Archive for December, 2011
Rental homes and property for the highest bid
(CNS Buiness): Property on the rental market will soon be available to the highest bidder with the start-up of Cayman Auction House, which held its first official sale last Saturday. While that event focused on general goods such as appliances, furniture and toys, the company is set to offer potential renters a way to bid for the property they want to lease. Lee Webb, one of the three partners behind the business who is also the auctioneer, said that bidrent.ky will go live either next month or the beginning of February. Property will also be on sale at live auctions and there will be separate sales for high-end jewellery, local art, wine and even cars and boats. Read more on CNS Business
Government employs 8 contractors for 8 homes
(CNS): Eight different construction companies have been contracted by the Sister Islands Affordable Housing Development Corporation (SIAHDC) to build the next eight affordable homes on Cayman Brac, though it has not stated how the contracts were awarded. But as the contractors are expected to hire up to 8 workers apiece, the project is being lauded as a boost to the island's economy. In phase three of the project, four houses are to be constructed at Watering Place and four at West End. In the first two phases of the project there were no qualified applications at the time from people wanting to live in Watering Place, so under the previous board all eight homes that have been built so far are at the West End site.
Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor Connolly, who is District Administration minister and a Sister Islands MLA, said she wanted to build 100 more homes but government did not have the cash. However, local contractors welcomed the work.
“People have no idea how much this contract is going to benefit the contractors and the Cayman Brac economy,” said Whitman Tatum, owner of Quality Construction. “Building these homes will give a lot of people here on the Brac much needed work. We were facing a gloomy holiday season, but now we have hope.”
The eight contractors are C & C Construction, Dixon Contractor, DSS Contractor, Eastwing Construction, McLean Contractor, Ricky Walton Construction, Quality Constructor and Vander-Built Contractors and they are expected to complete this phase of the SIAHDC housing project in April government officials said in a release.
The current plans are for one 2-bedroom and three 3-bedroom homes to be constructed at the Watering Place location, and two 2-bedroom and six 3-bedroom homes at West End. The plans are similar to the existing homes, which are 855 sq. ft. for a 2-bedroom home and 1,073 sq. ft. for the three-bedroom unit.
At the ground breaking ceremony O’Connor-Connolly revealed that the West End site where there are already a number of government homes will also have 10 acres demarcated for "educational purposes".
The minister said she had told the board to give a chance to everyone especially the neediest cases. “It doesn’t matterthe person’s circumstances; what matters is their ability to pay. That has been my instruction to the board of SIAHDC,” she added.
With other people on the Brac hoping for homes in the areas where they grew up, she challenged them to help SIAHDC find suitable land in those areas for another housing development site.
For more information on how to apply for a home in Sister Islands Affordable Housing Development Corporation subdivision, please call 948-8177 or e-mail to siahdc@candw.ky or visit the SIAHDC Office Unit 8 Avistar Building.
Close sailing in laser championships
(CISA):The 2011 Bacardi National Laser Championships were held in the North Sound by the Cayman Island Sailing Club (CISC) over the weekend of 26th and 27th November 2011. Racing was extremely close and the conditions tested every sailor to their full ability. In the end the two main fleets, the Laser Standard fleet and the Laser Radial fleet were won by a single point. Three races were held on the first day of racing and provided the strongest wind conditions that the competition has experienced in the last three years. Peta Adams, the race officer for the event said, “The conditions on day one made the regatta a real test of seamanship first, before trying to beat your closest competitor”.
This is the now the fourth year that Bacardi has sponsored this prestigious national dinghy championship and Maya Ogorzalek, Marketing Manager at Cayman Distributors said, “We are really happy to be sponsoring the most significant dinghy competition in Cayman’s sailing calendar. This year’s event was yet again a great success and it's fantastic to see so many people from our community taking part in the sport of sailing at such a high level.”
Three races were held on the first day of racing and provided the strongest wind conditions that the competition has experienced in the last three years. Peta Adams, the race officer for the event said, “The conditions on day one made the regatta a real test of seamanship first, before trying to beat your closest competitor”.
