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>PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake says in order for the country to move forward, one has to have a vision.

On Wednesday Minister Lake released an illustration of his vision for the Vorst property in Cay Hill. It includes public housing for young professionals who are studying abroad and would like to return home to work; and a commercial job creation center that would create jobs for the unemployed and those seeking work.

The commercial center includes a sewing center that could create 100+ jobs Read more

Presentation National Mental Health Plan “Half Of Mental Disorders Begin Before The Age Of Fourteen”

St. Maarten – “There will be no more budget cuts to the subsidy for the Mental Health Foundation,” Public Health Minister Cornelius de Weever said yesterday in answer to a question from this newspaper at a press conference where Virginia Asin-Oostburg, head of Collective Prevention Services (CPS) presented the National Mental Health Plan 2014-2018.

Last year, the Mental Health Foundation lost around 200,000 guilders of its annual subsidy, while the government increased the subsidy for the rehab center Turning Point Read more

Minister Lake Reveals Plans For Vorst Estate

CAY HILL – Vromi Minister Maurice Lake revealed yesterday in a press release an image of what he envisions could be built on the Vorst property in Cay Hill. “In order for the country to move forward, one has to have a vision,” he said.

The plans include public housing for young professionals who are studying abroad and would like to return home to work; and a commercial job creation center that would create jobs for the unemployed, and those seeking work, the Minister said.

The commercial center includes a sewing center that could create 100+ jobs Read more

Mps Should Champion Our Culture, Says Rhoda Arrindell

GREAT BAY, St. Martin — "Parliamentarians should be great champions of our nation's culture," said educator and author Dr. Rhoda Arrindell.

"Having a modern Performing Arts Center for our culture to be presented in creative and dynamic ways or on a grand scale by our singers, kaisonians, musicians, dancers, gymnasts, capoeiria and other martial arts students and masters, as well as by our playwrights, actors, painters and plastic artists, moviemakers and videographers, poets, rappers, and other spoken word artists, and for the enjoyment and inspiration of our people and our visitors, is definitely an area that I would champion in Parliament," said Arrindell.

"The Performing Arts Center illustration that the UP party has made public, is a ready part of the vision of my party leader Theo Heyliger, which I wholeheartedly subscribe to," said Arrindell, who is the #14 UP candidate for the parliamentary election of August 29, 2014.

"Part of the parliamentarian's job is to do his or her part for that vision to become a reality, by passing the laws that would translate election promises into reality in the form of buildings, jobs and new career and business opportunities, and in services with dignity for our people," said Arrindell.

Arrindell was herself successful with two cornerstone nation-building legislations in the areas of culture and education during her term as the UP Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs between October 2010 and May 2012.

"It took both leadership and team work within the ministry, the Council of Ministers and Parliament, with researchers, legal people, labor leaders, cultural workers, educators and administrators, and a range of other stakeholders, to make July 1 Emancipation Day a public holiday and to secure St Read more

Editorial - Not without merit

Although the introduction of a visitor health fee proposed by Health Minister Cornelius de Weever (see related story) seems a bit "out of the blue" it shouldn't be discarded outright. Health-related services obviously are targeted in the first place toward local residents, but it does happen that guests make use of them.

As a tourism destination, maintaining quality medical facilities is important, especially for vacationers who may suffer already from some type of condition Read more

Editorial - Wait and see

Tuesday's report that a fourth St. Maarten mobile service concession has been granted to local television station owner Elwaldo Arrindell obviously caught many by surprise. It seems the licence itself dates back almost two years and was issued by then-minister of telecommunications Romeo Pantophlet of the NA/DP/Independent 3 government.

While the news was met with some concern by both United Telecommunication Services (UTS) and the TelEm Group (see today's related story), clients unhappy with the two current cell phone providers on the Dutch side UTS (Chippie) and TelCell may take a different view Read more

Sale of Pelican Resort declared null and void

PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Tuesday declared null and void the disputed December 16, 2010, auction of Pelican Resort and Club.

In the court case on the merits, the former owners of Pelican Resort, now Simpson Bay Resort, successfully challenged the legality of the auction, which was called after the owners of the resort fell behind with their mortgage payments.

