Grand Case, St. Martin—While St. Martin waits for tourists to return, the island’s other seasonal guests have been quietly arriving. Migratory birds travel thousands of miles every year to spend the winter here. The fifth-annual Migratory Bird Festival celebrates these birds from 9am to noon on Saturday, November 25th at Kali’s Beach Bar in Friar’s Bay. The event is free and open to all. “Welcome back! is our theme this year,” explained Jenn Yerkes, President of Les Fruits de Mer, the association that organizes the festival. “We’re welcoming back the birds, and after the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma, we’re also…
Author: The Publisher
~ Deadline to register new political parties November 23, 2017 ~ Philipsburg: The Electoral Council of Sint Maarten hereby reminds any prospective political party that in order to participate in the parliamentary elections on February 26, 2018, it is required to apply for the registration of the party and its reference with the Electoral Council no later than Thursday, November 23, 2017. According to article 16 of the National Ordinance on Registration and Finances of Political Parties: new parties must submit a written application to register the party with the Electoral Council. Together with the application for registration of the…
~ Queen Wilhelmina Library Donation Drive in aid of the Philipsburg Jubilee Library ~ PHILIPSBURG — The Philipsburg Jubilee Library is pleased to announce it has received $900 from Saba’s Queen Wilhelmina Library. Saba’s Queen Wilhelmina Library organized a fundraiser drive held on Monday October 23rd 2017, to assist St. Maarten’s library after the passing and destruction of Hurricane Irma and Maria to the library’s structure. The much needed funds will be used for new materials and activities for children’s programs that will be hosted by the library in the hopes to continue encouraging a reading community among St. Maarten…
SIMPSON BAY — The investigation into the cause of the death of a two years old infant who was ran over by a car on Sunday, November 19th, at approximately 1:30pm in the parking area of Buccaneers Beach Bar and which was done by the police traffic department has resulted to be an unfortunate “traffic accident”. The victim was struck by a car while the driver was reversing but could not see him. The child was treated on the scene by paramedics, but was passed away at approximately 2:45pm later that day. After the in depth investigating at scene of…
SIMPSON BAY – The Simpson Bay Lagoon Authority (SLAC) announces that the Simpson Bay Causeway Swing Bridge has been repaired and resumed daily bridge openings for vessels on Tuesday, November 21. The swing bridge daily opening times are 8.00AM, 10.00AM and 3.30PM. An operational assessment of the Causeway swing bridge was carried out last month by engineers from Hollandia. The swing bridge which falls under the Lagoon Authority has been open to limited marine traffic since the passing of Hurricane Irma on September 6. The Swing Bridge on the Causeway is 220 feet long and weighs 450 tons. The Causeway…
HILVERSUM – Blocked on Facebook, out of a job or publicly unmasked as a racist. These are all scenarios you have to consider if you sent a racist message into the world, Natasja Gibbs reports on Caribisch Netwerk. An increasing number of people, among them Antillean-Dutch, are fed up and they have only one goal: naming and shaming racists. They are the busiest in the period around the Sinterklaas-celebration. “Can’t we just exterminate all niggers? At least that will put a stop to all that whining about racism.” This is one of hundreds of public social media posts that have…
As we at stmaartennews.com like to sometimes take our inspiration from Facebook – most times we take our inspiration anywhere we can get it – we sent our cartoonist James Baggett to the drawing board for this one specially for Mrs. Benders. Her post on Seasonal vs Seasoned Politicians reminded us of the story of a reporter who went out for dinner with two politicians to interview them for their upcoming election. After her night out with the first politician, she reported back to her editor that she thought he was the most interesting person in the world. Everyone in…
Willemstad, Curacao — From November 16th to 19th Pony affiliated members of the Caribbean Zone got together at Lagun Court in Banda Bow in Curacao, for the Pony Annual Baseball/Softball meeting. During this meeting the Pony Caribbean Zone were discussing the results of the 2017 tournaments and planning for the upcoming 2018 events. The Countries of the Pony Caribbean Zone that attended the meeting were Curacao, Santo Domingo, Aruba, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Puerto Rico and St. Maarten. Attendees from St. Maarten were Esmay Thomas, Wilfred James, Nadia Brown and Gabriel Brown.
GREAT BAY — The Sint Maarten Nature Foundation, together with volunteers from the Cruise Operator Sector, cleaned up a large portion of Great Bay Beach this week. Great Bay Beach is not only a critical nature area in terms sea turtle nesting but it is also the major tourism beach. “We have been cleaning the beaches systematically and one of the most important is definitely Great Bay Beach.” said Tadzio Bervoets, manager of the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation. “With the announcement that the first cruise visitors will start to arrive in December we placed Great Bay Beach on the priority…
PORT ST. MAARTEN – Approximately 200 persons from the public and private sectors attended two-days of cruise sector stakeholder sessions last week organized by Port St. Maarten, in preparation for December cruise ship calls. The stakeholder sessions attracted various companies from the private sector that included jewelers, taxi associations, tour companies, excursionists, dive shop operations, small hotel sector, restaurants, watersports, media, and many other hospitality related businesses that cater to the cruise sector. Employees from Port St. Maarten also took part as well as civil servants from several government departments including the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau. The objective of the…
