POINT BLANCHE – Dutch Marines recently carried out their mid-term deployment tradition of cutting in half a wooden pole which serves as having reached midway in their deployment in Sint Maarten. The two Marines were Major Patrick Wokke and Lammerse.
The Dutch established their Marine Support Base last year at Port St. Maarten.
PHILIPSBURG – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake says he has taken note of Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU) stance with respect to a reduction in utility bills.
Minister Lake reiterated on Friday that he informed the community more than once that relief will be provided by NV GEBE to household consumers as well as businesses, and that in the meantime a reduction in the utility bills of senior citizens would be implemented first.
“Relief is not just being provided to a select few. Our seniors live on a pension and they have many challenges, and the reduction in their utility bill will ease the burden on them.
“NV GEBE has not discriminated against anybody. The company was requested to look into relief for household consumers as well as businesses. The company has to study this to make sure that it does not negatively impact or influence the operations and investment future of the company,” Minister Hon. Maurice Lake explained on Friday.
Minister Lake added that WICLU should have contacted the company for a meeting to be informed about relief for all rather than making a statement in its bi-weekly press briefing stating that the company was being discriminatory.
“WICLU would have done a better job informing its members and the community after meeting with NV GEBE about the matter. A promise made by NV GEBE is a promise kept in connection with the reduction of utility bills for our seniors. We had to start somewhere and our seniors were at the top of the list to bring forth relief.
“The seniors are very happy with the relief and it’s a start in the right direction. I also wrote a letter on July 11, 2014 to the President of Parliament and the Minister of Economic Affairs about NV GEBE relief across the board for all the residents and commercial consumers.
“The Minister of Economic Affairs is in charge with regulating the tariffs of electricity for the country in accordance with article 12.4 of GEBE's concession. On August 15th, the Minister of Economic Affairs wrote a letter stating that he has no objection to such a decision, and apologised for the almost two-month delay. NV GEBE can go ahead with their initiative after doing their due diligence on the matter. NV GEBE has been informed of this.
“The Minister of Economic Affairs also applauds this initiative and commends all involved who made this effort to bring about relief to all in our community. NV GEBE now needs to their due diligence and relief will come,” Minister Hon. Maurice Lake concluded.
CARIBBEAN – At 11.00PM Thursday, September 11, 2014, the National Hurricane Center upgraded TD#6 to Tropical Storm Eduoard, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Maximum sustained winds are 40 miles per hour and further strengthening is possible. The storm is only a threat to maritime traffic.
ARCHIVE: Thursday, September 11, 2014, 5.00PM - Tropical Storm Edouard, the fifth storm of the season could form Thursday night or on Friday, September 12, 2014 in the far central Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Depression #6 (TD#6) was formed at 5.00pm on Thursday, September 11. According to the National Hurricane Center, winds are 35 miles per hour with higher gusts. TD#6 is moving northwest at 15 miles per hour and poses no threat to any land mass.
ARCHIVE: Thursday, September 11 AM - There is now a 90 per cent chance that the Low Pressure (LP) system in the far eastern central Atlantic Ocean will develop into a Tropical Depression (TD) later today-Thursday, September 11 or tonight, according to the National Hurricane Center.
LP is now 750 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and is moving toward the west-northwest and northwest at about 15 miles per hour.
The system should it developed as forecast does not pose a threat to Sint Maarten or any of the Leeward Islands. It is forecast to past several hundred miles well east of the islands.
ARCHIVE: September 9th - An area of Low Pressure (LP) located South of the Cape Verde Islands continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms, but has the potential to develop during the next several days as environmental conditions improve. Should the system develop into a Tropical Storm, models forecast that it will pass well away from the islands of the north eastern Caribbean.
ARCHIVE: September 9th, 2014 - A Tropical Wave (TW) in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa is producing a large area of cloudiness and thunderstorms. According to the National Hurricane Center, environmental conditions are expected to improve whereby this system would develop further during the next five days. The TW is moving on a westward or west-north-westward at about 15 miles per hour.
