team with the intention to further investigate to gain deeper understanding of the matters in order to better resolve them. Prime Minister Marlin played an instrumental role in the upgrading of the community basketball court, which is located beside MPC.

Before the meeting concluded, the Prime Minister took to the floor to clarify and explain the various concerns made by residents during the open discussion portion of the meeting. Top areas of concerns were: GEBE, the current state of garbage collection; creation of community parks and recreational spaces for residents, and traffic congestion.

In addressing the garbage situation, Prime Minister Marlin used the opportunity to encourage attendees to recycle. “Our garbage situation inclusive of the dump is very much a concern, however, we all can do our part in assisting to alleviating the situation by starting to do our share of recycling at home,” he said.

“Several months ago I started separating garbage used within my household; separation of plastic and glass bottles, flattening of cardboard boxes are all new practices I’ve personally developed and I must say, what a tremendous difference this has made and continues to make in the collection of my garbage. Rather than throwing all waste in the garbage bin alongside the street I would take all bottles and card boxes to the recycling bin on the Pondfill, directly opposite Blue Point. Adopting a habit of daily recycling will greatly assist in the mounting of garbage on our dump, which by extension will lessen the ignition of fires,” he continued.

Prime Minister Marlin, also a resident of South Reward, was very pleased by the number of residents who were in attendance, and their interest of wanting to work together with the St. Maarten Community Collective, South Reward Association to collectively improve the community of South Reward.

To foster even more transparency and accountability, the Cabinet of The Prime Minister is focusing even more on establishing and strengthening community ties and engagement. It is therefore encouraged for all community groups like the St. Maarten Community Collective, South Reward to inform the Cabinet of The Prime Minister of their existence and focus.