He made these remarks on February 23, 2022, at the D7 Town Hall meeting at the Church of God of Prophesy in Long Look, while outlining several areas of improvement for his district.

Dr Wheatley said this "summer" the district will once again have a library.

He informed that there is a district pantry available to residents but they are taking it a step further and moving towards a soup kitchen in the near future.

In explaining the importance of the pantry, he said it was necessary because, “we were finding out, especially during the COVID times, persons were unemployed and there was a need to provide services like that to the community.”

“Persons who were struggling, and there were persons who really rely on the pantry just to have something in their cupboards to be able to cook and eat,” he added.

In order to get more persons involved in the development of the Seventh District, a District Council will be introduced. This is according to Seventh District Representative Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley.

District Council

In the meantime, Dr Wheatley informed of a District Council that will soon be made a reality.

“We are coming with a District Council. We spoke about this when I just got elected and of course with COVID and a number of things it went on the back burner. But we are going to be forming a District Council, it is going to be the first District Council throughout the Virgin Islands and the concept is we are going to have these groups in various areas like in Brandywine Bay, Nottingham Estate, Spring Ghut … they have committees.”

He said he will be able to work in tandem with the District Councils to improve the overall district.

“Like I said it takes a team, it’s not about anybody being a hero. It takes a team for all of us to be able to work together and we want to expand that. This is done so we can have many bodies as possible looking to uplift the community and have a direct line to their representative and give me my marching orders and then I go and try to get stuff done.”

'I have a heart for the people'

Meanwhile, the first-term legislator told residents that he has a heart for the people despite being imperfect.

“Just as the Premier said, persons point out your weaknesses as opposed to your strengths. Let me say to you, I do have weaknesses, I am far from perfect, but one thing I have is a heart for the people and I want to improve.”

He added: “I want to improve the district, I want to improve myself because we have to start with ourselves, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror every day and say what is it I can do better so I can be a better representative?”