Philipsburg:--- Two days after GEBE held its party to celebrate the inauguration of their two new generators that were installed some three months ago, the island residents were thrown into an island wide blackout, which lasted more than five hours on Sunday evening. While GEBE did not say, what was the cause of the blackout until late Sunday night SMN News learnt that a some sort of short circuit was the main cause. Sources say that for some unknown reason the computer system was tripping out the Zagersgut substation, which caused the power company to lose power for more than five hours. Electricity went off just after 5 pm and power was restored after 9 pm. Up to late Sunday night the exact cause of the computer problems were not identified. "The computer was not allowing the engines to start up for one reason or another" one source said.

SMN News also learnt that the two new generators were tripping or shutting down due to safety procedures when the short circuit occurs. While there has been conflicting information, circulating this media house also learnt that one of the radiators from one of the new generators blew on Saturday night as one of the employees had reported that he heard some sort of loud noise coming from the power plant.

Several residents and long time employees of GEBE said that the managing director of GEBE Mr. William Brooks needs to get his act together and manage the company in the interest of the people. "The building that was at the Bellevue border was damaged since 2008 when someone ran into it during a traffic accident and to date GEBE has not seen the importance of this building to have it repaired." One angry employee said that the main purpose of that building was for the Dutch side to receive a feed from the French side in cases of emergencies and vise versa but since the building was damaged that feed was blocked. "If that building was repaired and the feed was open then Cole Bay would not have been in darkness during those five hours."
SMN News also learnt that GEBE has been working all its generators at full capacity and there is no room for incidents such as Sunday's.
The source said GEBE management is not taking the businesses that are constantly losing monies to GEBE's power failures into account.

A press release from GEBE late Sunday night states that a short in one of two feeder cables leading to the Zagersgut Substation triggered a complete blackout on the Dutch side of the island late Sunday afternoon. The emergency protection systems at the Cay Bay Power Plant were triggered completely shutting down the power plant for a number of hours Sunday evening.
A GEBE team of technicians have been busy Sunday evening working to isolate the short in the feeder cable, however without success up to press time. Unfortunately, this left a number of districts without power such as Dutch Quarter, Belvedere, Oyster Pond, Defiance, Middle Region and Guana Bay, but GEBE engineers were able to bring those areas back online by approximately 10.30pm after re-routing the electrical production supply.
The demand in those aforementioned areas on Sunday night is low and technicians will continue to look for the fault and implement immediate repairs on Monday morning. The re-routing of Sunday evening is only a temporary measure. Once the short has been located load shedding of the aforementioned areas will be necessary in order to repair the problem.
Electricity supply to other residential districts were back online after power plant technicians were able to re-route power to the last Zagersgut Substation cable, however the cable can only carry a certain load. Numerous attempts were made to resupply the various districts, but the fault kept creating a destabilizing situation.
Cay Bay Power Plant engineers were taken aback by the island-wide (Dutch side) outage and said it was rather unusual. All power generating equipment are functional and operational including the two new generators that were inaugurated last Friday.
Shorts in the power generation system are not uncommon and can happen anytime without warning.
GEBE continues to make investments in the electrical supply system in order to provide a reliable system. The current Bush Road civil works is related to GEBE's ring system that will connect to the Pond Island Substation once completed.
The ring system will allow GEBE to still be able to provide electricity to Philipsburg and surrounding environs should a fault develop in the distribution network. GEBE engineers would be able to re-route the electricity more quickly thereby limiting the disruption time in service.

Philipsburg: --- Commissioner of finance Xavier Blackman in reaction to several media reports on the 2010 budget said the information given to the media was emotional and misleading. The commissioner said he believes the aim was to cause fear and deception to the public and taxpayers both of which are irresponsible and unfortunate. He said for as for him the information was politically tainted and does not represent the facts regarding the CFT and the budget of 2010.
Blackman used several quotes that were printed in the media such as arrogant, slap in the face that was used in several media articles all of which he said he intended to clarify at his press conference held early Sunday morning.

The commissioner made clear that he is a non-politician and he was hired to do a job as a professional based on technical and legal specifications. He said he has been approaching his duties based on the exact guidelines, rule, and regulations. The commissioner also indicated that the executive council has also approached the process of budget in the same exact manner.