This TW according to weather forecasters has the potential to develop into a Tropical Depression by mid-week (September 10) and possibly a Tropical Storm towards the end of the week (September 12-13), however, on its current track, it would pass several hundred miles to the north east of the Leeward Islands which includes Sint Maarten.
An area of disturbed weather located 800 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands is producing limited shower activity. Environmental conditions for further development are low as this system moves westward to west-north-westward at 15 to 20 miles per hour during the next few days. This system has zero percentage for further development.
ARCHIVE: September 5, 2014 - A new Low Pressure (LP) system in the far central Atlantic Ocean is forecasted to pass well north of the islands of the based on the long-term model forecast for this system by Thursday/Friday, September 11/12. Weather forecasters are of the opinion that this system will develop into a Tropical Depression (TD) and then a Tropical Storm (TS) between Monday, September 8 and Wednesday, September 10.
There is another weather disturbance with the potential for development, but this one is still over West Africa and is forecast to enter the central Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, September 7 or Monday, September 8. Some models have this system developing into a TS by the end of next week, or by Friday, September 12. This second system is expected to track to the north of the Leeward Islands by Wednesday, September 17.
As of 8.00am on Friday, September 5th, LP was associated with a Tropical Wave (TW) and was located south of the Cape Verde Islands. Some slow development of this system is possible as it moves westward at 15 miles per hour.
Various weather models are at odds on both weather systems with respect to their further development. The European weather guidance model forecasts that neither system will develop significantly.
PHILIPSBURG – The three political parties that will govern the country for the new governing period 2014-2018 has signed a governing declaration on Monday, September 1. The National Alliance (NA), Democratic Party (DP) and the United St. Maarten (US) Party have also assigned the ministerial positions as well as responsibilities for government-owned companies.
The three-party coalition declares that they are for an open and stable government. They would like to see a government formed as soon as possible in order to create tranquillity amongst the population of the country. The coalition says that a governing program would be finalized no later than October 31, 2014.
The signatures to the governing declaration are NA Leader Member of Parliament Hon. William Marlin, DP Leader and Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams and USp Leader Member of Parliament Hon. Frans Richardson.
National Alliance:
- Prime Minister
- Minister of VROMI
- Minister of Education, Culture, Youth & Sports
- Minister Plenipotentiary
- 2nd Vice Chairperson of Parliament
- GEBE NV
- UTS BV
- Saba Bank Resources NV
Democratic Party:
- Minister of Justice
- Minister of Public Health, Social Affairs and Labour
- Chairperson of Parliament
- Deputy Prime Minister
- Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary
- St. Maarten Telephone Company and its group affiliates
- SLS NV Laboratory
- Windward Islands Airways (WINAIR)
United St. Maarten Party:
- Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications
- Minister of Finance
- 1st Vice Chairperson of Parliament
- St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies and its affiliates
- Princess Juliana Airport Holding Company and its affiliates
- St. Maarten Postal Services NV
The substitution of Minister when absent will be determined by the Council of Ministers according to the declaration.
The three-party coalition wants the operations of all government-owned companies to be audited from an operational and forensic perspective in order to determine the overall health of these companies.
SIMPSON BAY – UTS has completed the delivery of 200 Megabyte (MB) fiber optic cable circuit to the Coastguard headquarters in Simpson Bay. The new connection is a symmetrical 200MB (200MB upload and 200MB download) link which will allow the local coastguard office to communicate with other facilities in Curacao and The Netherlands.
The IT infrastructure of the local Coastguard will communicate directly with the servers in The Netherlands. No data will be stored locally and all software and data updates will be done in the data center of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands. The more stable connection and excellent bandwidth will allow for this exchange of information more easily and effectively.
The connection was realized with the fiber optic capacity on the SSC cable, which also terminates in the UTS building in Philipsburg, and connects Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts and St. Barths. This fiber optic cable system will allow these markets access to high speed services and open new possibilities in terms of telecommunications services.
