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>PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, chairman of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the National Disaster Coordinator Fire Chief Clive Richardson, are calling on residents to re-check their preparations for the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season, adding that this should have been done since June 1st when the season started.
The fourth storm of the season has formed, Tropical Storm Danny Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- University of St. Martin (USM) announced the opening of its new school named “The St. Martin School of Continuing Education and Life Long Learning (SCELL)”, which was launched on August 1, 2015. Since the opening of SCELL the school has received an overwhelming reception from the Business Community. Motor World recently joined the ranks of Windward Island Bank, Ltd (WIB) as a sponsor of SCELL by donating a non-disclosed amount to the school.
Motor World Marketing officer, Mr Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- NAGICO Insurances continues to invest in the community by supporting educational ventures, the latest being a financial donation to the 2015-2016 HYPE Agenda for high school students.

The donation will go towards printing costs for the Agenda.

NAGICO Marketing Assistant Jamie-Lee Peterson presented the cheque to HYPE at NAGICO’s head office in Philipsburg on Friday, August 14 Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- The St. Maarten Nature Foundation was alerted to a Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting on Great Bay Beach early on Monday morning. Upon arrival at the location it was found that the turtle nested in an unsuitable location in the sand on Great Bay beach and it was decided to relocate the nest in order to protect the fragile eggs. Because the risk of beach umbrellas puncturing the eggs and because the nest was lain close to the water making it susceptible to storm surge the Foundation decided to move the nest Read more

>PORT ST. MAARTEN:---- Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Claret Connor, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson, and Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer Mark Mingo, and other delegation officials, met with Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) President Michele Paige and the FCCA Security Committee members Adam Ceserano, Vice President, Domminick A Read more

Up Mp Lake Still Concerned About Kadaster, Wants Answers

PHILIPSBURG – United People’s (UP) Party Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake has sent a letter through Parliament to the Minister of Finance and the Acting Minister of VROMI concerning the recent developments at Kadaster and advising the Minister of Finance to set a time frame to the Board of Kadaster to provide Parliament with the management reports and financial reports and the answers to the Ombudsman recommendations.

“As a representative of the people, I am very surprised that the Netherlands who has Integrity high on their list would allow the Kadaster Director Clemens Roos to finish his contract on the island before sitting out his sentence.  This is a breach of integrity at its best I think Read more

Fcca, Ministers Of Tourism And Justice And Port St. Maarten Discuss Crime Fighting Initiatives And Employment Opportunities

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten  – Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Claret Connor, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson, and Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer Mark Mingo, and other delegation officials, met with Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) President Michele Paige and the FCCA Security Committee members Adam Ceserano, Vice President, Domminick A Read more

Prime Minister Gumbs Appraised Of Measures Taken By Ministry Vromi In Relation To Tropical Storm Danny

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, chairman of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), was informed on Wednesday about pre-storm/hurricane preparations by the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) in connection with any possible threat that Tropical Storm Danny could pose to the country.

Tropical Storm Danny is forecast to become a hurricane later in the week prior to it reaching the Lesser Antilles.  On Wednesday Danny was more than 1300 miles away.

“The preparations underway by Ministry VROMI takes into consideration the amount of time to prepare for any possible weather from Danny.  We have the lead time to prepare in the event we are confronted with a hurricane several days from now. 

It’s better to prepare now then wait until it’s at our doorstep Read more

Motor World Donates To Usm New School, Scell

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – The University of St. Martin (USM) announced the opening of its new school named “The St. Martin School of Continuing Education and Life Long Learning (SCELL)”, which was launched on August 1, 2015.

Since the opening of SCELL the school has received an overwhelming reception from the Business Community. Motor World recently joined the ranks of Windward Island Bank, Ltd (WIB) as a sponsor of SCELL by donating a non-disclosed amount to the school.

Motor World Marketing officer, Mr Read more

Prime Minister And National Disaster Coordinator Calls On Nation To Re-Check Hurricane Season Preparations As Tropical Storm Danny Churns Out In Atlantic

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, chairman of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the National Disaster Coordinator Fire Chief Clive Richardson, are calling on residents to re-check their preparations for the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season, adding that this should have been done since June 1st when the season started.

