District Admin minister to hold public meetings
(CNS): Deputy Premier and District Administration Minister, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, is holding public meetings on the Sister Islands next week but is asking the public on both Cayman Brac and Little Cayman to come during working hours. A release from the ministry says that on the agenda is its annual budget, which in this financial year included $900,000 towards a new $9 million hurricane shelter on the Bluff, which has caused some controversy. According to the plans for the building, the emergency shelter, which will be located east and adjacent to the playing field on the Bluff, will consist of a main hall and 80 private rooms with semi-private bathrooms.
O’Connor Connolly told CNS previously that it will be completed over a three-year period.
The Brac meeting will be held at the Aston Rutty Centre on Thursday, 26 August, at 9am. The meeting on Little Cayman will be at the PWD Workers Accommodations Building on Friday, 27 August, at 10am. Chief Officer Kearney Gomez and Acting District Commissioner Mark Tibbetts will also attend.
Category: Local News
This was a mandate of the Protocol Office. We Braccas do not want it but they say we ha fi take it. We listen to our Premier!! They ga pay our light bill too.
Sorry that excuse is already being over used by the deputy premier to explain many things. Try to think of a new/better excuse.
TO my fello Caymanian Brackers… SPEND LESS ON ALCOHOL, SPEND MORE IN YOUR OWN HOMES/RESIDENCE/ISLAND. Not the bar rooms!
Are you saying that everyone in Cayman Brac drinks and is always in the bar room?
Juliana,
Thank you so much for your vision and leadership, and being a politician who can take alot of bull from ignorant people. Someday… the value of what your doing for us will be clearly seen. ;o)
yes and that value is only for her reelection apart from that zero
I have a thought. Input is much appreciated.
Since the Government owns a few companies of their own and what is fair is fair. Why don’t the Government purchase a barge (if they do not own one already) and start a small shipping company that can service the Brac and Little Cayman at a rate much much cheaper to that of those monopolistic hogs at you know where Shipping Company.
What they buy in the Brac at the price they pay we can buy 3 weeks worth of food here at Fosters. We all know how expensive it is here in Grand Cayman so imagine the Brac if you get where I am coming from.
This could be an easy way for Government to earn a little revenue but at the same time cut cost for the sister islands as it is obvious to me that you know who Shipping Company refuses to go down on price and it is pure hardship over there for those sister islanders.
There are so many ways things could get better over there so they are not a welfare state. I totally agree with the option of Dr. Shetty over there to open his hospital. Imagine the revitilization the Brac could go through with a project like that. Finally many people could be employed over there instead of living off Social Services and even stimulate some of the Brac residents living in Cayman to return and build up that island. Especially the young people who come here and lose their identity. A young Brac person coming here is like the Country Mouse visiting the City Mouse. Just my food for thought.
Wha your problem is? You didn’t get your coffee dis morning a wha?
A disgrace and shame.
If so, ehen is the government building one in Grand Cayman for all the residents– with all private rooms and semi-private baths etc.
Tha older Brackers had always prided themselves in meeting their needs though a community effort. — the hospital , retirement home etc
Where has that gone now ?
If the Brackers want to spend $9m on a 5 star hotel, sorry, hurricane shelter, the Government can introduce a special Brac only duty to pay for it. Let’s see how much they would want to spend on the shelter then! Brackers are very good at spending other people’s money.
I think it would be wiser to relocate the high school on the bluff and have a multi purpose builidng which can function as a hurricane shelter as well as a school. However they should try to be as economical as they can in building such a facility as a hurricane shelter does not need to be a replica of a Five Star hotel. (No luxury individual temperature controlled rooms or state of the art kitchens but facilities that meet the minimum standards of comfort)
In addition they should try to encourage some of the facilities for the proposed Dr Shetty hospital to be located on the Brac as in the event of a hurricane or other disaster on Grand Cayman, patients could possibly be moved to the Brac facility. In addition it would give more viability to the Cayman Airways flights to the Brac.
Cayman Brac should not be a welfare state and a place where everyone is dependent on Government for economic survival Government should look into alternatives to goverrnment projects as means to boost the Brac economy and to provide livelihood for persons who wish to remain on Cayman Brac and need to earn a livelihood.
Its not the Braccas that want this Sherlock!
