Kevon Felmine

Fol­low­ing last year's pal­try al­lo­ca­tion of fund­ing to­wards the Point Fortin Bor­ough cel­e­bra­tions by Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston Gyp­sy Pe­ters, this year's 32nd edi­tion will go ahead with­out a cent from Gov­ern­ment. Speak­ing at the launch of Bor­ough Day at Vic­tor Chin Kit Park on Fri­day night, may­or Clyde Paul said he re­fused to ap­proach Pe­ters af­ter re­ceiv­ing just over $13,000 in fund­ing last year.

As the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion pre­pared for the 2011 cel­e­bra­tions, Paul held a meet­ing with Pe­ters in which they toured the bor­ough to as­sess the plans for the cel­e­bra­tions. Pe­ters had in­di­cat­ed that he want­ed to make the bor­ough cel­e­bra­tion part of his plan to di­ver­si­fy the coun­try's econ­o­my by at­tract­ing tourism. He even promised camp­ing fa­cil­i­ties at the Clifton Hill Beach and shut­tle ser­vices from Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin.

How­ev­er, Paul said these promis­es nev­er came to pass and that the $13,300.17 was re­ceived af­ter the cel­e­bra­tions. Paul boast­ed that this year's cel­e­bra­tion will go ahead with a con­tri­bu­tion from At­lantic who bailed them out of a pos­si­ble can­cel­la­tion of this year's cel­e­bra­tions and oth­er cor­po­rate spon­sors.

The cel­e­bra­tions start­ed off with a pan ex­plo­sion last night. The cel­e­bra­tions which will cul­mi­nate on May 5, Bor­ough Day, con­tin­ue to­day with a church ser­vice at the Church of Christ at Bryce Road, start­ing at 9.30 am and will be fol­lowed by Chut­ney Fu­sion and Cur­ry Duck Cook-Off at the Guapo Beach car park at noon.