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Editorial: Clarion Call (University Of St. Maarten Needs Attention)

Member of Parliament Maurice Lake will ask today some attention for the University of St. Martin – a call that is long overdue.

That the university has been struggling for years to make ends meet is no secret to anybody. It is also no secret that successive government have make all kinds of demands on USM over the years but when it came to funding sorely needed courses, there was nobody home at Clem Labega Square.

We have no illusion that all this will suddenly change because one MP is drawing attention to the fact that the government finally has to take the university serious.

Nevertheless, there it is – a clarion call that should finally wake up some people Read more

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Gracita Arrindell Candidate For Dutch Council Of State

St. Maarten –Drs. Gracita Arrindell is a candidate to fill the position for St. Maarten at the Council of State in The Hague, the former president of parliament confirmed to this newspaper on Saturday. The appointment has not yet been formally announced.

Arrindell would succeed Dennis Richardson who sat on the council until he was appointed minister of justice in the third Wescot-Williams cabinet in 2013 Read more

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Mp Lake Wants More Money For University

St. Maarten – United People’s party MP Maurice Lake has submitted a list of points for the plan of action of the permanent parliamentary committee for education, culture, youth and sports. The committee will meeting today to discuss a draft a plan of action for 2015.

Lake suggests that the government recognizes the University of St Read more

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Wescott-Williams: “New Tax System Cannot Be Introduced Overnight”

St. Maarten —A new tax system cannot be introduced overnight, notes leader of the Democratic Party faction in Parliament MP Sarah Wescott-Williams, who said she intends to discuss this new tax system in a meeting with the Minister of Finance. MP Wescott-Williams pointed out that the need for introducing a new tax system has been in discussions for years but there must be consultations and there are a lot of different aspects to take into consideration.

While acknowledging that the new tax system cannot be introduced overnight, the DP leader said a start must be made Read more

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Princess Heights Awarded Green Key Eco-Label

St. Maarten -The Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) awarded Princess Heights Luxury Boutique Condo Hotel with the first and only Green Key Eco-Label certification in St. Maarten, solidifying St. Maarten’s reputation as a destination that is serious about the environment.

“Here at Princess Heights, we’ve been using Green Key guidelines as a model for best practices for many years,” said Emil Lee, General Manager of Princess Heights.  “If ‘being green’ translated to higher prices, it would not be sustainable for businesses to make green choices Read more

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Dp Wants Answers From Gebe

St. Maarten -A list of pertinent questions will be forwarded to Gebe by the Democratic Party faction in parliament following a recent meeting between the company representatives and the parliament.

Leader of the Democratic Party faction in parliament Sarah Wescott-Williams noted that there is a government endorsed energy plan for the Country St Read more

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Low Turnout, High Disappointment At Miss West Indies

St. Maarten -Guadeloupe’s Alex Rabolion is the new Ms. West Indies Queen after beating out thirteen other delegates to win the coveted crown on Sunday morning in Galisby. The 26-year old beautician was one of the early favorites heading into the pageant that was held at Carnival Village in French St. Martin on Valentine’s Day.

However she faced stiff competition from audience darlings, Ms. St. Lucia- Oneka Mckoy, Ms. Bahamas-Chantel O’Brian and Ms. US Virgin Islands-  Temisha Libert Read more

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Mp Silveria Jacobs Elected Chair Of Education Committee

St. Maarten – MP Silveria Jacobs has been elected as the Chair of the Committee for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs (CECYSA) of Parliament and MP Tamara Leonard has been elected as Vice Chair.

The Committee for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs (CECYSA) of Parliament met on Friday morning to elect a new chair and vice chair on the request of a majority of members.

The committee increased by an additional three members and now consists of eight Members of Parliament (MPs)—MP Silveria Jacobs, MP Sarah Wescott Williams, MP Tamara Leonard, MP Christopher Emmanuel, MP Maurice Lake, MP Leona Marlin-Romeo, MP Johan Leonard and MP Van Hugh de Weever.

MP Silveria Jacobs was re-elected as Chair, and MP Tamara Leonard was elected as Vice Chair both by unanimous vote by all seven members present Read more

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Government Launches Official Facebook Page

GREATBAY—The Government of St. Maarten has embraced social media by launching its Official Facebook page– “Government of Sint Maarten”– to the local populace and the rest of the world.

