Many eyebrows were raised last month when Colin Gager, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor for the Warsop division, was chosen as mayor of Famouth and chairman of the Trelawny Parish Council.

For one thing, Gager is a fairly inexperienced politician having served only one term in representative politics at the local level.

The new mayor was first elected councillor for the Warsop division in the 2003 local government.

Little wonder then that many persons were surprised when the caucus of elected JLP councillors from Trelawny emerged from their meeting and announced that they have selected Gager to chair the council.

Local political pundits had predicted that councillor for the Wakefield division, Jonathan Bartley, would have retained the job he had held from 2003. Others believed however, that the post would have fallen into the lap of the outspoken councillor for the Sherwood Content division, Fernandez ‘Bingey’ Smith.

It should be noted that the ascension of Gager to the highest office at the council comes at a time when Falmouth, and in fact the parish of Trelawny, is poised for further development.

Over the last few years, the parish has seen unprecedented levels of investments.

And with the Harmony Cove Development to begin in short order and the proposed Crusie Ship Pier expected to come on stream within another two years, as well as other planned substantial investments, good leadership is critical if the parish is to maximise its full potential.

Bearing in mind that the constituency of North Trelawny, which is said to have a relatively weak and ineffective member of parliament, it is crucial that the town of Falmouth gets an articulate and visionary person at the helm of the council.

Can Gager therefore rise to the challenge? Will he be able to lead the charge and move the parish forward?

His JLP colleagues obviously believe that he has the ability to do so. Otherwise, they would not have elevated him to that position.

In fact, Smith believes that Gager’s ascendancy to the leadership of the council is good for the parish.

“He is off to a start, he is visionary and very inclusive and that spells good for the parish,” Smith told this column on Tuesday.

Gager, too, believes that he will do well and appears to have the backing of councillors on both sides of the political divide.

“I am surrounded within a team of co-operative and enthusiastic councillors and I know that I will do well,” he said.

The new chairman plans to implement a raft of measures aimed at stemming the social decay in the parish.

These include:

. a major drain-cleaning and beautification programme in major towns;

. the establishment of designated areas for the parking of motor vehicles;

. the beautification of public cemetery; and improvements in water supply in several communities.

Work on all of these projects are expected to commence in another few months.

Whether or not Gager succeeds at the job at hand is left to be seen.

We wish him well.