The fourth storm of the season has formed, Tropical Storm Danny.  It is forecast to become a hurricane.  Residents and visitors are advised to monitor the progress of Danny closely even though it’s over 1300 miles away from the Lesser Antilles.

Coordinators from the 10 Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) of the country’s disaster management system have been instructed to review implementation action plans and to start pre-preparations in the event Danny should pose a threat to the country.

The Office of Disaster Management (ODM) and the Meteorological Department of Sint Maarten will be keeping the public informed as this storm approaches the Lesser Antilles.  The Governments Emergency Radio Broadcast System is also operational and on standby if necessary.  Radio listeners can tune in to 107.9 FM.

Residents, vacation-home owners, businesses and the yachting community are advised to use the next couple of days to check their hurricane preparation plans; review hurricane shutters and check what furniture and outdoor items should be removed in the event of a hurricane threat; use the time now to repair or purchase any items needed to secure your home or business; villa/home rental management agencies should check the aforementioned to make sure they are storm-ready; livestock owners should review their own storm preparations; warehouses/storage depots should check their surroundings and make sure they are storm ready in the event of a threat to the country.

Contractors and builders should review their site hurricane preparation plans as was already advised by the ODM back in July; review what items at the building site may need to be secured in the event of a threat; residents of homes along the coasts are requested to review their plans and to be ready to take action in the event of a passing storm/hurricane.

“Residents, vacation-home owners, businesses as well as the yachting community should use the next couple of days to review their preparations for the hurricane season.  We have Danny out in the Atlantic and the aforementioned should be ready to take the necessary action when required to do so. 

“Everybody should have learnt from the past.  Don’t wait until the last minute to check around your home and business or check your boat.  Do so in the coming days as it is better to be safe than sorry.  We have now entered the busy part of the hurricane season which runs from mid-August to mid-October.  Remember, it only takes one hurricane to make it a bad season.  Make sure you are ready and prepared,” Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs said on Wednesday.

The 10 ESFs are: GEBE/ESF-1, TelEm Group/ESF-2, Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI)/ESF-3, Fire Department/ESF-4, Police Department/ESF-5, Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labour/ESF-6 and 7, Department of Communication/ESF-8, Ministry of General Affairs/ESF-9, and Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT)/ESF-10. 

The remaining storm names for the Atlantic season are Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicolas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda.

The 2015 hurricane season officially runs through November 30.

In Photo: File Photo: Seated at the head of the table is National Disaster Coordinator/Fire Chief Clive Richardson (left) and Prime Minister Hon Read more

Tzu Chi Volunteers Spruce Up Ace School For New Academic Year

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - All Children’s Education (ACE) Foundation teachers and pupils returned to school on Monday in a repaired, freshly painted, cleaned and decorated premises thanks to the efforts by Tzu Chi volunteers who worked over the vacation to spruce up the school just in time for the start of the new academic year.

The clean up efforts covered several days during the summer break in early August and focussed on bringing the school back up to par for teachers and pupils to educate and be educated in comfort.

The clean up efforts started on Saturday August 1 and continued until Thursday, August 6.  A total of 48 volunteers participated in the exercise Read more

Nagico Backs Education With Donation To Hype Agenda

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - NAGICO Insurances continues to invest in the community by supporting educational ventures, the latest being a financial donation to the 2015-2016 HYPE Agenda for high school students.

The donation will go towards printing costs for the Agenda.  

NAGICO Marketing Assistant Jamie-Lee Peterson presented the cheque to HYPE at NAGICO’s head office in Philipsburg on Friday, August 14 Read more

Only National Alliance Votes Against Ordinance: Parliament Establishes Integrity Chamber

St. Maarten – After everything was said and done yesterday, only the opposition faction of the National Alliance voted against the establishment of the Integrity Chamber. The United People’s party faction, having voiced serious opposition against the Dutch pressure on St. Maarten, withdrew all of the amendments it proposed to the law in June, and went along with a strategic proposal from opposition MP Sarah Wescot-Williams to accept the proposal the government put on the table Read more

Seventy Ideas To Enhance Fight Against Crime: Parliament Sends Money To Justice Ministry

President of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – The parliament will transfer 300,000 guilders of its travel budget to the Ministry of Justice as one of the measures to enhance the security and safety of the country, President of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson says.