Lender Quantum Investment Trust (QIT) auctioned off the resort in a public auction on which it submitted the only and winning bid and became the owner of the resort, after which QIT transferred ownership to Simpson Bay Resort Owner Company B.V Read more

Port St. Maarten set for major milestones

From left: Port St. Maarten CEO Mark Mingo and MP Theo Heyliger present a Port St. Maarten plaque to Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald, a strategic cruise partner.

 POINTE BLANCHE--Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo has announced two milestones for the port: it is expected to surpass St. Thomas for the first time ever in terms of number of cruise passengers, and it is expected to hit the two million mark Read more

Caravanserai goes to anonymous buyer

PHILIPSBURG--A buyer who has opted to remain anonymous won the Caravanserai resort, land and apartments at a public auction held by Tjon Ajong and Associates at Pasanggrahan Beach Hotel yesterday morning.

This was the third time the assets had been put on auction and they sold for some US $14 million, in comparison to the initial asking price of $20 million.

Two bidders purportedly were in the running for the purchase, amidst a room of around 50 people.

The buyer's intentions could not be established and his representative at the auction, Chris van Amersfoort of HBN Law, declined to relay any information on his client's intentions or identity.

Roeland Zwanikken of BZSE Attorneys at Law/Tax Lawyers who represented seller Scotiabank said the bank was happy with the outcome and happy to have the situation behind it, even though the price is $3 million below the accrued principal mortgage in addition to other costs Read more

Labour, Social Services Dept servers sent abroad to be fixed

~ Consideration to avoid gaps in permits ~

PHILIPSBURG--The servers at the Departments of Labour and Social Affairs are expected to be "up and running" in about two weeks, says Labour Minister Cornelius de Weever.

The minister said on Wednesday that the servers had been sent abroad to be fixed. The system went down about four weeks ago due to a power surge and persons have been unable to submit employment permit renewal requests Read more

De Weever says visitor health fee can raise millions for health care

PHILIPSBURG--The introduction of a visitor health fee can raise millions for health care in St. Maarten, says Health Minister Cornelius de Weever.

He told reporters at Wednesday's Council of Ministers press briefing that a health fee of US $1 could be considered to be charged on airline tickets or cruise ships. With the 1,700,000 to 1,800,000 and projections for 2,000,000 cruise ship passengers and 500,000 stay-over visitors, St Read more

UP candidate Matser to face tax-evasion charges

PHILIPSBURG--The criminal court case against local businessman Silvio Matser and his company Energizer N.V., which was initially scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed until December 3.

Matser, who is the owner of Energizer N.V., is charged with tax evasion to the amount of US $3.2 million, in connection with non-payment of income tax, social security premiums for workers and turnover tax on behalf of his construction company.

Matser is running in the parliamentary election as the number 23 candidate on United People's (UP) party slate.

Energizer's director was held and questioned on January 25, 2013, in connection with this tax investigation.

The formal charges include tax evasion and forgery of tax returns allegedly committed between January 1, 2006, and October 10, 2010, and alleged tax evasion over the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.

Energizer's 47-year-old director is denying the allegations Read more

De Weever: New budget cuts nearly impossible

PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Cornelius de Weever says budgetary amendments from his ministry are near impossible, as the ministry has reached a bare minimum and any additional cuts would not enable the ministry to execute the legislative tasks with which it is tasked.

He was attempting to explain why his ministry had not been able to comply with the budget demands as stated by the Committee for Financial Supervision.

"In order to pass the 2014 Budget, the private sector now pays its own fair share of health care premiums which provides medical insurance to their clients and family members for such a low price," De Weever said in a press release Tuesday.

De Weever made a request to amend the budget as it relates to the health care expenses of civil servants; to transfer these costs from the budget of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA to the budget of General Affairs or allocate them to the personnel budget of each respective Ministry by means of an allocation key.

He said the budget of VSA in particular was pegged to a year plan, including key performance indicators, and to an end-of-year report that accounts for every penny spent.

"I believe all other ministries that function without a year plan should reform and provide more accountability Read more

Dennis updates MPs about tackling crime

PHILIPSBURG--Justice Minister Dennis Richardson gave Members of Parliament (MPs) updates on the Police's efforts to tackle crime in the community at a Central Committee meeting of Parliament on Monday. The meeting was scheduled to take place last week, but was postponed until yesterday, due to a lack of quorum.

