CHARLESTOWN, Nevis — The Nevis Water Department (NWD) in the Nevis Island Administration will host a staff retreat for the first time since the NIA was established 37 years ago.

Ms. Tonya Bartlett from Brown Hill, a civil engineer by profession, is the department’s first female manager. She said the event is intended to, among other things, bring staff together and to get them involved.

“We will be having this on February 2 at the Nevis Performing Arts Centre and we are hoping to start around 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,” said Ms. Bartlett. “The whole objective of this retreat is to discuss plans and the expectations for the rest of the year.

“It will also help us to uplift our staff and show appreciation to them,” she said. “Give them a time to meet each other, interact and share stories or whatever else that they would like to do. I think it will help us start the year on a good foot.”

Ms. Bartlett explained that another objective of the retreat has to do with communication.

“The whole objective is to communicate because we have had some issues in the past with communication,” said Ms. Bartlett. “I think this is something that we need to work on and involve staff more.

“It will help to jumpstart the year, she said, “and the communication process and to have staff involved in the processes in the whole department. That way, they don’t feel like ‘oh we are just here and we just show up to work.’ They actually have an input in the whole department. So it’s our department, not just my department.”

Ms. Bartlett noted that her gender plays no role in how she how she leads the department as the first woman.

“I don’t really play the gender thing,” said Ms. Bartlett. “I see it as a role and I have a plan and objectives of what I would like to see done with the department and where I would like to see us in the next five years.

“So it’s not really gender per se, it’s just this is a job and this is what we need to do in order to serve the people better. So it’s not really gender specific in my eyes. I don’t really see that,” she said.

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