The parliament discussed close to 70 points with the Council of Ministers in its closed-door meetings last week, following the killing of Police Officer Gamali Benjamin Read more

Man Shot On Front Street

A police officer searches for bullets and other evidence at the crime scene on Sunday evening. Photo Today / Andrew Dick

St. Maarten – Donavan McCardy (45) arrived at the police station after 8 p.m. on Sunday evening with six gunshot wounds. Police tended to the victim while the ambulance was called for assistance. The shooting took place close to the Klass Electronics alley on Front Street.

The victim is presently at the St. Maarten Medical Center in critical condition. The investigation has started and investigators are waiting for the victim to stabilize in order to question him Read more

Mp Marlin-Romeo Initiates Small Claims Court Proposal

St. Maarten – Independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo has requested a meeting to discuss the establishment of a small claims court. Attorney Reynold Groeneveldt has prepared a proposal to this end. Marlin-Romeo supports this initiative that allows this court to handle claims up to 5,000 guilders.

“In every community there are persons who have claims for relatively small amounts of money Read more

US Senate Democrats stake out both sides of Iran deal

WASHINGTON--Senator Robert Menendez blasted the U.S.-led international nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, vowing to oppose it in defiance of President Barack Obama, who picked up much-needed support for the deal from two other Senate Democrats.
  As September voting on the agreement in the U.S. Congress neared, Menendez, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, became the second senior lawmaker from Obama's own party to announce he would vote to kill the pact with Tehran.
  "I will vote to disapprove the agreement and, if called upon, would vote to override a veto" by the president, Menendez said in a speech in his home state of New Jersey.
  Shortly later, Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both of Rhode Island, announced that they would support the agreement Read more

Sport Federation gearing up for Pan-Am Games

PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Sports Federation has launched the St. Maarten Promising Athletes (SPA) 2015 – 2020 project. The program calls for the identification of talented athletes from the various sport disciplines, the implementation of a special support for Sport scholarship to prepare and develop high-performance athletes, with the goal of leading St. Maarten into qualification for the Youth, CAC and Pan-American Games starting in 2018.

Over the past months the Sports federation studies organizes sports on the island.

"Based on our assessments it was concluded that sports is suffering due to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles," explained federation president Aartwichgt Bell.

" Knowing this, country St Read more

Editorial - Well-intended gesture

The decision in principle to transfer 300,000 guilders of Parliament’s travel budget to the Justice Ministry for the fight against crime (see Tuesday paper) is certainly a sympathetic move in light of two recent shootings in Philipsburg, one of which resulted in the death of a police officer. On the other hand, it also sounds familiar.

In January 2014 the legislature passed a motion to slice its NAf Read more

Fifth member of Corporate Governance Council soon

PHILIPSBURG--The fifth member of the Corporate Governance Council (CGC) is expected to be appointed by the Council of Ministers next week.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told Parliament on Monday, the CGC headed by Chairman banker Perry Wilson, is "up and functioning." The council recently received some NAf Read more

Over a dozen candidates disqualified, charged over voting day violence in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti--Fourteen candidates in Haiti’s legislative elections – including four from President Michel Martelly’s PHTK party – have been disqualified and are now facing several charges over their alleged involvement in violence during the first round of voting earlier this month.

The 14 were among 1,800 candidates who were seeking election to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Thirteen of them were running for seats in the lower chamber while the other was trying to win a seat in the Senate.

Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council CEP said the candidates are accused of voting violations, removal of ballot boxes, armed aggression against an election officer and firing an automatic weapon near a polling station, among other offences.

The violence that occurred during the August 9 voting resulted in the deaths of two people.

Preliminary results from the voting are expected to be published today, August 19.