Blackman said in July 2009 the CFT advised the central government to include the financial consequences of the dismantling in the budget for 2010. He said the central government chose not to follow the advice of the CFT and they approved the budget of the central government in November 2009 without any provisions for the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles. Blackman said interestingly enough this was done a few weeks before the law was handled and passed on December 29 2009 on the transfer of tasks for St. Maarten and Curacao.
The finance commissioner said the island government of St. Maarten has been making several calculations while preparing the 2010 budget based on the same advice given to the central government by the CFT that is include the elements on the dismantling in the budget.
The commissioner said he said repeatedly that if St Maarten takes into account the dismantling and if the island should receive its rightful share along with the locally generated income then St. Maarten could have a balanced budget and have a small surplus in 2010 without implementing any new taxes, which would further burden the people of the island. Blackman said he also indicated on a number of occasions that safeguarding the island's income and assets should be a top priority for St. Maarten as it moves towards country status.
He said should St. Maarten take the advice and suggestions made by the CFT then the island government would have raise taxes, or, as St. Maarten prefers, balance the budget without putting additional tax burdens on the people and businesses of St. Maarten. Instead, the executive council proposed to use revenue due from the Central Government, which is due this year when St. Maarten starts taking over Central Government tasks, instead of burdening the population and businesses with new or additional taxes in these tough economic times.

Blackman said up until January 2010 the CFT secretary had been working closely with St. Maarten's financial advisers in fine-tuning the amount of income and expenses that are reflected in the draft budget, which also reflects the transfer of tasks in the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles. The commissioner said during the deliberations St. Maarten's advisers and government was even praised by the CFT for being ahead with the visions on the transfer of tasks to the island territory. He said the CFT was even pleased to see the island was beginning to think what it would mean when the island takes over the tasks in 2010. Blackman said on February 8 2010 the CFT then suggested that if St. Maarten removes all the projected income and expenses related to the transfer of tasks from its 2010 budget and to plug the deficit that this would create with new and additional taxes. He said the main argument of the CFT regarding their request was that the central government budget had already been approved without taking the transfers of tasks into account. He said the CFT also indicated that there is no formal agreement other than the law that was passed on December 29 2009, which states that the transfer of tasks and income will begin as of 2010.
Blackman said he already indicated to the CFT that St. Maarten and Curacao has a formal agreement regarding the transfer of a number tasks dated March 12 2010 which would take effect as of March and April 2010. He said all along St. Maarten's arguments are correct which is now backed by history, which shows that St. Maarten is taking the right approach.
Apart from those two main arguments, Blackman said the CFT also had some technical requests, which they want the island government to address prior to them giving their blessings to the budget. Blackman said the technical requests are caused by the lack of financial management in the past. He said there were a number of items that could not and still cannot be provided because they were never provided when making budgets in the previous years. Blackman said it is not that St. Maarten does not want to provide that information but the information is not available to the current government.

The commissioner said they are currently working on the information based on the CFT's recommendation. Blackman said St. Maarten's island government has reacted to the CFT's letter where they clearly indicated the island's position, which is also based on the law on budgeting where all income and expenses must be projected in the budget. The commissioner said the island government did not make this law instead its common practice in the accounting world which is also laid down in the same laws that regulates the CFT and other entities involved in the process.
The commissioner gave an example where he said the Dutch government has been planning and budgeting a 3.2 million Euros savings on their budget based on preliminary negotiations with the unions in the Netherlands. Blackman said these projected savings came as the unions have said they would be less adamant on their wage increases. The commissioner said that despite there is no signed agreement the Dutch has taken into account the projected savings.
He said the position of St. Maarten is that all agreements signed dating back to 2006 are firm and they asked how firm is firm when it comes to the CFT. He said the executive council he said also informed the CFT that it would be unrealistic not to take the projected responsibilities and income in its 2010 budget into account. He said they also indicated that it would not be feasible to wait until 10/10/10 to have a budget that would reflect the changes, while it would not be feasible to make the changes and preparations without a budget. Blackman made clear that the executive council also received legal advice prior to responding to the CFT in order to ensure that all parties involved in the budget are governed by the same rules and regulations on financial supervision.
The commissioner said the 2010 budget will be debated in the island council on March 22 2010. Blackman said the CFT has been doing what they are supposed to be doing and so is the island government to ensure that the matter proceeds as required by law.
In the response, the media articles Blackman said the CFT does not issue demands or instructions instead their job is to give advice. He said the CFT is to inform the Kingdom Council of Minister about the status of the budget and they could advise the Kingdom Council of Ministers to give the island territory instructions to finalize the budget. He said the role of the CFT can easily be found in the articles regulating the CFT and financial supervision.