Connecting the Coastguard is part of an ongoing UTS project which will offer fiber optic connectivity to business customers along specific routes in phase 1 of the project. The company is investing in a fiber optic network throughout various areas of the island and is now moving on to the next stage of connecting some business customers to offer the much higher bandwidth speeds that are possible on a fiber optic cable network.
“We are happy to have the Coastguard on board and look forward to connecting more new customers as we continue to expand our fiber optic network to the main business areas of the island; later moving on to the next stage, which is to connect residential customers with a fiber to the home solution” says UTS Marketing and Communication Officer, Ivy Lambert.
“The international trend that all telecom services will rely heavily on data connectivity is one we recognized many years ago. As such we have made the necessary preparations and investments to be able to offer our customers increased bandwidth in future.
These investments will not only benefit customers connecting directly to the fiber optic network, but will also benefit customers making use of our wireless and mobile services. We are realizing a fiber ring which will connect our various transmitter sites, preparing for the next generation of mobile technology, which will invariably be more data-hungry as well.” Lambert continues.
UTS Eastern Caribbean CEO, Mr. Glen A. Carty further explains, citing: “UTS will continue diligently as we move towards our ultimate goal to become the best quad play provider in the Caribbean; providing the best possible service to our business and residential customers.”
PHILIPSBURG, POLICE HQ - In the past few months a man was involved in several traffic accidents on the island. Of course that happens sometimes, because people have bad luck, but fact is that this man was under the influence of alcohol every time he had an accident with his car. Luckily at the time of the accidents, no one was injured.
Police officers arrested the man suspected of driving while intoxicated and presented him to the assistant public prosecutor to verify if his arrest had any legal grounds.
The officers who handled the investigations in which the drunken driver was involved collected all the evidence that was needed to get this suspect in front of a judge.
On Wednesday August 27th the suspect driver had to stand in front of the judge to justify his actions. Colleagues from the Traffic Department were present during the trial to hear the judge’s verdict and to find out if the report they made was sufficient. After the trial the judge decided that the suspect was fully responsible for his actions and that he was guilty in all the cases that were brought up against him.
The suspect was convicted and sentenced to two months of conditional detention with two years probation. The suspect must serve 80 hours of community service. If the suspect doesn’t comply the conditional punishment becomes actual detention. The suspect has also been restricted from driving any motor vehicle for one year.
This man has to seek professional help to deal with his alcohol addiction and he has to pay for all damages he has caused. (Contributed by the Police Force of Sint Maarten)
PHILIPSBURG - In a press release of the 27th of August 2014, the Chief Prosecutor of St. Maarten, Mr. Eric Noordhoek states that he has already brought to the attention of the Minister of Justice the shortage of manpower at the National Detective Agency (landsrecherche) of Sint Maarten.
The present Minister of Justice, Mr. Dennis Richardson, as well as the former Minister of Justice, Mr. Roland Duncan, have been aware of the shortage of manpower of the National Detective Agency since its inception, therefore before achieving country status by Sint Maarten.
The then Netherlands Antilles government promised to assist Sint Maarten in the development of its countries organizations leading up to its country status, especially in the areas where Sint Maarten did not carry any responsibility before as an Island Territory, amongst others therefore in the area of the Department of Justice.
This promise was not kept and the National Detective Agency started out at 10-10-10 with one person, the present head of the agency, who did not even have an office at that time.
In the early stages of its development the head of agency tried to get assistance from the National Detective (Rijksrecherche) agency in the Netherlands, an assistance that never materialized. Support was promised once the agency reached full capacity. A peculiar approach since it would be doubtful if such assistance would be necessary once the agency is fully developed. Operational assistance was needed then and there in view of the workload already for the fledgling agency.
At the request of the then Minister of Justice Aruba sprang to the aid of the our national detective agency by making three (3) detectives available for 3 months, with an extension of one detective for one month, for a large operation. Furthermore the agency also received assistance from detectives of the Police Force of Sint Maarten.
