Dutch Quarter — The No Hand Outs movement visited the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School (MLK) on Tuesday morning. Trent Webster one of the founding members and chairman visited the Group 7 class as a motivational guest. “This movement is truly inspiring and I am ecstatic Mr. Webster came to our school first,” said Stuart Johnson MLK School Manager. The No Hand Outs movement started after the passage of Hurricane Irma and continues to grow via Facebook. Mr. Webster said, “The No Hand Outs team was honored to have visited our first of many schools, during our school…
Author: Desk Editor
Last week, during St Maarten Shark Week, Nature Foundation staff visited several Elementary schools to educate children about sharks and their importance to both the natural and human environment. The Foundation visited the following five schools; Sister Regina, Leonald Connor, Learning Unlimited, Oranje School and the Ruby Labega School. The Shark Crew from the Nature Foundation taught about 600 students everything about sharks. The students learned about the different shark species, the importance of sharks for our reefs and tourism, depletion of sharks and why they need our help. The kids were very enthusiastic about sharks and the marine life,…
In the Council of Ministers press briefing of Wednesday June 20th, the Minister of Public Health, Social Development & Labor, Emil Lee elaborated on the efforts of the Ministry in relation to the granting of work permits based on AB 2013 nr 73 article 7 lid 3. The Division Labor Affairs & Social Services has invoked AB 2013 nr 73 article 7 lid 3 of the National decree containing general measures on the employment of foreign labor. This allows the Ministry to approve an employment permit on a one-time basis for projects related to the reconstruction. “Post-Irma, the need for construction workers has increased dramatically,…
Kralendijk — During its visit to Bonaire on June 19th, the Board of financial supervision Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Cft) expressed its concerns to the Executive Council and the Island Council. The Cft notes that on too many levels Bonaire does not comply with the standards of the Public Finance Act Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Wet FinBES). “More management power is needed to achieve visible results”, Cft chairman Raymond Gradus states. During its visit the Board met with the Lieutenant Governor, the Executive Council and the Island Council. A working visit was made to the Water and Energy…
POND ISLAND — Sint Maarten — Minister of Justice Cornelius de Weever, who also acts in the absence of the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), hereby informs all boat owners, that they are not allowed to store or work on their boats on public beaches. Vessels should be removed from public beaches within seven days starting as of Thursday, June 21, 2018. After the seven-day period has passed, Ministry VROMI will take action to remove all boats and/or wrecks from the beaches of the country at the expense of the owner. All storage expenses will…
Willemstad — During its visit to Curaçao, the Board of financial supervision of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (Cft) indicated that more insight and better management are needed in the execution of the budget. The financial situation and the related risks for Curaçao are of great concern to the Cft. For 2018, at least 1/3rd of the preliminary deficit of 113 million guilders of 2017 must be compensated, whilst the structural effect of this deficit must be reversed as well. To this effect the government has already taken a number of measures and has incorporated these into the 2018 budget amendment,…
PHILIPSBURG — (June 20th, 2018) — It is summer vacation again and the Philipsburg Jubilee Library would like to notify the general public of its grace period. As of Monday June 25th until Saturday July 7th, 2018 the grace period will commence. Patrons have the opportunity to bring in all their overdue and/or lost books at no cost to them with the exception of DVDs. The Grace period will also include damaged and /or lost items due to the passing of Hurricane Irma in 2017. At the moment there are still items pending on patron’s names that have not been accounted for.…
This was announced at last week’s Caribbean Aviation Meetup in the Bahamas. The announcement was made by Rob Ceravolo, CEO of Tropic Ocean Airways and Cdr. Bud Slabbaert, the Chairman of the Caribbean Aviation Meetup, during the debriefing session of the conference. The attendees of the session unanimously agreed and offered their active support. The third person in the decision making was Vincent Verderpool-Wallace, former Minister of Tourism of the Bahamas and former CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, who is a strong and well-respected advocate for changes in Caribbean airlift and tourism matters. The Alliance in its current infant…
PHILIPSBURG — On June 13th, Rodney Richardson, Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin, represented Sint Maarten at the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Crisis Preparedness and Resilience Workshop in Barbados. The objective of the workshop was to take stock of lessons, challenges and major milestones in implementing recovery and reconstruction programmes throughout the Caribbean region and to identify key gaps and suggest improvements in the current approach to recovery programming. The workshop was divided into four sessions. The first, to constructively reflect upon challenges and lessons learned with the objective of identifying what can be done better in preparation…
COLE BAY — The St. Maarten Nature Foundation is warning of a potential significant influx of Sargassum seaweed in the coming days: “We have been coordinating our monitoring efforts with our partners in the region and based on weather predictions, satellite imagery and aerial surveys there is a significant amount of the seaweed headed in our general vicinity. “We have been really trying to work both with our partners in the region and with local stakeholders to monitor the situation and to find a way to control the amount of the weed washing up on beaches in the case of…
