Dear Editor, As a Community spirited person, I saw a headline in your newspaper dated April 28th, 2018 that got my full attention which stated 24 Royal Decorations, none from St. Maarten. In the article the main reason no-one from St. Maarten was nominated for a Royal Decorations had to do with the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma in September and therefore the lengthy applications process that has to be filled in by the Royal Decorations Committee before October. Mr. Editor, I had a hard time trying to understand why our local Royal Committee chose for some odd reason not…
Author: The Publisher
POND ISLAND – The United States, US Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands Peter Hoekstra, met with Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance for St. Maarten Perry Geerlings on Wednesday this week. The Ambassador and his delegation, which included Netherlands Ambassador to the United States Hendrik “Henne” Schuwer and US Consul General to Curacao & Chief of Mission to the Dutch Caribbean Islands Margaret Hawthorne, arrived in St. Maarten on Wednesday afternoon and were welcomed by Minister Geerlings in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister of St. Maarten. During the meeting, the Acting Prime Minister and the US…
Photo caption: From the left; The High Commissioner of Canada Marie Legault paid a courtesy visit to the Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance for St. Maarten Perry Geerlings today July 18, during which the two discussed several matters of mutual interests for both countries. According to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Acting Prime Minister and high Commissioner Legault spoke at length about the redevelopment of St. Maarten since it was devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. In the photo from the left Minister of Finance/Acting Prime Minister for St. Maarten Perry…
PHILIPSBURG – On July 11-13, 2018, the Steering Committee of the Sint Maarten Recovery and Resilience Trust Fund attended the signing of the first Emergency Recovery Grant financed by the Trust Fund – between Sint Maarten Prime Minster Leona Marlin-Romeo and the World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean, Mrs. Tahseen Sayed. 470 million euros (550 million US dollars) has been made available for the Trust Fund by The Netherlands. The first grant, which holds US$55.2 million of this Trust Fund, will be allocated to activities that require emergency funding. After the signing, the Steering Committee and connected delegations visited…
PHILIPSBURG — Once again, the Inspectorate of Health, operating under the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs & Labor (VSA), has issued a recall notice. This time for frozen vegetables products. The Hungarian production company named Greenyard has issued a recall of various frozen vegetables branded under different retailers names. Reason for the recall is that these products have been found to be contaminated with the bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes. The affected products are: Frozen Mexican mix vegetables of 1 Kg from the brand Leader Price; Frozen Caribbean and Mexican mixed vegetables of Kg from the brand D’Aucy; ‘Chili con carne’ meatballs…
PHILIPSBURG — Reports reaching our news desk indicated that 50% of Massy United Insurance in Trinidad were being let go and Barbados and the BVI were to soon follow. However, an official statement StMaartenNews.com received from Massy United Insurance Ltd in Barbados stated that only 5% of its staff headcount in Trinidad and Barbados had been reduced as a result the departure of some its temporary employees whose contracts recently came to an end as well as some employees who elected to leave the organization. This reduction of only 5% of the total staff complement of the company will not…
BARBADOS — Massy United Insurance (MUI) is pleased to announce that to date, the company has settled 95% of claims arising from the catastrophic effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, which affected nine countries in which we operate – namely Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Maarten, St. Kitts & Nevis, Turks & Caicos. Over 1,200 claims, estimated at USD$262 million were received from policyholders in these territories. For St. Maarten, 48 claims were received in the amount of USD$72 million, with 90% settled. While the 2017 hurricane season impacted the company’s profits…
PHILIPSBURG — As the announced demolition of the old Fire Station next to the Philipsburg Market started on Thursday, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication, TEATT Stuart Johnson felt the need to take a few minutes to visit the facility and spoke to the sub-contractor. The Minister wanted to ensure that workers exercised the necessary precautions to avoid creating any safety hazards for the vendors who sell their souvenirs on days when cruise ships are in port. In a statement issued by the Ministry of TEATT Johnson said what is essential at this stage is to ensure that…
Philipsburg – Bureau Telecommunications and Post St. Maarten (BTP) imposed administrative fines on Caribbean Teleview Services d.b.a. St. Maarten Cable TV for substantial license violations. For over 10 months the Quality of Service standards of Cable TV have not been met, island wide coverage is no longer guaranteed, the license holder is not adhering to instructions of the regulator post Irma, and the company failed to comply with various license conditions and directives as stipulated in their Ministerial Decree (MB). The regulator counted no less than 14 violation for which the license holder has been sanctioned for. The Director of…
GREAT BAY, St. Martin (July 17, 2018)—With the music of Betty V’s Hold on and Neville York’s Sweet Salt playing in the background, about 75 book party guests were treated here at the Parish Hall to an evening (7.7.18) of lively conversation, refreshments, autographs for their books, and Gerard van Veen reading passages from his World War II title Schoolboy in Wartime – Memories of My Early Years. The weekend affair was followed on Monday (7.9.18) by a book review from Gerard van Engelen in an Alkmaar newspaper calling Schoolboy in Wartime “a jewel”. Published in St. Martin by HNP, the…