A government information service press release yesterday announced “The goal of the Government’s Facebook page is to gain wider exposure to a new demographic in the world of social media with information such as press releases, public notices, pictures and or videos of government related events Read more

Minister Connor: Government Still Committed To Timeshare Consumer Protection

St. Maarten – Government’s goal as it regards timeshare remains to establish timeshare consumer protection and meet the goal of bringing credibility to St. Maarten’s Timeshare product, Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Claret Connor reiterated on Tuesday.

He said government understands, full well, the messages it is receiving from timeshare members Read more

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Local Alternative For Rain Forest

St. Maarten – He wrote a comprehensive plan for the sustainable development of the Emilio Wilson estate and brought it to the attention of former Vromi-Minister Maurice Lake, the former Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams and the former Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Ted Richardson Read more

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Princess Heights Makes Going Green Profitable

St. Maarten – The Princess Heights boutique hotel in Dawn Beach is now among 2,300 hotels in 47 countries around the world to carry the Green Key eco-label. On Monday evening, the hotel celebrated the certification with a reception around the property’s pool.

General Manager Emil Lee said that initially he had no intention to get the hotel certified Read more

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Carnival 2015 Queen Contestants Experience Cultural, History Tour

St. Maarten -The Carnival contestants of the Teen, Senior and Mature queen pageants were treated on Saturday to a day of culture and history for the first annual Royal Culture Tour organized by the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF). The brainchild of pageant coordinator Aishira Cicilia, the tour was organized to give all the contestants a more wholesome experience and for them to understand that through pageantry, they can learn and relay aspects of St. Maarten’s history and culture to others.

 

They started at the St Read more

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Mp Sarah Wescot-Williams: “This Is A Slap In The Face Of St.Maarten”

St. Maarten – “Nothing Sint Maarten has done with respect to tackling integrity issues has made any difference for Minister Plasterk and his colleagues in the Dutch cabinet,” Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams states in a press release, adding that an article-51 measure amounts to imposing higher supervision.

Wescot-Williams notes that Kingdom Relations Minister Plasterk “has been fencing with the measure for a long time” thereby “making it appear as if St Read more

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No Waste-To-Energy Plant In Cay Bay

St. Maarten – The government is not aware of any plans for the construction of a waste-to-energy plant in Cay Bay, acting Vromi-Minister Marcel Gumbs said yesterday in parliament. He added that there are no plans for Gebe to invest in such a plant either.

“Negotiations with the selected company (for the construction of a waste-to-energy plant on Pond Island – ed.) are still ongoing and there are no plans for a plant in Cay Bay,” Gumbs said.

The minister said that Gebe buys its fuel from SOL and that this company has a storage facility for a two-week supply.  Gebe calculates the average cost of the two monthly orders and then calculates the fuel clause in the first week of the following month.

Gumbs said that Gebe had lowered its tariffs with 5 cent per Kwh for households and 1 cent per Kwh for companies after it no longer had to subsidize the utility companies in Saba and Statia Read more

St. Maarten Timeshare Association Smta Calls For Summit To “Correct” Timeshare Ordinance

St. Maarten —The SMTA yesterday called for an immediate summit to be convened with the current Parliamentary initiator of the law–MP Leroy de Weever–, the Ministers of TEAT and Justice, the Council of Advice, the Ombudsman, Legal Affairs and the SMTA in order to make a plan to get this (timeshare) legislation corrected and if necessary, translated properly to Dutch, and passed in the shortest time possible.

The SMTA’s call comes on the heels of recent developments surrounding the Timeshare ordinance Read more

Mp Marlin-Romeo: “Cut Salaries Of Mps And Ministers By 5 Percent”

St. Maarten – Independent Member of Parliament Leona Marlin-Romeo made a good impression in her first address during Tuesday’s budget-debate. To the point and sticking to budget-related issues, the rookie MP fired a torrent of succulent remarks, mostly geared towards areas where she considers budget cuts still possible – and she did not need one-and-a-half hour to get her points across Read more

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