A core group comprising residents with a strong sense of community spirit, with a few of them being political aspirants, is at work at Island Harbour looking into ways and means of improving the village and taking particular interest in its young people.

Meeting of Island Harbour residents at the Island Pub compound

The group meets every Thursday night in an open air corner of the business premises at Island Pub, a mini well-stocked grocery shop, owned by McLean Webster. Of much interest to them, perhaps, is a meeting at the St. Andrew’s Church Hall this Thursday called by the Elected Members for Island Harbour and Sandy Hill, Kenneth Harrigan and Osbourne Fleming respectively.

MacLean Webster spoke to The Anguillian about the group. “This is something we put together to bring our community closer,” he said. “I think we have been losing our unity and I believe that in forming a community organisation and meeting on a regular basis, we can share information and help the young people. It is very important that we look out for the children the way it used to be when every parent was a parent to every child.”

One of the persons who has been invited to the community meetings is Educational Psychologist Peter Wolinsky who lives in the Island Harbour area and who frequently visits the Primary School there as part of his work on the island.

Mr. Webster, who disclosed that he will be a candidate in next year’s general elections, said he always wanted the best for Anguilla and particularly for Island Harbour. “My main objective is to see Anguilla developed in a positive and sustainable way,” he stated “ I am very concerned about the island being over-developed and I want to see our people in Island Harbour and the entire island develop with the country.”

Among the things he would like to see are the proper management of the Island Harbour Primary School and, in the long-term, the development of the fishing industry there to the extent that the village fishermen could work together in forming a fishing cooperative.

“We have spent a lot of time with our fishermen asking them to form an organisation, but their response has not been what I would like to see because they have been so accustomed to be independent with every man looking at himself,” he acknowledged. “I was trying to explain to them that they would have so much to benefit from, and I told them that if they have an organisation they can get the Government to do something to support the industry. I saw, for example, in The Anguillian that the Farmers’ Association was coming together and that Government said it would think about putting an embargo on vegetables so that they can sell their products. It is a great thing and the same thing can happen to fishing.”

John Lloyd, a well-known villager and community worker, said he would like to see more people in Island Harbour involved in business including the development of fishing with the support of Government. “I think a fishing cooperative would be a good thing. If somebody would help to educate the people about the benefits, more people would understand it and go for it. I think we need to be educated,” he said.

Roger Smith, who is a founding member of the core group, said: “From our little group, and once we are properly formed, we want to get from village to village to share ideas and possible solutions.” On the question of a fishing cooperative, he said it was not an impossibility but that it would take great effort to convince fishermen to become involved in such a project. “More or less everybody in Island Harbour, the fishing capital of Anguilla, is independent,” he continued. “It is like father to son. I would have a boat and if I have someone working with me his aim would be to get his own boat so that he can branch off on his own. Everybody is independent. It is like teaching a trade and then the person taught becomes his own boss and then so forth and so forth. There are a lot of possibilities having a union which can suffice itself but it is for us to get the fishermen around that.”

Paul Harrigan who, like others, spoke about his interest in the children at Island Harbour, said there was a need for community development there and for the village to participate in garden and other competitions in which other areas of the island take part. “This would help the young people, and the older folk as well, to feel better about their community and to have a desire to give back to the community what it has given to them throughout all these years,” he said.

Amy Hunte, who has emerged as a community leader in the area, said: “I am from Island Harbour and of course my heart is with the children here. I taught Special Education in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for 29 years so my heart is here and I want to see the school remain in this area. Apart from the school, my focus would be to do something through the Church with the children after school. That’s where my heart is and I have to start to do that to provide some help to the children up here.”

Ms. Hunte said the present school building was inadequate and she welcomed Government’s plans to build a new school at Island Harbour. “The new school needs to be in the same vicinity where the school building now is because the land was acquired for that and it makes no sense to move it. It would not be an Island Harbour community school if it is taken out of our neighbourhood,” she emphasised.

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