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Brackers protest ‘devil’ art
(CNS): A rotting goat’s head nailed to a cross on top of a heap of garbage and old bones may be art to its creator but to a group of Cayman Brac residents it is simply offensive. Local businessman Elvis McKeever, who organised a peaceful protest at the location of the controversial sculpture on the south side of the island Wednesday lunchtime, said it looked like devil worship or the practice of Obeah, “like something you would see in Haiti”. It was built by the artist known as Foots, who also created the underwater sculpture “The Lost City of Atlantis”, which lies off the north coast. But his latest creation, which includesa fake gravestone with three 6’s engraved on a bloody cross, has stirred deep resentment in the small, largely Christian community.
The goat’s head and cross had been removed before the protest but the 30 or so Brac residents who turned up to demonstrate their objection to Foots’ artwork wanted officials to make sure they were not put back up.
But in any case, they said, the rest of Foots’ handiwork was also offensive and would depreciate the value of surrounding properties, as well as being a health hazard, and they want the whole thing removed.
McKeever said that when he first started talking publicly about his objections to the sculpture, Foots took down the decaying goat’s head and the cross for about two weeks, but on Palm Sunday he put it up again. He said that Foots had removed them again last night. “He thought that that was going to stop us from doing the protest and then in a week’s time he will have it up there again,” he said.
Under Cayman Islands law anything above four feet is supposed to have planning approval, noted McKeever, who owns a construction company. “I want planning to show me the approval,” he said. Claiming Foots had about 15 old toilets on the property behind the sculpture, McKeever, who owns adjacent land, said he wants the politicians and the Department of Environmental Health and the district commissioner to do something about it.
McKeever also noted that the land it is built on, which is 32 feet wide stretching to the Bluff, is part of an LPP (Land for Public Purpose). “You're not allowed it to build on it,” he said.
“And where are the church people and why are they allowing this in the country?” he asked, noting that House Speaker and Brac MLA Juliana O’Connor-Connolly had been invited to join them. “The practice of Obeah, which is a religion, is illegal in the Cayman Islands. I know that for sure because I know people who have got arrested for practising Obeah,” McKeever said, although there is no evidence that Foots is actually a devotee of any religion.
Scattered around the mound of dirt and bones, with what looks like a small skull, are rocks with engraved messages of peace and snippets of John Lennon lyrics. “Love is the answer” it says next to the “The Apocalypse Now Revelation” gravestone. However, McKeever remained adamant that the structure was morally wrong and that was why so many had turned out for the protest.
“I don't know who I'm more annoyed at – Foots for building it or the government for not doing anything about it,” said Dalkeith Ebanks, one of Wednesday’s protestors.
Bridgette Manville, who lives nearby, said, “Mr Foots has been displaying unacceptable so-called art in my neighbourhood.” It started, she said, with a display of plants inside the toilet bowls but after she complained about it to District Commissioner Ernie Scott, this was removed.
“Next it was the car with the head through in the windscreen with blood and everything else. Before I could get to complain, that was moved. Then he came back with the coffin and the head again on top of it. I looked at it and thought, ‘Leave him be.’ But then the most disturbing and upsetting display he had was the cross with a dead goat’s head on top of it like it was crucified on the cross with a 666. And that I found that very offensive and I felt like he was trying to insult the people of Cayman Brac.”
The protesters had police permission for the demonstration, and Chief Inspector FrankOwens and another officer were there keeping the peace and stopping anyone from going onto Foots’ land – at least until his estranged wife and co-owner of the land, Elsie Keynes, arrived to join the protest and said it was okay.
Owens confirmed that the police had received several complaints about the sculpture. These had been passed onto the legal department to see if any laws had been broken, he said.
New cop becomes Caymanian
(CNS): Young people who have grown up in the Cayman Islands and call it home but have no rights as citizens may in the future be provided with a way to gain those rights. During the final stage in the granting of Caymanian Status by Cabinet to 23-year-old Kishna Burke – the ratification by the Legislative Assembly – Premier Alden McLaughlin noted that there were many others who, like her, had lived in Cayman almost all their lives but would not, as a young person, be likely to gain permanent residency, and said government would consider a route for them other than a Cabinet status grant. Burke, a successful candidate in the recent recruitment drive by the RCIPS, made her application in March 2011.
A maximum of four people per year can become Caymanians through Cabinet, a provision made by the previous PPM government in the wake of the mass status grants of 2003 under the UDP administration.
Under the current process, people can apply to the Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board, which makes recommendations to Cabinet. If the members of Cabinet agree with the recommendations, the status grant must then be put to the Legislative Assembly for approval.
In September 2012 businessmen Harry Chandi and William Maines were the first to become Caymanian this way after a majority vote in favour and only North Side MLA Ezzard Miller voting against the grant. “No one should be granted Caymanians status just because they are rich,” Miller said at the time, adding that he wanted to see these special grants given to really deserving people for exceptional reasons.