Can we please get this straight. Brackers didn’t askfor Hotel Hilton!
But we don’t see the Brackers campaigning against either. Just silently taking and taking is just as bad as asking for it.
Why don’t you go campaign against it?
if voters in Grand Cayman are dumb enough to allow it……
Chuckster please come to our rescue once again Bo Bo……this can’t continue much longer…….no money to complete our schools for our children but they can find $9M for a Cayman Brac Hurricane Shelter and money for every thing else that they want to find money for !!!
When it is completed they will have more shelter capacity than they have people on the Brac. Now tell me that ain’t insane !!!!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t the LCM & Brac Veterans & Seaman recently build a new centre which is to act as an unofficial hurricane centre for the Brac for the sum of $500,000?
When the country is borrowing money to pay bills this is a complete waste of tax payer dollars.
It is good to see that so many of us have comments regarding this matter whether they be positive or negative – but …………… that is why the good lady is having a public meeting about these matters and has invited the public to come and voice their concerns …………… so why dont you all just come to the meeting scheduled and do just that. It will be a good bet that there will be just a handful at the meeting (more civil servants than private sector) who will just sit and listen and say nothing and then leave and once outside and in private start griping about what was said or not said and then head to the computers and start posting …………..??????
Oh, so the good lady is holding the meetings so all can voice their concerns when most will be at work and unable to attend let alone have their say? Hmmm, yes, that makes sense (not).
Hint, Hint…wink, wink..nudge, nudge…. psst…I think that’s all part of the PLAN….
I’m sure many would love to physically attend the meetings and make their concerns known in public however I find it interesting that our good deputy premier has chosen to host these meetings during working hours. You (rightly) predict that more civil servants than private sector will be at the meeting – does that surprise anyone? An excuse for some civil servants to not work for a few hours whilst being paid by ourgovernment – shocking!
If the budget forecast for the Brac Shelter really is $.9M, then everyone must really start asking for answers! The Wednesday 14:20 post shows a total capital expenditures program of $13.2M. $112,500 per room in the shelter seems excessive and wrong. (That’s $9M divided by 80 rooms.)
Please calm down on the "Braca" thing… this is not something that Brackers are pushing. This is Madam J’s agenda and from how I hear it, this not for the common folk, no, no, no! It’s said that this fine establishment is so the big wigs can run up there to shelter with out having to hob nob in lesser facilities with the runts that broke their backs to build it. As well it reeks of … (sing it) "I am one of the noticeable ones, notice me, notice me" just so Madame J can get big up on the pedestal of “look at what I done”. Careful the higher you step the farther you fall. But perhaps more importantly, ‘me’ thinks maybe some due diligence need to be done on who is financially gonna profit from this latest misadventure of our UDP Government. There I said it!
So, you’re saying it’s not a shelter for Brac residents but for the UDP? It’s like an ark when hurricanes come and Mr. Bush will play the part of Noah?
Folks look at the venue she will have a captive audience therefore no one else will be need to raise objections thus the timing.
There is some reasoning to this apparent madness.
Have any of these "Ministers" ever put ‘Love of Thy Country" before "Love of thy Self" why would they start now?
God forbid that she should have to work unsociable hours like before 8:00am and after 3:30pm.
This is a very unfair comment as if it is one thing that she does it is work endless endless hours
Working endless endless amounts of hours devising dubious schemes to furthur your own agenda and grandiose sense of self….and working endless hours to come up with ways to better the lives of your fellow man is TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT things…
The Brac – doesn’t pay duties because it is special, sucks up disproportionate spending because it is special. It is sickening and Hotel Juliana sums it all up. My CUC bill is going up so they can live in the lap of luxury.
CANT Mack and the others see that this girl is not only ruining this Country but them as well. They will go down with her in the next Election. We at least expect better from you all. Power sets some people crazy. Come on Cline and others we at least expect better from you.
A more correct observation would be:
Can’t Juliana and the others see that Mac is not only ruining this Country but them as well. They will go down with him in the next Election. We at least expect better from you all. Power sets some people crazy. Come on Cline and others we at least expect better from you.
My thoughts exactly, well said.
lol… and I bet you must have been one of those who ran to the Brac after hurricane Ivan seeking shelter!
