PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance dropped all charges against a 21-year old man who had fired a flare gun at a civil servant who had threatened him with a two by four on September 12, 2017. The defendant, Kely S. had found shelter with a woman after Hurricane Irma. The civil servant, B., aged 51, was apparently not happy with this arrangement. It remained unclear in court whether the woman in question was the civil servant’s girlfriend. On September 12, the civil servant approached the house, smashing windows with a big piece of wood. Police came and the…
Author: The Publisher
Here on St. Maarten doing paperwork is not our strongest point. Yet that is what is absolutely required in order to get the funding from the Disaster Fund for social projects on St. Maarten. See the related story here. The conditions are as follows: The duration of the projects is 1.5 years max and they have to be completed by December 31, 2019. Comment: Forget about the ending, let’s get started first. NGO’s have to avoid conflicts of interest within their organization, so they have to avoid family relations. Comment: Something we usually find hard to avoid here on St.…
Dear Editor, Going through two elections within a mere seventeen months and emerging from that experience as the third highest vote getter with 580 votes, qualified me to become a Member of the Parliament of Sint Maarten. But what does that mean? I was soon to find out after the swearing-in ceremony which took place on Easter Monday, April 2nd, 2018. Cramped together in a hall at the Governor’s Office, the fifteen elected parliamentarians listened to the wise counsel offered by His Excellency, the Governor, prior to him administering the oath of office. Unfortunately, due to limited space, each parliamentarian…
PHILIPSBURG – Police officer Bernadette Augusta Harrigan saw red during an argument with her sister on September 30 of last year and she took a swing at her sibling with a claw hammer. The sister sustained a slight injury and Harrigan, 43, was sentenced for her acts on Wednesday to 60 hours of community service, after the prosecution dropped charges for attempted manslaughter. The two sisters live in the same building – one upstairs, one downstairs. When the sister wanted to install security cameras, Harrigan objected and when her sister persisted by installing them anyway, she took a hammer with…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance sentenced Bryan Giovanni Henson to 15 months of imprisonment, with 3 months suspended and 2 years of probation, for firearm possession on Wednesday. The prosecution had demanded 5 months straight and defense attorney Geert Hatzmann pleaded for an acquittal. It was not the best birthday for Henson when he was arrested on February 6 at the car wash where he worked. That day he turned 34. Ten days earlier, the police received a tip that Henson was carrying a gun and officers had kept an eye on him. But when he was arrested,…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance acquitted four defendants of committing public violence on September 30, 2017, against a man one of them had just thrown out of his apartment. But the court found one of the participants in the brawl guilty of firearm possession and sentenced him to 12 months of imprisonment, 3 months below the prosecution’s demand. The tenant, R.R.S. filed a complaint for threats, destruction of property and ill-treatment against his landlord Tyrone Etienne Meyers, Akkoye Jacques Meyers, Mhalik Ayo Erico O. and Nyheen Roberto Pierre Roumou. The plaintiff had gone to his house after a…
PHILIPSBURG – The long awaited Dutch Quarter sewage project is becoming a reality. Contractor Van Boekel will begin the work with a survey next month and start the actual work in August. The project is scheduled to be completed in a year. But there was one Dutch Quarter resident who did not have a lot of confidence in the story he was told during a town hall meeting at the Dutch Quarter Community Center on Wednesday evening. “Promises, promises, and nothing happens,” he said. Ir. Kurt Ruan, head of New Projects at the VROMI-ministry took the wind out of his…
PHILIPSBURG – Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo remained non-committal to the suggestion that she will stay on her post in the next government. Dutch prime Minister Mark Rutte suggested on Monday with his remark “Leona Marlin and her incoming team” that her appointment as the next prime minister is a done deal. But Marlin-Romeo remained aloof. “I cannot comment on Mark Rutte’s statement,” she said on Wednesday. “However, I cannot state that I will be the next Prime Minister. That is still unknown at this point in time.” Marlin-Romeo said that the screening process and the selection of ministers has to…
PHILIPSBURG – Drastic measures at the landfill: the contract with the current management company, Robelto and Sons will be “amicably terminated,” the appointment of a waste project manager is imminent and the government will beef up security. Minister Miklos Giterson (Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure) made these announcements at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. “I assure the people that permanent and viable solutions are underway in dealing with this recurring health hazard,” Giterson said after he had made a reference to the fire that ignited on the dump early Sunday morning. “Right now we are busy with…
PHILIPSBURG – The first emergency repairs funded by the trust fund at the World Bank will begin in June, Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo announced during Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. There is a budget of $55 million for the first project – emergency repairs, disaster preparedness and utilities. Under this program fall repairs to the police station, the fire station and hurricane shelters, urgent school repairs, a new location and equipment for the meteorological department, new ambulances, repair to 500 roofs for vulnerable groups, emergency communication equipment, emergency repairs to electricity and trenching lines, water storage tanks and repairs…