The first day saw a broken mast, nose dives, epic surfing sessions on the renowned North Sound chop and plenty of capsizes. The stand out performance of the day was Raph Harvey in the Laser Standard full rig, who won all three races placing a firm grip on the trophy. The other was Aaron Gardner in the Laser Radial fleet who led his class into the second day of racing on Sunday.
After the first day of racing the Saturday night function was full of long stories of the close calls – aided by the regatta refreshment – Bacardi dark and stormy.
On the second day the wind dropped a little, but the waves were still a challenge and after a gruelling first day of racing the competitors were given no respite. Peta Adams set some fast, fun triangular courses to test the sailor’s reaching and gybing abilities.
Nick Taylor found his form winning the last three of the day’s four races, but by then Raph Harvey had amassed an unbeatable lead.
Raph said, “Nick and I were battling it out for every moment of every race and were only seconds away from each other most of the time! There was never any let up and while I was pleased to win the regatta the trophy could have easily have gone Nick’s way”.
Kelvin Browne found some consistency to take third and Mike Farrington sailed two good finishing races to come fourth and secure the Clydesdale (or heavy-weight) trophy.
In the Laser Radial fleet, Eduardo sailed brilliantly to come first in the final three races and therefore win the Radial class. Chris Delaney came second by a single point, unable to break Eduardo’s dominating end to the regatta. Last year’s Laser Radial winner, Tomeaka McTaggart, came third.
All the sailors would like to thank Peta Adams and her support crew for putting on two days of perfect racing and course management in harsh weather conditions; Bacardi for sponsoring the event and for the great prizes; and the Cayman Islands Sailing Club for managing and organising another successful Laser Nationals.
Rank Fleet HelmName R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Total Nett
1st Radial Eduardo Bernal 7 2 1 2 1 1 1 15 8
2nd Radial Chris Delaney 1 1 -6 1 2 2 2 15 9
3rd Radial Tomeaka McTaggart 3 -4 3 3 3 3 3 22 18
4th Radial Aaron Gardner 2 3 2 -5 4 4 4 24 19
5th Radial Thomas Bishop 4 5 4 -6 6 5 5 35 29
6th Radial Dave Stephenson 5 7 5 4 5 7 7 40 33
1st Standard Raph Harvey 1 1 1 1 2 2 -3 11 8
2nd Standard Nick Taylor 2 2 2 -5 1 1 1 14 9
3rd Standard Kelvin Browne -6 3 3 2 3 4 4 25 19
4th Standard Mike Farrington 4 -5 4 4 5 3 2 27 22
5th Standard Rob Jackson 3 4 -5 3 4 5 5 29 24
6th Standard Charlie Grover 5 -7 6 7 6 6 6 43 36
7th Standard Simon Farrington 7 6 11 9 7 8 7 55 44
8th Standard Eric Ferrier 11 8 7 10 8 7 9 60 49
9th Standard Wiekert Weber 8 11 9 8 10 9 8 63 52
10th Standard Nick Rogers 11 11 8 6 9 11 11 67 56
Dart starts clearance work on propsed road extension
(CNS): Despite the speculation over the status of government’s proposed investment partnership and crown land swap with the islands’ biggest developer, Dart has revealed it is still going ahead and clearing the land for the Easterly Tibbetts highway extension. The developer said Wednesday that it had provided temporary work for as many as 30 unemployed Caymanians right before the holiday season. The temporary work involves clearing Dart owned land, in preparation for the northward extension of the road which is one of the alliance’s West Bay Corridor Projects.
The highway will be extended to Batabano Road and Reverend Blackman Road will be extended to become a connector between the Esterley Tibbetts and Willie Farrington Drive.
“The underlying objectivesof the alliance are to get people back to work, provide opportunities for local businesses and stimulate the economy – and this temporary work project most definitively puts people back to work,” Dart stated in a release
In the short term, the highway extension will provide employment for local businesses, contractors, truckers, labourers and heavy equipment operators, and these new jobs will collectively boost the economy, it added.