You may condemn this shelter, but many others won’t!
Excuse me, don’t talk what you don’t know, have you ever even been to the Brac?
An ordinary box of cereal cost $8.00. and a 1/2 gallon of milk is a few cents less than $5.00, 1 tin of condense milk starts at 1.99 and up, 1 litre of cooking oil no name brand $3.95 and up. How the people survive, if monthly paid workers and pensioners don’t credit food until payday they would seriously go hungry, because with mortgage payments, utilities, and the cost of raising children, they have to credit food one month and pay for it the next and the cycle continues. Those that can afford it go to Grand Cayman to shop on a monthly basis, or these days 3 or 4 households may shop in bulk in GCM and share the cost of purchase & shipping.
Here is the issue the Brac faces, when they order from the US or anywhere it could cost them $5 to ship that item to GCM , then you have to triple that shipping cost because the only company that plies the Brac route charges to the Brac is so high.
The duty consession DON"T apply to Brackers living there, its for FOREIGN INVESTORS who come to invest. I lived both on the Brac and Grand Cayman and as a CAYMANIAN, I had to pay my 20 & 22 percent plus on the Brac an extra $5 for every box processed and I never got ANYTHING DUTY FREE.
The only thing that is cheap on the Brac is trucked water. So please SHUT UP when you don’t know what you are talking about. BTW I DARE any of you spouting off to try living on the Brac for 3 months, then come back and talk to me. I couldn’t do it again. Unless I am blessed enough to make a few million.
People please know what you all are talking about before you start.
For your information the duty concessions are not for only foreigners but for ALL and if you paid duty on stuff that you claim the foreigners are getting for free then you got ripped off by someone and I suggest you go to the collector of customs in Grand Cayman with your receipts to prove this and I am sure he will give you your money back ………….. stop talking rubbish – you never paid no duty on what you were not supposed to pay you just dont know what is duty free and what is not duty free.
Duty on what is the question. There maybe duty concessions on building supplies but not on groceries, clothing, essentials etc. The fact of the matter is Brackers do pay more duty on these items, as the duty is calculated on shipping and the shipping as was stated by the other poster is a whole lot more that that paid in Grand Cayman.
So perhaps you were referring to the building supplies when you say that Cayman Brac does not pay duty. To that I would like to point out that this concession is only for the few who are building, but does not help the general populace who is paying more than you are in Grand Cayman and indeed feels the financial pinch.
Now back to the real issue… Juju and her misguided agenda.
Duty in Cayman Brac is calculated on freight to Grand Cayman. The difference is the additional freight on to Cayman Brac
As usual you are wrong. I have lived on Cayman Brac for more than 20 years. There are duty free items and of course there are also many items that one does pay duty on. Please stop trying to make things one sided.
Of all the comments, you are the only one that realize how high the cost of living is for us Brackers and Little Caymanians. The cost of living in Grand Cayman is very high, one has to double that if you wish to live in Cayman Brac and triple it if you ever decide to live in Little Cayman. CONGRATS MS. JULIE!!!, OUR DEPUTY PREMIER!!! ON THE CI$0.9M !!!(NOT CI$9M) HURRICANE SHELTER. IT IS NEEDED AS WHEN A HURRICANE IS APPROACHING ALL BRACKERS SEND THEIR CHILDREN, GRAND CHILDREN, PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT PARENTS BACK HOME TO THE BRAC ALONG WITH ALL OF OUR VISITORS BEING LEFT STUCK IN THE AIRPORT IN GRAND CAYMAN. OTHER CAYMANIANS CATCH THE FIRST FLIGHT OUT TO FLORIDA, THEN GET STUCK THERE, BECAUSE EVERYONE IS TRYING TO LEAVE THE CAYMAN ISLANDS. THEN THE CAYMANIAN ‘S CANNOT GET BACK HOME AFTER THE HURRICANE HIT AND CANNOT AFFORD THE HIGH COST OF HOTELS IN MIAMI, AND TAMPA, FLORID, SO NOW THEY CAN INVEST IN A HURRICANE ROOM AT THE BRAC NEW HURRICANE SHELTER. I AM ALL FOR IT!!! LITTLE CAYMANIAN AND BRACKER TO THE BONE. PROUD TO BE A CAYMANIAN!!!