Richardson said the country's crime levels are at a place where other countries in the immediate surrounding will be "jealous of." The police force has been tackling preventable crimes and have been making arrests and getting breaks in large cases Read more

Concession given for 4th mobile service provider

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten's fourth mobile service concession has been granted officially to Elwaldo Arrindell, who was granted a licence in August 28, 2012, by former Minister of Telecommunication Romeo Pantophlet after initially having requested one in 1997.

The concession will allow him to operate, which can translate to a somewhat worrying development for established local providers TelCell and United Telecommunications Services (UTS).

Although Arrindell was not available for comment yesterday, he shared with The Daily Herald last year that, if successful, he hoped to launch a new cellular phone company by the end of 2013 Read more

Minister Lake Applauds Nv Gebe For Providing Relief To Seniors

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake, applauds NV GEBE for remaining on track and providing seniors of the country who qualified relief which should be seen in their monthly utility bills.

Minister Lake took note of a NV GEBE press release announcing the news this week.

"NV GEBE has kept its promise to the seniors in our community Read more

Fourth Mobile Telecom Provider Is Not Necessarily Good News

St. Maarten – The mobile telecommunications market in St. Maarten is in for a rough ride and an uncertain future after Elwaldo Arrindell’s company Beach Mart NV obtained a concession for the exploitation of a mobile telecommunication infrastructure. With the existing providers – TelEm and UTS – and another party ready to jump on the bandwagon – Brenda Wathey’s Corporate Innovations – the island may soon have four providers competing for the business of the roughly 67,000 mobile subscribers that make up the local market.

The concession Elwaldo Arrindell obtained could spell bad news for the TelEm Group of Companies Read more

Voting In Today Election Poll Now Open – Send A Free Text Message To Vote

St. Maarten – Starting today, Chippie-users will begin to receive text messages for Today’s election poll. Chippie-users will be able to express their political preference for the August 29 elections via a free text message. Today has once again chosen UTS as its partner for this project because the company has the largest mobile customer base in St. Maarten.
UTS makes the poll technically possible by putting its network at our disposal. The company will start today sending our text messages to thousands of Chippie-customers Read more

Health Minister Say Permit Given For Expansion Of St. Maarten Medical Center

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Minister with the responsibility for Health, Social affairs and Labor, the Honorable Cornelius de Weever is of the opinion that politics is being played with the St. Maarten Medical Center.

Whilst addressing that subject at the Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday, Minister de Weever reiterated that the expansion of the St Read more

Connor Gives Motivational Talk To Students

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry Executive Director, Claret Connor, gave a series of motivational talks to three of the new first form classes of the Sundial School on Tuesday, August 12th.

Under the theme "Let your Attitude determine your Altitude" Connor encouraged students to aim high, and that even though it was only their second day of high school, the right attitude would take them far.

"Speaking to the new students is something that I do annually," Connor says Read more

Two Days Left To Nominate For Annual President Of Parliament Award

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – President of Parliament Hon. Gracita Arrindell says two days are left to consider nominating somebody for the Annual President of Parliament Award. The public and organizations have until Friday.

The application documents are on the parliament's website. Persons have until August 15, 2014 to submit their nominations.

The website address is: www.sxmparliament.org and can be found under the documents section on the right side of the site Read more

Minister Lake Releases Vorst Cay Hill Property Vision For Public Housing And Job Creation Center

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake says in order for the country to move forward, one has to have a vision.

On Wednesday Minister Lake released an illustration of his vision for the Vorst property in Cay Hill. It includes public housing for young professionals who are studying abroad and would like to return home to work; and a commercial job creation center that would create jobs for the unemployed and those seeking work.

The commercial center includes a sewing center that could create 100+ jobs.

The Minister's vision entails persons sewing school uniforms, prison uniforms, hotels and many other businesses that require a uniform Read more

Romain Laville At Odds With Statement From Up Candidate

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Independent Member of Parliament, the Honorable Romain Laville, who has opted not to run for the August 29th parliamentary elections, has reacted bitterly at the statements of Read more

Unemployed Father Calls For Support With School Fees

Anonymous businessman helped him out, but there are others

St. Maarten – George Antoine Hodge is an unemployed father who struggles financially. With the new school year beginning today, there are school fees to be paid. He turned to Julian Rollocks who took him on a tour until they found a businessman (who wishes to remain anonymous) prepared to pay the school fees for his 16-year-old son George Jr.

Hodge is obviously happy with the support but he is also aware that there are many others on the island facing similar financial problems Read more