In the meantime the agency has been expanded to presently 9 full time equivalents and, notwithstanding the financial constraints of the country, has 9 vacancies that can be filled: 5 this year and 4 in 2014, which will bring it to a total of 18 fte’s. At 20 to 23 fte’s the agency will be at its full capacity.
At the beginning of 2014 Justice Minister, Dennis Richardson, filed a request to Minister of Security and Justice, Minister Ivo Opstelten of the Netherlands for temporary operational assistance from the Rijksrecherche with four detectives in view of the present workload of the Landsrecherche of Sint Maarten.
Eight months later, that assistance has not materialized as yet!
A little known fact is that the Attorney General of Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius can independent of the Ministers of Justice of Curacao and Aruba also call for the assistance of the Rijksrecherche of the Netherlands. Such a request would be based on article 35 of the Kingdom Law on Public Prosecution.
Why that did not happen in previous years is not known.
Recently (June/July 2014) however the present Attorney General, Mr. Guus Scram, has also requested the assistance of the Rijksrecherche.
The Minister of Justice, Dennis Richardson and the National Detective Agency are still awaiting with contained breath the results of this most recent initiative for acquiring the assistance from the Netherlands.
MAHO REEF - On Wednesday August 27th at approximately 02.20 P.M. the Community Police Officers for the Simpson Bay and Low land areas were called to the Sonesta Maho Reef Hotel to investigate a case of a man that was found dead at a construction area of that hotel.
Immediately the CPO’s went to the scene where they found the lifeless body of a man doing construction work at that hotel. The body of this man was found at the bottom of an elevator shaft of a building under construction at this hotel.
The man who at this time is identified as D.B. (54) was a native from Haiti. The death of the victim was pronounced by Doctor H. Deketh from the Mullet Bay Clinic. The paramedics and the Fire Department were on the scene to assist with the investigation.
The investigation done by the investigating officers indicate that the victim had possibly fallen from one of the upper floors, but could at the time not determine which one. The investigating officers however learnt that the Immigration Department were busy with controls at that hotel and that numerous persons as they saw the immigration officers took off running in different directions.
It could also not be determined if the victim was one of those persons that was fleeing from Immigration. The Forensic Department and Detectives were on the scene collecting evidence and questioning possible witnesses. Building Safety Inspectors from the VROMI Department were also on the scene conducting their investigation. The body was confiscated and taken to the morgue as the investigation continues. (From the Police Force of St. Maarten)
PHILIPSBURG – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake facilitated a sponsor for the John Larmonie Center Senior Citizens Recreation Area.
On Tuesday SXM Airport donated a cheque to the senior’s representative Patsy Flanders. The funds will go to cover the costs of setting up a ramp making the building more accessible to seniors and repairs to the kitchenette.
“I am very pleased that repairs and other works can now move forward at the John Larmonie Center which will be to the benefit of our seniors,” Minister Hon. Maurice Lake said on Tuesday.
CARIBBEAN, Cayman Islands – Cayman Islands health authorities will be screening all persons who enter the territory from West Africa due to the current outbreak of Ebola. This seemingly is the first Caribbean island to take such a measure.
Border Control officers will work along with the Public Health Department of the Cayman Islands and the Disaster Emergency Management Authorities with respect to identifying travellers who exhibit illness upon their entry into the territory; they will be questioned about their recent travel history and if they have travelled to West Africa or were around anyone who had been there within the past 21 days.
Cayman Health Services Authority made the announcement recently that it will be meeting with stakeholders such as the Airport Authority, Border Control and Immigration, the Public Health authorities as well as the Tourism Department to review and update screening protocols especially for travellers coming from West Africa where the outbreak of Ebola is its worst.
The Cayman Health Services Authority was reported to have said that the risk of Ebola spreading to the Cayman Islands is low. This is the same message that has been disseminated by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to all Caribbean governments including Sint Maarten.
SOUALIGANEWSDAY REPORT