The second round of legislative elections is set for October 25, which will also be the date of the first round of presidential elections.

The disqualified candidates and the accusations against them are below, as released by the CEP:

* Francois Tony Antonelly Claude, candidate for deputy, Port-de-Paix (North West), PHTK – ransacking of the voting centre Ecole Nationale de Fatima, destruction of ballots and disturbance of the conduct of elections.

* Dorleus Gergot, candidate for deputy, Savanette (Centre), RENMEN AYITl – armed burst in the voting centre Savanette removing ballots.

* Moise Frantz, candidate for deputy, Marigot (Sud-Est), ADRENA – election violation, ransacking of voting centre, destruction of electoral materials.

* Lubin Jean-Claude, candidate for deputy, Mirebalais (Centre), PITIT DESSALINES –  burst into the Mirebalais Parquet and breaking of materials.

* Desgrotes Jean Franchi, candidate for deputy, Mirebalais (Centre), VERITE – burst into the Mirebalais Parquet and breaking of materials.

* Dorelien Fantal, candidate for deputy, Mirebalais (Centre), FANMI LAVALAS – burst into the Mirebalais Parquet and breaking of materials.

* Jean-Pierre Jephté, candidate for deputy, Chardonnière/les Anglais, FUSION – armed burst in the local of BED and ransacking of polling stations.

* Belizaire Arnel, Senate candidate, West Department, APLA – shooting with automatic weapons near the Drouillard voting centre, widespread panic, disrupting polling.

* Previlon Lionel, candidate for deputy, Desdunes (Artibonite), PHTK – violation of the election and removal of ballot boxes.

* Altenor John, candidate for deputy, Grande Saline (Artibonite), AAA – shooting with automatic weapons, ransacking of the voting center Ecole nationale Chevreau Lombard.

* Frederic Ozite, candidate for deputy, Grande Saline, PHTK – violation of the vote and destruction of electoral materials.

* Deshommes Wilbert Joseph, candidat à la deputation, Grande Saline (Rossignol) Artibonite, VERITE – violation of the vote, ransacking of voting stations, shooting with automatic weapons.

* Gamaniel Placius, candidate for deputy, Grande Saline (Artibonite), KID – ransacking of the voting centre Ecole Nationale Rossignol, violation of vote, shooting with automatic weapons.

* Romulus Marc Faublas, candidate for deputy, Saut d’eau (Centre), PHTK – armed attack on the President of BEC and ransacking of several voting centres, including that of the Ecole ECOSA de Dalaise Read more

>PHILIPSBURG (PARLIAMENT/Independent Faction):--- Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo will be requesting a meeting of Parliament to discuss and mandate the Minister of Finance to implore upon the Central Bank to take up their responsibility and assume the tasks of receiving and resolving complaints brought by consumers and, in some cases, small businesses against banks, insurers and/or other financial services providers.

“In our system the Central Bank is supposed to regulate and supervise institutions that offer financial services Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  Prime Minister/Acting Minister of the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Marcel Gumbs is inviting the residents of Middle Region to a town hall meeting on Wednesday, August 19 regarding sewage connections.
Several notices have been placed in the Government Information Page already appealing to residents to attend this very important meeting.
The town hall meeting is about the sewage project in Middle Region where the various homes will be connected to the sewage system of the Government Read more

Will the UP Faction die standing or will they live on their knees? Coalition buckled to the Dutch instead of safeguarding country’s autonomy.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The United Peoples Party, who has the majority in Parliament seem to have wasted their summer recess to put together some 16 amendments they wanted the Minister of Justice to change in the protocol he signed on June 2nd 2015 to avoid the Kingdom from placing St. Maarten under higher supervision. Based on what transpired in the Parliament of St. Maarten on Monday it is clear that the coalition including the faction leader of the UPP Franklin Meyers chose to live on his knees rather than dying standing when he opted to vote in favor of the draft law that was signed by Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson early June.
SMN News got hold of the draft document containing the amendments the UPP wanted before they vote in favor of the protocol, which they put aside on Monday simply to appease the Dutch Read more