The first prognosis about the 2010 hurricane season is that it will be more active than last year and has the potential to be an "extreme season" similar to 2008. We can all recall Hurricane Omar in mid-October 2008 when it passed less than 50 miles from the island as a major category three causing over US$100 million in damage especially to coastal properties due to storm surge.

The early hurricane season forecast has been made by Meteorologist and Hurricane Forecaster Joe Bastardi. In 2008, there were 16 named storms, eight became hurricanes. The forecast for 2010 is 16 to 18 storm systems of which seven will become hurricanes and five of those will become a category three or stronger.

What's behind a forecast active 2010 hurricane season, well a rapid weakening of the current El Nino in the Pacific Ocean; warmer sea surface temperatures; and an expected weakening of the Atlantic trade wind.

Traditionally an El Nino occurring in the Pacific Ocean leads to a typically less active hurricane season, but this year this seems not to be the case.

For this time of the year it has been noticeably very dry and warm. The U.S. has been experiencing some very extreme weather situations such as a number of blizzards and just recently torrential rains that have caused flooding in certain states.

There is much concern by weather experts with respect to neighbouring earthquake ravaged Haiti where a minor tropical storm could cause what has been described as a catastrophe.

In Haiti, 80 per cent of the population is without access to television or radio, and communicating weather forecasts to the public is a great concern. Two weeks ago part of Haiti experienced flooding from a cold front weather system which killed up to 20 persons. Thousands of people continue to live in temporary shelters which are extremely vulnerable to wind and rain.

At the Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee, which brings together hurricane experts from across the Americas, held in Bermuda last week, Haiti was one of the main topics of discussion. A positive outcome at the meeting for Haiti and its people is Jamaica and Cuba will be asked to provide radar images while other countries have offered to provide storm tracking and communications equipment as well as personnel.

Disaster management planners will be paying keen attention in the coming weeks, as other forecasters will be coming out with their seasonal projections for the 2010 hurricane season. The next one is early April by Colorado State University hurricane forecasters Philip Klotzbach and William Gray followed by the Miami NOAA/National Hurricane Center on June 1.

St. Peters: ---The students of Milton Peter College are in the process of chartering their first Interact Club.
In coming vice-president, Celine Verheij stated, " As you may know Rotary Interact Club is a junior form of the well-known Rotary Club International. Our soon to be established Club consists of students from Milton Peters College ages 13 to 18. As you may have heard and seen there are three other Interact clubs on the island, namely at Learning Unlimited, St. Maarten Academy and St Dominic High School."

The main goal of MPC Interact club is to support the community and also to bring awareness to the
community in general, to show the positive side of MPC. The official installation night of the new club, will take place on Friday March 26 2010 from 6:00 pm till 8.30 pm at MPC. Rotarians, Interacters of other schools and Roteract members are welcomed to share in this wonderful occasion. "We are very excited about starting this new club as we will be able to support the community and help them. We will be hosting
many events in time to come, our first event are a car wash at Kooyman. This fundraising event is being sponsored by Kooyman and it includes the products and space where the car wash will be held on Saturday March 20, 2010 from 10 am till 3 pm. The money raised will go towards the establishment of the MPC Interact Club and hopefully if enough funds are raised to allow the club to get their first project started," says Celine. Tickets will be available from the incoming members of the MPC Interact club for a contribution of $10. "You don't have to buy a ticket in advance so you can also turn up on Saturday 20th March, the car wash starts at 9 am."

The planning of the official installation has been on going for some time now; the incoming-board has come
together a number of times to discuss different ideas. Great effort is being put into making this installation night special in order to show everyone that MPC can deliver many good things to the community.
On the program for the March 26 is an auction, several interesting items will be available such as a selection of electronics and jewelry to help raise money for upcoming projects. This will really be a special evening for us at MPC and we feel that this night will be a great success, as we will receive our official Interact club pins, bell, and banner. It gives us great pride to tell the community of this success. Of course we
would not be able to have done this without the support of several MPC staff members and help from members of the St. Maarten Rotary Club as this Rotary Club is sponsoring the Milton Peters College Interact Club. On behalf of all the students of MPC who are part of this event, we would like to thank you all for your help and care concludes Celine Verheij.