BELVEDERE — Not many court cases end with a judge personally visiting the site of a case in question. However, on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11, 2018, a walkthrough of the homes of tenants fighting a court case against the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) took place in the presence of the presiding judge, the court recorder and the lawyers of the parties involved. SMN News was the only media house that had access to the homes during the walkthrough. With permission StMaartenNews.com publishes an excerpt of this news report. The full report can be found online at…
Author: The Publisher
RESIDENTS ASKED TO LODGE THEIR COMPLAINTS TO THE RENTAL COMMITTEE — if landlords are taking advantage By Andrew Bishop Great Bay — Residents are being advised by the representatives of the Housing Committee that oversees the cost of rental properties on the island to contact them in cases of over-pricing of apartment buildings. According to Edward “Eddie” Jacobs who is a current employee of the committee he stated that once the property or the apartment cost Naf 200,000.00 they have the authority to regulate the rental. “We have been hearing about all the advantage that the residents have been subjected…
RESIDENTS FEARFUL THAT THEY WILL NOT GET PROPER ACCOMMODATIONS AS PROMISED By Andrew Bishop FRENCH QUARTER — The senior citizens are still waiting on the Collectivité to find proper housing for them following the hurricanes of 2017. According to them they have not heard from President Daniel Gibbs since he had condemned the lower flats in the project in French Quarter as “unfit for living.” The tenants are arguing that although the ground floor of these buildings were condemned they have not heard of alternative housing as yet. Visiting one of the homes one can clearly see they have mold…
By Roeland Zwanikken Art. 36 of the Kingdom Charter stipulates that the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten (will) provide each other aid and assistance. According to the Explanatory Notes, countries within the Kingdom will consult, assist and cooperate with each other. Furthermore: they are supposed to consider each other’s justified interests and to support each other, both morally and material, as far as reasonably possible. According to the Explanatory Notes the above can be considered a cooperation between countries in the Kingdom on a voluntarily basis. The following questions can be raised: Does the article stipulate that under circumstances,…
GUYANESE ST. MAARTEN/ST. MARTIN ASSOCIATION ELECTS A NEW BOARD By Andrew Bishop GREAT BAY — The Guyanese St. Maarten/St. Martin Association has elected Velda Blackett, a teacher at the St. Maarten Academy, to lead the organization for the next year. The school teacher who has been with the organization for some time has received the nod from the membership with 22 votes. The association has about 60 eligible voters who are financial members but only 24 turned out for the elections which is approximately 40%. It was remarked that the voter turned out just like the island elections which was…
Dear Editor, Many years ago there was a board of directors that took the decision to build a new airport building and they approved the plans to build the airport building. They would have appointed expensive architects and suppliers that resulted in the airport building we have today. No doubt the architects presented magnificent and awe inspiring drawings and promised “state of the art” equipment and user experience. We would guess the board of directors was awed and impressed. In order to build the airport deep commitments had to be made to achieve the necessary financing. Finally a new building…
PHILIPSBURG — One year after hurricane Irma, the corporate community of St. Maarten is on review in the book RESILIENCE – a series of interviews with business owners and leaders who took the lead again after the complete devastation on September 6, 2017. The book is available as of September 6, 2018, as a Kindle ebook and as paperback via Amazon. The author, Barbara van der Woude, recently moved to St. Maarten. “Admittedly, I was quite anxious when I visited the island again for the first time after Irma. I fell in love with St. Maarten during a holiday in…
Nearly $700 Million USD paid by NAGICO to insureds in the Caribbean thus far The US$58.2 Million Dollar judgement fully paid to Princess Juliana International Airport by NAGICO Philipsburg, Sint Maarten (September 3, 2018) — National General Insurance Corp N.V. (NAGICO), a diversified insurance company serving 21 territories in the Caribbean, has over the past 12 months paid nearly $700 Million US Dollars to its clients in the islands that were affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The Princess Juliana International Airport (“PJIA”) is among the many NAGICO clients that have been paid. A total of USD$58.2…
PHILIPSBURG — Two female occupants who were driving in their vehicle on Friday evening August 31st on Billy Folly Road were surprised by an unknown man who jumped into the backseat of their vehicle while on their way from a local restaurant. Both females, not knowing who this man was, feared for their life jumped out of the vehicle leaving the suspect behind. At the same time the suspect jumped into the driver seat and drove off with the car. The suspect crashed the vehicle on the Welfare Road injuring him self shortly after stealing it. A police patrol was…
By Elco Rosario It was around September 1998 when I was visited in my notary office on Sint Maarten by two intelligence agents, one from Holland, Mr. Oosterlaken and one from Curacao, Mr. Schuschen. They had come to finish an interrogation which had started on March 9th of that year. Topic: the functioning of the notary by us. Like the first part of the interrogation this one also felt to me like giving an introductory class to students. At the end the two gentlemen thanked me for the information given and admitted that they had learnt a lot. I then…
