Highlanders headquarters on horizon

HIGHLANDERS Steel Orchestra (HSO) will soon start work on its pan headquarters.
Robert Hernandez, secretary of the board of the corporation and manager of the band said the East Port of Spain Development Company has approved plans to develop a pan theatre that will house a homework centre and a school to teach music to members of the community.

HSO recently signed a 99-year lease with NP for the property that currently houses its panyard, at the corners of Williams Street and Eastern Main Road, Success Village, Laventille. The property measures 10,000 sq feet.

He said the not-for-profit state corporation is registered with the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts and is a registered band with Pan Trinbago.

It has occupied the spot since 2005, after an NP gas station was abandoned and remained vacant for a number of years. “We were located on Erica Street when we were asked to vacate the premises for the owners to develop the property. The only place we could have gone is one block away on Williams Street,” Hernandez said.

Asked how he felt about the latest development Hernandez said, “It is historic. It is a major achievement to the community. We have been negotiating with NP for this lease for the last eight to ten years. The board approved it in 2013 but it was up to the management to execute this 99-year lease. They have only now agreed on the terms and conditions, hence the recent signing off on the lease.”

Hernandez gave Newsday some insight into the planned programmes.

He said HSO is an affiliate of the Success Central Community Council and both entities have already formed strategic partnerships with the Success Boys’ and Girls’ primary schools.
“The community council already has an after-school-programme, so we are going to expand on that programme because the demand for tutorial assistance far exceeds the council’s ability to provide that assistance. So HSO will be providing tutorial assistance in the form of a homework centre at the panyard.”

He said it is the band’s intention to to establish the Bertie Marshall Institute of Music at the site of the HSO Pan Theatre in honour of the late bandleader and arranger of HSO.

“We see ourselves as a community-based organisation. We feel that what we are doing is providing a constructive alternative to crime which is plaguing our community.
“We are in touch with the Hearts and Minds, a programme of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), specifically within the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force). And there is an office right on the Beetham community centre across the street from our panyard, so that we intend to make the TTPS a partner in what we do in the community so parents will be at ease in sending their children to part take in activities in the theatre.”