St. Elizabeth Parish Council Honours Long Serving Officers

The St. Elizabeth Parish Council recently recognised 12 persons who had rendered outstanding service to the Council.
The awardees who were drawn from both the political (councillors) and administrative arms of the parish council were honoured at a special ceremony held at Beadle Hall in Santa Cruz.
Portia Simpson Miller, Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sport, who was the guest speaker at the event, hailed the awardees for the significant contribution they had made to national development.
“You the members of the St. Elizabeth Parish Council have chosen to undertake a very necessary and uplifting activity, as it is very important that we pay tribute to those who serve with loyalty and dedication over many years, these are the ones among us who do not turn and run away when the hills get steeper and the road get rockier they stay and do the work in good and bad times,” she said.
Minister Simpson Miller pointed out that she was quite pleased to have been asked to take part in an activity that was so enriched by the presence of “community stalwarts”.
“I am happy to join you in this long awaited and greatly anticipated celebration as tonight we are recognising the great achievers whose accomplishments have benefited a large number of people, we are honouring faithfulness, hard work, long service and achievements in almost every field of endeavour so on behalf of the government of Jamaica I say to all recipients of awards, thank you for caring and sharing,” she said.
The Local Government Minister encouraged more Jamaicans to take note of the very fine examples set by the persons receiving awards and to take up the baton and do something for the good of the country.
“To my mind what we need now are more people who are looking and finding solutions to the challenges that confront us as a nation, we need more persons who are bent on finding opportunities to make a difference.more people who are willing to admit that there are positive developments and build on them,” she said.Discussing a number of achievements, which emanated from the process of local government reform, Minister Simpson Miller said the stage had been set for people from the grassroots level to grasp a very splendid opportunity.
“The local government reform programme is recognised as one of our key resources for transformation and we must take full advantage of its opportunities,” she said.
She mentioned that in the next two years a number of advances were scheduled to take place “in the sphere of local government reform, among these are the entrenchment of local government in the Constitution, direct election of mayors, establishment of dedicated financial sources to support the work and the needs of the local authorities as well as the development of new mechanisms to allow for self-management, including new municipalities (such as Portmore) and development areas”.
The officers who were honoured by the St. Elizabeth Parish Council include, Daphne Holmes, Phyllis Clarke, Myrtle Smith, Audrey Banton, Donald Horne, Dr. Derrick Hendricks, Reverend W.R. Wiggan, Lloyd Phinn, Trevor Moxam, Derrick Blackwood and Donald Parchment.