Dart said that in the long term, the extension will improve access between West Bay and George Town; significantly reduce traffic congestion on West Bay Road; and decrease the probability of damage to the road from storms , hurricanes and nor’westers.
The road is also needed as part of the investment alliance includes a land swap between government and dart including 2300 feet of the existing West bay road which will be closed to turn the property Dart has purchased in the area into a beach front resort.
There is however a considerable level of opposition to this element of the proposed deal and the movement to preserve the road handed a petition with some 4000 signatures opposing the move to the governor on Monday.
Government announced plans to enter into the partnership with the Dart group earlier this year but the main agreement has not yet been signed. Since the announcement government has signed a financial framework agreement with the FCO that sets out certain requirements before government can enter into public-private partnerships and it is not clear how this will impact the proposed deal.
Legislators pave way for New Year’s Eve parties
(CNS): The government pushed through amendments to the music and dance law on Monday, paving the way for liquor license holders to apply to the board for extensions on New Year’s Eve, which this year falls on a Saturday night. The law fell foul of the 21 day constitutional requirement, however, and the opposition leader said that regardless of whether he supported the change or not, the last minute amendment was another example of government by crisis, given that everyone had known for some time that the celebrations would be impacted by the law. Miller abstained from taking part in the debate because the bill was unconstitutional.
The premier admitted that the decision to change the law was late in the day but was simply down to a mix up as the government was unaware that the board did not have the discretion to grant extensions. Once government recognised the problem it moved to change the law to deal with the issue.
Although it had been anticipated that the government was moving to give the board the discretion to allow extensions on any holiday that fell on a Saturday night Sunday morning or on Good Friday, the amendment to the bill was in the end altered at committee stage to limit the change just to New Year’s Eve to assist the tourism sector. The law, which restricts the combination of music and booze and in the same place on a Sunday, remains unaltered.
Once the governor assents to the bill, the liquor board will need to convene a board meeting as it could face hundreds of applications for extensions on what is one of the busiest nights of the year in the hospitality business.
During the bill debate Rolston Anglin said there was no reason why the bill should not be supported by everyone as it was for only one night, once every seven years and was to help the tourism sector, as he called on his legislative colleagues to end the year in unity on at least this one thing. Anglin also noted that as the numbers of people who worshipped on Saturday and not Sunday grew, government had to be careful of not placing more value on one Sabbath over another.
Although, Anthony Eden had objected to the change in principle, the opposition members and Miller objected to the last minute nature of the change rather than the change itself.
During the heated debate following government’s suspension of the order that requires a 21 day public consultation period, the premier accused the opposition of being some of the worst drinkers and accused them of drinking after hours. Bush added that there was nothing wrong with dancing as it was good exercise as he noted that the government was only giving the discretion to the board to let them decide.
The premier also said he believed the existing Sunday trading laws were hypocritical as people were buying fuel and things in the gas station on Sundays but other shops couldn’t open.
“It’s a hypocritical law and we should change it,” he said.
Government settles with GLF
(CNS): The Cayman Islands government has reached an agreement with GLF Construction but there will be no cost to the public purse, the premier has said. McKeeva Bush said that a settlement has been reached with the company previously in talks to build the cruise berthing facilities in George Town but he would not say how much or who was footing the bill. In a statement to the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday afternoon he confirmed the agreement but said it was not yet appropriate to release any more details. He said that when it was, the public would be informed of the amount but indicated that the figure was less than $3 milllion.
Although he was questioned by the opposition member for East End, Arden McLean, to clarify what he meant when he said the public coffers would not be paying the settlement to the developers, the premier refused to be drawn.
The agreement appears to be in connection with the premier’s decision to terminate the talks with the Italian company and their local partners, Royal Construction, earlier this year and move onto discussions with the Beijing based firm China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC). GLF had taken legal action against the Cayman government over the terminated agreement but speculation had been mounting recently that that government had settled the matter with the company.