CNS: Please leave the caps lock off next time. Generally I delete comments that are mostly in capitals.
The estimate for the hurricane shelter on the Bluff is $9 million. $0.9 million is what was approved in this year’s budget.
You seem very sure that you are getting one of the hurricane hilton’s private rooms. Or are you just another of the blind sheep that support everything from the messiah’s mouth even when you should know better?
Public meetings in the morning ?????????? Am I missing something here ?
Is everyone in the Brac and Little Cayman unemployed or is business so bad that they can afford to close their businesses to attend the meeting being held by the "Holy One" AKA "The Foot Washer" and "Hurricane Hilton"
It is that bad!!! If she have the meeting between 9 and 11 it will have effect on absolutely nothing, unless its pay day. Because the business people does the most business on pay days. I truly don’t know how they survive.
I think Ms. Julie need to bring down a consultant who can advise her of this drastic decision she is making. If she is getting only 900,000 a year for this I don’t see how she can cut it, it will be another project that she cannot finish, and then the next government will let it stand there unfinished, like what’s happening to the schools. Surely somebody can speak to this lady and let her open her eyes, cause them seem closed to me.
Perhaps she should take this money to finish the sports facility she started over 10 years ago before she begins another project. If not the spords field PLEASE do something more useful with this money.
I am not a UDP fan, but I think the building of a Hurricane Shelter on the Brac is a smart and wise move, seeing the predictions of more frequent storms coming our way.
IT IS ALWAYS GOOD TO BE PREPARED for WORSE CASE SCENARIOS
They will have MORE shelter spaces than PEOPLE when that facility is completed! 1,805 shelter spaces to aproximately 1,200 people is an absolute WASTE of money!!
We have two high schools/shelters that need to be completed in Grand Cayman!! There are only around 5,000 shelter spaces here for the 50,000+ residents!!
If the Deputy Premier cares about the CAYMAN ISLANDS she will redirect that money to finishing the school projects on Grand Cayman, or some NECESSARY project on the Brac!
What’s this foolishness about having the public meetings during working hours? Since the majority of Brackers that have a job work for District Administration which she’s responsible for, it must mean that she’s giving those employees the time to attend these meetings on GOVERNMENT’S TIME! Another waste of GOVERNMENT FUNDS!
A WASTE???
When before Polama many had no place to go, but remain in the homes, risking their very own lives? What an indifferent and partisan foolish thing to say! If I was for PPM, I would be ashame to stand by you in your argument.
Sir, the socalled "Brackers" are Caymanians like yourself in need of some kind of protection from troublesome weather!
Yes a waste!! I’m a independent and a Bracker.
Independent to the bone….try to convince a "Bracker" they’re Caymanian.They will say, I na Caymanian, I’m a bracker, I’m from the Brac. They swear they are a whole other indigenous specie like iguanas.
Hip! Hip! Dats rite….just like the iguanas, nah gine no way!
You think you are the only ones doin that? There’s thousands of us do this on the mainland each year when hurricane season comes because of inadequate or no hurricane facilities (I’m one of them and I live in a wooden house). And please don’t try to tell me there’s more chance of a hurricane hitting the Brac than there is Grand Cayman. What makes you so special?
You really do make yourself look silly.
– It is a waste because a shelter (with private rooms and their own thermostats to boot) for the Brac is NOT necessary.
– Many homes are (and SHOULD be) built to withstand at least catergory 3 hurricanes. We live in the hurricane belt, that’s only common sense.
– You stupidly claim that I made a partisan comment. How did I do that? I simply stated there is more need in Grand Cayman for shelters (which happen to be halfway built (Yes, the schools).
– I used "Brackers" because that is how the Caymanians from the Brac refer to themselves. Very rarely will you hear a Caymanian from the Brac call themselves Caymanian, especially if they have not already made it crystal clear that they are a "Bracker".
OK, you pay for it then. If really necessary, surely one could be built for less than $9M!!!
This is a "WORSE CASE SCENARIO" with Ms Julie and her gang we are on the highway to hell. Cayman Brac does not need this hotel what it needs is a sound plan for sustainable economic development.
