Community And Leaders Celebrate The Grand Opening Of Central Scranton Park

By Alric Lindsay

Residents, community elders and elected officials from both sides of the aisle gathered in George Town on August 1, 2026, for the grand opening of Central Scranton Park — a nearly three‑acre community park decades in the making — culminating in a flag‑raising and ribbon‑cutting.

The park, in the heart of the capital, features a youth centre, a seniors’ centre, a multipurpose sports court, an outdoor fitness area, a preserved pond and a restored wishing well built around a natural spring said to have served the community for more than a century. It also includes a turtle‑shell‑inspired sculpture by Caymanian sculptor and artist Al Ebanks. Several of its buildings are named after figures from the Scranton community. The afternoon’s programme drew together George Town Central’s Member of Parliament, his Opposition colleagues, Cabinet ministers, past Members of Parliament, Deputy Governor Gloria McField-Nixon and the community leaders who spent years bringing the project to life.

MP Kenneth Bryan: “an investment, not an expense”

MP, Kenneth Bryan — Member for George Town Central and Deputy Leader of the Opposition — delivered the longest address, walking the crowd through a park he said he had helped design around not just “what it should look like, but what it should feel like.”

He introduced its new facilities: the Frank McField Youth Centre, named for the veteran sociologist, for homework, after‑school programmes and mentorship; the Lucille Seymour Senior Centre, an air‑conditioned home for seniors’ gatherings, where he announced Tuesday‑night bingo and dominoes would soon begin; and the multipurpose court — for basketball, football, netball and pickleball. He noted the grounds are wheelchair‑accessible throughout, that the existing pond had been preserved for natural drainage.

Mr Bryan urged the community to see the park “not as an expense, but as an investment,” answering questions that had been raised about its cost. He paused to remember community members who had died before its opening — among them Miss Rose Myles, whose front‑row chair bore her photograph — and pledged that the Ramoon family, “instrumental in keeping this dream alive,” would be formally recognised as the park expands.

Dr Frank McField: buildings need “human infrastructure”

Dr Frank McField, the sociologist, playwright and former Cabinet minister for whom the youth centre is named, said the recognition meant a great deal — “if it were not for this community, I think I would have been dead already.” But he used his brief remarks to sound a note of caution, urging that the park not become bricks and mortar alone. “Physical premises are one thing,” he said, “but without the human infrastructure, they die” — pressing for the programmes and mentorship that would “entice and encourage young people” and keep Caymanian culture alive. Now 77, he reflected on a lifetime of youth and sports work and called, too, for fairer recognition of the Caymanians who built the country’s cultural and sporting institutions.

Lucille Seymour: honoured by the naming, but “it’s not about me”

Lucille Seymour, the former teacher and community elder for whom the new Senior Centre is named, told the gathering that at 81 she had “never seen anything” like the park “in my country.” Born, she said, “just across the street,” she was visibly moved but insisted the honour was not personal: “It’s not about me — it’s about who I was, who I am and what I’ve done.”

She paid warm tribute to Mr Bryan — “he sold his soul to have this… he had no other choice but to fight to get what we have now” — and issued a call to action to residents across the islands: rather than simply admire the park, they should press their own representatives — “we want one just like that too.” She also defended public spending on community projects against critics, asking, “who do you think we’re making this money for?”

Dale Ramoon: “you see the glory, but you don’t know the story”

Dale Ramoon, president of the Central Scranton Committee, traced the project’s long history — “you all see the glory, but you don’t know the story.” He recalled being asked more than 25 years ago, while working in the Customs Department, to help form a community committee, and paid tribute to the many residents — especially the women, “the backbone” of the effort — who had sustained it over four decades through clean‑ups, sporting events and support for families in need.

He walked through the years of land acquisition that made the park possible, thanked Mr Bryan for embracing the project “as his own,” and thanked the current government “and the ministry for completing it, singling out Minister Jay Ebanks. Mr Ramoon pushed back firmly on “naysayers” who had questioned the spending, calling such criticism “an insult” to a community of “nation builders,” and closed with a welcome: “you are respected, you are welcome, you are family.”

Minister Jay Ebanks: “promise made, promise kept”

Delivering the keynote, the Minister for Planning, Lands, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, Johany “Jay” Ebanks, joked that his speech had been rewritten three times to avoid competing with the earlier speakers. Invoking his campaign slogan — “promise made, promise kept” — he said he had committed to Mr Bryan to see the park completed and had found the funding “even when the times got hard.”

He recounted how the project had first sat with his ministry before he agreed his Opposition colleague was “fitting to take this opportunity,” only for it to return to his hands to finish. Praising his Public Works team, he said Mr Bryan had been “very adamant” the park be finished on time, and offered a couple of lighter details — that the pond now holds more than 50 turtles and a growing population of tilapia fed with food from the Agriculture Department. Stressing service across party lines — “it doesn’t matter what side of the aisle we’re on… it’s for you, the Caymanian people” — and noting Mr Bryan’s ambition to extend the park, he closed by wishing resident Ms Emily Ramoon a happy 79th birthday, the park having fittingly opened on her day.

The ceremony concluded with the flag‑raising and ribbon‑cutting.