Great Bay — In their quest to have St. Maarten represented in the Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Games which will be held in Barranquilla, Colombia, from July 15th to August 3rd. The St. Maarten Sports & Olympic Federation have been busy putting things into perspective. The CAC Games are the road to the Olympics and that this is a historic moment for St. Maarten to be qualifying for these games for the first time in history of its existence. While in Colombia, St. Maarten will be represented in judo, aquatic, cycling and sailing. “I would like to inform the…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – Financial supervisor Cft has advised Minister of Finance Mike Ferrier to hire external technical assistance to put the government’s financial administration and financial management in order. Cft-chairman Raymond Gradus gives the advice in a letter dated March 14. Stmaartennews.com asked Minister Ferrier via email whether he had followed up on the advice, but up to last night had not received a response.
THE HAGUE – The Kingdom is not responsible for legislation related to games of chance in St. Maarten, Aruba and Curacao. “This is not a Kingdom concern and therefore the Kingdom has no authority over the issuance and extension of permits for offshore games of chance,” State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Affairs) wrote on Tuesday in answer to questions parliamentarian Ronald van Raak (Socialist Party) submitted on January 31.
PHILIPSBURG – Employability becomes the main driver of higher education, Minister Jorien Wuite (Education, Culture, Youth and Sport) said during a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament on Monday afternoon. The minister came to parliament to present an update on the state of affairs of the national ordinance on tertiary education – a piece of legislation that will guarantee the University of St. Martin structural funding.
PHILIPSBURG — On Friday, March 16, 2018 the Ombudsman, Dr. Nilda Arduin met with the Director of SZV, Mr. Glen Carty, and the Corporate Secretary, Mrs Ruth Boyrard-Brewster, at the Bureau of the Ombudsman. Acknowledging the importance of customers’ satisfaction with the service provided by SZV, the Director requested the meeting to be informed first-hand about the complaints filed with the Ombudsman against SZV. The purpose of the meeting was to identify and discuss the bottlenecks experienced by the public, with the objective to bring about an improvement in SZV’s services. The Legal Advisor and Complaints supervisor, Ms. Gwendolien Mossel,…
By Hilbert Haar The municipal elections in the Netherlands that take place on Wednesday have brought the issue of integrity in local governments sharply into focus. Reading through reports in Dutch newspapers it seems that the Netherlands is in more need of an Integrity Chamber than the Netherlands. The reality: St. Maarten has such an institution and the Netherlands doesn’t. But the new Minister of Home Affairs Kajsa Ollongren leaves no doubt about it: the criminal world and legitimate society are seriously entwined in many Dutch municipalities.
QUARTIER D’ORLEANS – Just outside of French Quarter, the Old House is coming back to life again. Volunteers from both sides of the island spend their Saturdays cleaning up the place and getting it ready for a lively new exhibition.
INDIGO BAY – On Monday, March 12th, a bankruptcy notice was published in The Daily Herald announcing that by decision of March 6th, 2018, the Court in First Instance of St. Maarten declared Indigo Bay Development Corporation N.V. bankrupt. A photo of the newspaper notice was quickly shared via social media that morning among the community of the island’s developers and architects. Bankers and notaries involved with Indigo Bay developers also were placed on high alert, resulting in phone calls being placed to their respective clients. One such client was Indigo Green.
PHILIPSBURG – Minister Jorien Wuite (Education, Culture, Youth and Sports) did the honours on Thursday evening, performing the ceremonial ribbon cutting together with Zdenka Ciric to mark the official opening of the Art Box, an intimate gallery in Cole Bay that presents the work of eighteen different artists under one roof. The turnout of art lovers for the opening was high. Classical pianist Lora Sokolova provided the entertainment inside, while Sylvain Pereira of the Select Wine Cellar offered an excellent selection of wines for tasting outside. Zdenka Ciric started work on the Art Box back in July of last year…
By Chris Morvan Those who were stuck here for a while after Irma because of air travel disruption, and all of us who are now trembling at the thought of paying exorbitant prices (which we pray will eventually come down) may have forgotten the simple irritations that flying brings with it.