The revelation came as the premier adjourned the House sine die for the Christmas break and delivered a statement about what he described as the misinformation and poisoning of public opinion regarding the goal to develop a cruise port. He said there had been too much heat and too little light on the subject.
Bush accused the opposition benches in the Legislative Assembly as well as others who opposed his decision to work with CHEC outside of the parliament of using the talk shows, editorials and the blogs to spread misinformation and rumours.
He said since 2003 it had been a huge battle to try and get cruise facilities, and meanwhile, government continued to lose considerable sums of money as competitors all completed their berthing projects.
Bush also took aim at GLF’s local partners, whom he accused of interfering. Although he did not mention Royal Construction by name, he suggested that during the talks they had been involved in side deals unknown to government with a jewellery store to develop the upland element of the port. He said that there was never any evidence that the firm had the funds to do the project nor did they have the equipment.
He warned the local partners that he “would deal with them in this House” if they did not stop interfering, as he made unspecified accusations against them. “I have taken enough,” Bush said. “And one of these days they are going to understand where I am coming from.”
Encouraging the public to be balanced in their views about the port, he said his government would deliver a facility. He said the press should wait for all of the facts rather than pouring oil on the fire. Criticizing all of the media organisations, he singled out Rooster and its morning talk show, describing it as “nasty”, as he threatened more law suits before the year was out.
Bush said that with CHEC, contrary to the rumour mongering and the bad things people were saying about the Chinese firm, government had finally found a proper partner to develop the facilities. CHEC would not flood the islands with their own labour because the MOU made it clear the job would use local labour and only specialists would be brought from China, he added.
Not only would CHEC deliver on providing local work and business opportunities, the premier stated, but there was also an opportunity for local people to buy shares and invest in the development once it was completed. He said this equity element was already in the MOU and would form part of the final agreement.
Listing what he believed were the positive aspects of working with CHEC, he said they had committed to deliver the upgrade at Spotts and a pier at the Cayman Turtle Farm in West Bay for cruise ships. This alone would save government the $9 milllion subsidy being poured into the farm because, he said, that attraction was always meant to be served by a cruise ship pier. He also saidthat the Chinese had made a commitment to work with Dervyn Scott to build a dock on Cayman Brac.
Working with CHEC, the premier said, government would not need to find any capital or guarantee any loans. He said that KPMG was now working on the independent business case and although he was not able to go into further detail about the plans, government was working on the due diligence.
Bush also stated that in contrast to the accusations being made by the opposition and others, the FCO was content with how the government was managing the project and revealed that it would go to the Central Tenders Committee once it was ready for the final agreement. “Henry Bellingham is very happy and supportive of the steps we are taking,” Bush said.
Bush confirms new seats
(CNS): The premier has confirmed that government will be adding two seats to George Town and one to Bodden Town in order to meet the constitutional requirement to enlarge the country’s parliament at the next election. McKeeva Bush said he would be bringing the draft Order by the Governor which gives effect to the changes for debate in the LA in January and that he had decided not to act on the boundary commission’s recommendation of creating a new district constituency as that would mean some former George Town voters would be voting in a different district and he did not believe there was support for that.
The premier notified his legislative colleagues on Wednesday morning of his decision. Of the various possibilities that would deal with the population changes, the commission had recommended creating a seventh electoral district between Bodden Town and George Town to accommodate the three seats but Bush said that would mean altering the physical district boundaries which the government was not prepared to do.
In the short statement to the parliament Bush made no mention of the wide public support for one member, one vote. On the contrary the country will now face a situation where in some districts there will be six votes creating an even greater disparity between electors in the country’s capital compared to those living in the eastern districts with only one. George Towners will now have six times the influence on the government than people living in East End or North Side.
For the first time the imbalance will also affect the voters of West Bay who will no longer have an equal influence on the parliament with the voters in the capital as the districts member’s will remain at four which will now be the same as Bodden Town, while the sister Islands will retain their two members.
The independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller who alongside Arden McLean is a single member representative has been making every effort to persuade government to adopt the 18 single constituencies which have already been established and confirmed by the commission and adopt the democratic principle for one member, one vote for the 2013 poll but so far his efforts have been thwarted by both the government and the speaker of the House.
