In­nis Fran­cis

Point Fortin May­or Clyde James of­fi­cial­ly de­clared the launch of Point Fortin Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions on Sat­ur­day, de­spite on­go­ing set­backs this year.

James and mem­bers of the 12th coun­cil sig­nalled the start of the bor­ough’s 46th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions at Vic­tor Chin Kit Park, Point Fortin.

The event be­gan two hours be­hind the ad­ver­tised time. In his wel­come ad­dress, James ad­dressed ru­mours sur­round­ing the fu­ture of the cel­e­bra­tions.

“A cou­ple weeks ago, a ru­mour was be­ing played all over the place that we were not go­ing to have Bor­ough 2026, but nev­er­the­less, we are a re­silient coun­cil. We work hard to­geth­er as a team. And you, the peo­ple of Point Fortin, are a tes­ti­mo­ny of that. Bor­ough 2026 is on, and we are launch­ing here tonight... We had our chal­lenges and are still work­ing on the chal­lenges, but nev­er­the­less, we are here to serve you, the peo­ple of Point Fortin,” he said.

The launch came three days af­ter Point Fortin MP Ernesto Ke­sar launched a new “Fu­sion” ini­tia­tive for the cel­e­bra­tions.

Ke­sar main­tained that Fu­sion was sim­ply in­tend­ed to mir­ror Fla­va Vil­lage held in Port-of-Spain over the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od and was not meant to re­place the an­nu­al Bor­ough Day ac­tiv­i­ties.

James said he is op­ti­mistic that the cel­e­bra­tions will be suc­cess­ful over the next three weeks, based on the full itin­er­ary the bor­ough has al­ready put out.