Philipsburg — With a joint effort between the St. Dominic High School Interact Club and The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle we were able to put together two joint projects. Mid Isle headed the project to donate thirty care packages for the less fortunate people in the community. These packages contained food items, toiletries, handmade iced Christmas cookies along with a candy cane. Ten baskets were donated to the Anglican Church on Back Street, ten baskets went to the Bishop Ellis Foundation and ten baskets went to Social Services for distribution. Items and goods collected by the SDHS Interact…
Author: The Publisher
After the new interim UP/DP/Brownbill government is sworn in, Sint Maarten would have had seven coalition governments in seven years. This is an average of one government per year. If we also count the number of elections since 2010, including the upcoming February 2018, Sint Maarteners would have gone to the polls four times which boils down to an average of one election every two years. For a small young country such as ours, having on average, a change of government every year and elections every two years is unacceptable. Think of the instability this causes within the civil service…
PHILIPSBURG – The voters registry for the February 26 elections closed on December 6; it contains the names of 22,559 eligible voters. If the turnout for the elections is similar to that of the 2016 elections (63.7 percent), there would be 14,370 valid votes. To win a seat then requires 958 votes; in 2016 this quota was 947. Prime Minister Rafael Boasman said on Wednesday that the number of eligible voters is still subject to change because citizens can still challenge the absence of their names in the registry in court. Nomination Day is on January 5; the following day…
PHILIPSBURG – The Public Prosecutor demanded prison sentences varying from 3 to 12 years for five defendants in the Court in First Instance on Wednesday. The men are charged with five armed robberies and one home invasion whereby they ill-treated, bound and gagged the resident. The crimes were committed between December 7 of last year and March 4 of this year. The Public Prosecutor wants to send Delangio Rakeem W. (21) and Ashmore Deandre H. (18) for 12 years to jail; Brian B. (20) is facing 10 years of imprisonment and Janry St. V. 3 years. The fifth defendant was…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance moved the trial against Kevin Chris L.B.to February 28 of next year. The 28-year old defendant is accused of firearm possession. The public prosecutor said that police had found a Glock in the hands of the defendant and that it had fallen on the ground during a struggle in the process of his arrest. L.B. had two previous convictions for firearm possession: 15 months conditional in 2014 and another 18 months conditional in 2016. His attorney Brenda Brooks asked the court to terminate the pretrial detention. “A co-suspect has confessed that two of…
Man seriously stabbed The Detective Department is presently investigating a stabbing incident of a man. The incident took place on Tuesday December 19th shortly before 09.00 p.m. The police patrol was sent to the Sint Maarten Medical Center to investigate a case involving a male victim who was covered in blood as a result of being stabbed several times. At the Sint Maarten Medical Center the investigating officers could not speak to the victim because he was being treated at the time. The officers spoke to a witness with initials B.S.G. who stated the he was accompanied by the victim…
Philipsburg — The St. Maarten Tzu Chi Foundation played an important role in feeding the community immediately after Hurricane Irma battered St. Maarten with powerful winds on September 6, when many families lost their homes and food and water were scarce. The foundation used items from its reserves to baked fresh, warm bread daily and distributed them to the public free of charge. The bread distribution began three days after Hurricane Irma on September 8, and continued until October 31, 2017. In total the foundation distributed 65,105 warm loaves of fresh bread to residents in 29 different areas around the…
Harbour View – On Wednesday, December 20th, 2017, the Governor of Sint Maarten, His Excellency drs. E.B. Holiday, met with from formateur Mr. Franklin Meyers. The formateur based on a progress review of the formation process has decided to withdraw himself as formateur and return the commission to form a new government. Governor Holiday has accepted the decision of Mr. Meyers and taken the developments under consideration
PHILIPSBURG – On Monday, December 18th, 2017 representatives of the University of St. Martin and the Ministry of Education finally arrived at an agreement and signed the MOU securing the continuity of education for students of the USM. This, after the representatives of University of St. Martin had not seen it possible to sign the proposed MOU on December 11th, 2017. However, after hearing an interview by the Minister on the topic on December 12th, the University promptly contacted the Department of Education with a willingness to resume talks, which commenced on Wednesday December 13th. Joint Press Release by the…
PHILIPSBURG – Neighboring islands are benefitting immensely from the way Hurricane Irma brought St. Maarten’s cruise industry to its knees. Cruise ships that had St. Maarten on their itinerary before the hurricane changed everything are now massively turning to destinations like the French-speaking islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Guadeloupe expects this season 100,000 more cruise visitors than previously expected. In October alone, Guadeloupe received 51 additional cruise ships, bringing the total for the upcoming season to 230. Martinique is also looking forward to an exceptional tourism season. The island will see the arrival of 200 cruise ships carrying between them…