The opposition leader Alden McLaughlin who also supports the concept of one man, one vote said that the only way to ensure the country eventually switches to single member constituencies is to vote out the current administration.
Cayman sends back 19 Cuban refugees
(CNS): Government has confirmed that nineteen Cuban migrants were repatriated on Tuesday afternoon (13 December) by the Department of Immigration. The 19 men had arrived on Cayman Brac by boat from Cuba just over two months ago on Friday, 7 October, 2011. Officials from the Immigration Department said the repatriation procedure followed the usual administrative processes that it carries out in such situations. As part of an agreement with the Cuban government that any refugees or migrants that seek assistance when in Cayman waters or come ashore must be returned to the neighbouring island. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
Mac: Port must be in GT
(CNS): The premier has said that the cruise berthing facilities must be in George Town as a result of the investment made there by many local merchants and because of the infrastructure. Sounding less upbeat about the progress of the berthing facilities than on previous occasions, McKeeva Bush described efforts made to develop berthing facilities since 2003 but said that because of constant opposition and other issues it hadn’t happened. Speaking about the proposals to develop in South Sound, he said he wasn’t qualified to say whether that location was any better but at this time the port had to be in George Town because it was not possible to shift the location away from the capital.
Speaking about tourism at a town hall meeting in Pedro on Tuesday evening, he said he was getting the blame for the failure to develop the port but every time aproposal had been presented it has been opposed and people have criticised the plans. “Hopefully the one we have now will work out,” he said referring to the latest MOU with a Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), and the talks now headed by the UDP backbencher Ellio Solomon.
Bush said he believed it was the best deal so far, better than either Dart Enterprises Contracting Co (DECCO) or GLF Construction, the two companies that had been in previous talks with government to build the cruise port. He said he would be providing a fully updated statement about the project very soon and hoped to have a positive announcement about it before the year.
In the wake of submissions by a group of sea captains regarding the alternative proposal of developing the facilities in South Sound (Red Bay), Bush said everyone believed they were an expert on where the facilities should be but he had not given an opinion on that proposal. However, he said that he recognised that George Town was not necessarily the best location as he still believed the best place was the North Sound, but no one wanted it there.
He said the issue of South Sound may well provide an option for the future but right now the facilities had to be developed in the capital, where people had invested millions of dollars in retail and the infrastructure.
Regardless of the back and forth, his government was pushing ahead with the plans to work with CHEC and he intended to do that until “they throw me out”, he said. While many people were criticising the choice and saying that government should not work with the Chinese firm, he said they had offered the best deal.
He said DECCO’s proposals was criticised as people were saying Dart had too much in the country already and the company had wanted a 99 year lease. He said he had to reject the GLF proposal as he was not convinced they had the money, so the Chinese deal offered the best and cheapest option for the country because they required no guarantees.
He also repeated previous comments about opportunities for Caymanians to invest and have equity in the project but did not go into details about how that would be achieved.
Legislators return for last sitting of the year
(CNS): Members of the Legislative Assembly return to the parliament today (Wednesday 14 December) for what is expected to be a three day sitting and the last meeting for this year. Amendments to the liquor licensing law and the firearms law are two of the bills legislators are expected to debate. The government’s Financial Framework Agreement, which was postponed from the previous sitting, was also scheduled to be debated by the members but that may now be pushed into the New Year. The premier signed the document last month and is reportedly now in effect but has not been passed by the country’s elected members.
The results of the national census are also expected to be debated during the three day sitting, as well as a number of other matters.
There are also a number of private members motions tabled by the independent member Ezzard Miller that have not yet been debated. So far, his efforts to submit motions to amend the election law in order to create single member constituencies and one man, one vote have failed to find favour with the speaker, who is thwarting Miller’s campaign to force government into adopting a fairer and more democratic polling system for the 2013 election.
The Legislative Assembly is scheduled to start at 10am and it is open to the public. However all electronic equipment remains banned.