PHILIPSBURG – King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will visit St. Maarten on Saturday December 2 as part of a tour that includes visits to Saba and Statia. State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) will accompany the royal couple. King and Queen arrive in St. Maarten on Thursday November 30. The next day they travel to Saba to attend the celebration of Saba Day. “Next to the celebration of this traditional holiday, there is attention for environmental protection,” the government information service (RVD) states in a press release. Prior to the visit to Saba, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will spend…
Author: The Publisher
~ Valya Lake-Pantophlet is Chairperson ~ GREAT BAY — Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher on Thursday appointed the first full board of the St. Maarten Tourism Authority (STA) foundation and immediately tasked the group to formulate a plan that would eventually result in the incorporation of an independent governing body (Zelfstandig Bestuursorgaan, ZBO). Finalizing a process that started months ago and stressing country above politics, the Minister appointed seven local professionals to the board whom she described as “energetic, knowledgeable, forward and creative thinkers with vast knowledge over various sectors.” Valya Lake-Pantophlet was appointed as Chairperson of…
Philipsburg — UTS will continue to open its doors on Saturdays for the upcoming three weeks. This after a series of Saturday openings in October and early November, to offer customers the convenience of handling their telecom business on Saturday. The openings started on October to cater to the steady flow of visitors since reopening after hurricane Irma. The UTS store in Philipsburg will be open on Saturday November 18, 25 and December 2, from 10AM to 2PM. The expanded opening hours will allow customers who are not able to come in during the week to handle their business. “The…
SOUTH REWARD — Detectives are presently investigating a shooting involving two brothers. The shooting took place on Thursday morning at approximately 10.20 a.m. at their home in the Reward area. Immediately after receiving this information several police patrols, detectives, Forensic investigators and paramedics were sent to the scene to investigate what had taken place. On the scene the investigating officers learnt from the victim, who was bleeding profusely from a wound in his face that he and his brother identified with the initial M. as last name, had gotten into an argument. At one point the argument got out of…
PRESS RELEASE BY THE LEADER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ST. MAARTEN NOVEMBER 16, 2017 The signing of the border control agreement reveals an egoistic and self serving fight over the backs of the people of St. Maarten. All is well, that ends well, one could quickly say, following the news that the government of St. Maarten finally signed the agreement with the Netherlands on the border control. However, we are not at the end of this “stand-off”, that started with Prime Minister Marlin’s blunt refusal to even discuss the preconditions set by the Dutch government to the release of…
Teachers receive a more than decent salary in St. Maarten. Figures presented by Minister Jacobs (Education) during the handling of the 2017 draft budget in December of last year show that the average annual salary for a public school teacher is $52,730, or $4,394 per month. After Hurricane Irma, we did not hear anything about applying the no-work-no pay rule to teachers so we may safely assume that their salaries arrived as usual at the end of September and October. Now Minister Jacobs has given these teachers a token of appreciation: a voucher worth around $112 for shopping. Like it…
PHILIPSBURG – Justice Minister Rafael Boasman has signed off on the mutual agreement with the Netherlands for border control. Boasman said at Wednesday’s press briefing that the agreement still has to be signed by Dutch counterparts from several ministries before the document will be made public. The minister presented some highlights though, saying that the agreement has been handled in he council of Ministers and that he had been authorized to sign it. The focus is on reinforcement from the Royal Marechaussee and the Dutch Customs department for the control of persons and goods during the reconstruction period. This indicates…
PHILIPSBURG – Teachers and school staff will get days off on November 3o, December 1, and January 3, 4 and 5 to compensate for the mid-term break they missed in the beginning of October, Minister Silveria Jacobs (Education) said at Wednesday’s press briefing. Teachers and staff will also get a voucher worth 200 guilders (around $112) as a token of appreciation. Jacobs described attempts to describe these decisions as a political stunt as “low.” On Facebook the decision was labeled as part of a –prohibited – departure policy. This is a practice whereby politicians who are about to leave office…
PHILIPSBURG – The Common Court of Justice returned for its first session at the courthouse in Philipsburg on Wednesday, exactly seventy days after Hurricane Irma ripped through St. Maarten. It was not a normal court day though, as the judges wanted to know from several defendants how the hurricane had affected their personal circumstances before rendering judgment at a later date. Among the defendants on the docket were Orlando Tovian G., Cennieke John Ch. and Kendy P. – all three suspects in a string of armed robberies. Attorney Shaira Bommel asked the court to terminate or suspend the detention of…
Philipsburg — The Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, through the support of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance DCNA, has been able to structurally put a program in place to clean the beaches over the past week. Despite several beach-clean-ups being held and due to large amount of trash and hurricane debris still being found on the beaches the Foundation decided to request DCNA for relief funds to structurally clean beaches. “While we were doing our assessments on the ground post-hurricane Irma and Maria, and after the follow-up assessments which were conducted especially leading into the restarting of the Tourism Season we…