Yeah smart and wise move, a few hundred nice and safe in the Brac while a few thousand on the mainland with little or no adequate facilities at all get ‘blown away’ – pun intended. Spend the money on adequate shelter for the Eastern Districts and stuff first come first serve for any private quarters – they should be reserved strictly for the elderly and infirm/hospital patients and the like.
Stupidity beyond belief with this government I tell ya.
Quit ya bitchin’ Grand Cayman, you are the reason we are in this mess! The majority of voters in Grand Cayman put the current government in place.
Please observe that Moses Kirkconnell is First Elected Member for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman! Shows that that majority of Brackers had more sense than their counterparts on the big island!
Haven’t heard a word from Moses..is he keeping company with Anthony these days??
Some opposition we have!!
Questions for Mary Magdalene of Cayman Brac
Hmmm… a good argument. I would like to hear a reply from the UDP on this one. It seems like Glidden has management over this Cruise Berthing facility and already he is talking about "expanding the scope" of the project, which mean owing more the developer DECCO for their work. A project that should take 200 million is now 50 million more!
Julie, one piece of advice, shelve this idea of building another shelter and use that money to do something to boost the economy of the Brac. This shelter will produce no revenue and in fact will continue to cost all of the people of Cayman for many years.
I don’t think there is that much support on Cayman Brac for it and hopefully you will listen to your people if that is what they are telling you. Remember they put you there and you should heed their wishes.
Do the right thing. We the people are watching you and the majority of us believe that building this building for that amount of money is just not prudent in this very bad financial times.
Some ideas, Cayman Airways is losing a lot of money operating the Miami/Cayman Brac nonstop flights, either ask them to cease or give them money from the $9M to subsidize the route. Secondly, use the money to bring visitors to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Do an ad campaign in the USA saying that you are giving away 100K free tickets to all three Cayman Islands and do some type of contest where they have to research the Cayman Islands to win. This will cost a lot less money. It will get close to 100k visitors to visit the Cayman Islands and hopefully everyone will get a piece of the pie as these people will fly on our airline, stay in hotels, eat in our restaurants, participate in activites and yes invest in Cayman.
Please use the money wisely and please forget about another hurricane shelter.
I love this idea! Can you imagine when CNN and the major networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX hear about this. They will be on it like white on rice…That will be some serious free advertising for the Cayman Islands, something our foolish Department of Tourism would pay millions to do.
Julie, think of the multiplier factor is this happens…who knows you could reclaim your fame of first elected member for Cayman Brac…Build that monument to yourself on the Brac and I suppose you will have something for your people to remember you by because you sure won’t get elected again!!!
More nonsense about the Hurricane Hilton? Toilet blocks? What about the unnessary land/building purchesses?
For those who voted for the UDP are you embarrassed yet? After the UDP even the PPM is starting to look a little better
We now know the true meaning of the UDP’s "a better way forward".
1 Much more wasteful spending
2 More taxes & fees
3 More regulations
4 More bad government decisons
5 More welfare.
6 More cronyism/nepotism
7 Better at selling out the islands from under the locals feet
8 More imtimidation
Why not be a real help to the islands and retire and let those that are better able to manage a sustainable economy have a go at it.
So let me get this straight – it’s not enough to ask the people to go 9 million dollars further into debt but our good deputy premier now wants an audience on the sister Islands to justify her plans during working hours causing loss of productivity and costing employers dearly in these hard economic times (presumably she’s asking employers not to penalise those employees who wish to come out and listen to her justifications?).
I’ve said it before……the lunatics have taken over the asylum. I am absolutely gobsmacked that we’re even still having a discussion about a 9 million dollar shelter which is to paid for by money we do not have.
There are so many of us here who understand with absolute clarity the position we now find ourselves in and how we got here but it is incredible that those who put us in this position are determined to at the very best keep us here and at the very worst dig us even deeper until there really is no way out.
When will the belt tightening happen? Love him or not – the late Desmond Seales’ wife cut to the chase at his funeral when she said, "when the Island was in ruins immediately after Ivan, we were all so kind to each other but as soon as we got back on our feet, we somehow forgot to be kind to each other" – she then posed the question – "when are we going to start being kind to one another again?"
And in that same vein – when will we start thinking about future generations and the legacy that we might leave? What lessons are they learning? – let’s hope they’re learning something from our terrible mismanagement because we certainly don’t seem to be……..