With the opposition bench empty as Burke’s status grant passed through the House last Friday afternoon, there was no debate and only the premier spoke.
He explained that she has lived in this country since the age of five and does not know the place of her birth, Jamaica, or have any family there. Although her father, a Jamaican national, obtained status through the normal immigration process, Burke’s family did not apply to have that status extended to her. So, when she turned 18 she found that she did not qualify for Caymanian status and faced the prospect of being sent back to Jamaica.
In March 2011, with little chance of gaining permanent residency, she was advised to apply to Cabinet for the right to be Caymanian, McLaughlin said. He noted that Burke, now a trainee officer in the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, has proved an outstanding member of the community and deserved the right to be Caymanian.
Premier McLaughlin said that other young people in a similar situation might not know they can apply for Cabinet status, and even if they did, four status grants per year would not be enough. Without going into details, he suggested that government would consider other ways to provide for such cases without a grant of Cabinet status.
Radio/Telethon raises $127k for charity
(CNS): The National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has confirmed that it has receieved almost all of the donations pledged at last year’s annual fundraiser, the NCVO Radio/Telethon. The charity has collected CI$127,298.00 so far out of pledges totaling CI$128,000 at the event. Janice Wilson, CEO of the NCVO, stated, “We are very grateful to all of those companies and individuals who have honoured their pledges, every year we strive to collect as much as possible and we are generally very successful in receiving almost all the amounts pledged.” (Left: Chuck and Barrie Quappe at the 2013 NCVO RadioTelethon)
This year’s fundraiser will take place at the Prospect Playhouse on Saturday 25 October. For more information about this event or to make a donation to the NCVO, contact Janice Wilson at 949-2124 or ncvo@ncvo.org.ky.
The NCVO is a non-profit, charitable organisation that is dedicated to the care, education and well-being of children and families in need of support in the Cayman Islands.
Money raised from the annual Radio/Telethon goes exclusively to the following NCVO programmes:
The Nadine Andreas Residential Foster Home
“Miss Nadine’s” Pre-School
Jack & Jill Nursery
The Caring Cousins Welfare Fund
The John Gray Fund
Visit the NCVO website for more information about the NCVO.
Archer aims at ‘clean’ reports
(CNS): The PPM administration is taking steps to eliminate some of the roadblocks to getting “clean” reports for its consolidated financial statements from the auditor general, Finance Minister Marco Archer told the Legislative Assembly last week. In July 2013, a report on the valuation of the government’s fixed assets was completed, which had not been done since 2001, and will mean that government’s assets are now on the books at their current values. In addition, the valuation of post-retirement healthcare benefits is underway, and the government is improving its financial management systems to ensure accurate and timely financial information. These steps will eliminate the disclaimers by the auditor in future audits, he said.
Getting through the backlog of financial statements that were not tabled by the previous UDP government, as required by law, Archer presented the statements for the financial year ended 30 June 2011, and said the consolidated financial statements for the financial years that ended 30 June 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 are currently with the auditor general and would be tabled as soon as the audits were finalized.
However, for the report tabled last week, he said that the auditor general was unable to obtain the audit evidence necessary on which to base an audit opinion, and he said government had “significant work to do to improve the quality of its financial information”.
The minister said that government had not carried out a revaluation of its lands, buildings, infrastructure and leasehold improvements since 2001. As at 30 June 2011, the net book value of assets subject to revaluation amounted to approximately CI$625 million, which represented just 36% of the total assets reported.
“As a result, the auditor general was unable to evaluate the reasonableness of the carrying amount of land and buildings, and any associated depreciation or impairment entries recorded within the financial statements as at 30 June 2011 as reasonable,” he said.
Under the Public Service Management Law, the government is obligated to provide post-retirement health benefits to qualified employees, spouses and dependent children , but the audit office was not provided with an evaluation of the extent of those obligations, Archer said, which is one of the issues now being rectified.
The total revenues recorded during this period amounted to CI$732 million with related receivables of CI$38 million, but, Archer told the House, the auditor general “was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to determine the reasonableness of the reported revenues. Evidence of expenses was similarly lacking, he said.
Acknowledging a number of systemic weaknesses in producing these financial statements, Archer said the Statement of Financial Position, as at 30 June 2011, showed that the entire public sector (EPS) ended the financial year with CI$1.739 billion in total assets, CI$1.241 billion in total non-current liabilities and CI$498.238 million in net assets.
The Statement of Financial Performance for the period shows that during the year the entire public sector earned CI$732.56 million in operating revenue and incurred CI$709.114 million in operating expenses, resulting in an operating surplus of CI$23.446 million.
The Statement of Cash Flows shows that the net cash flows received from operating and financing activities totalled CI$65.533 million and CI$131.076 million. The net cash used for investing activities totalled CI$94.224 million. The cash and cash equivalents for the EPS totalled CI$259.098 million.
The Statement of Changes in Net Worth shows the total net worth of the government at CI$495.236 million.
While the government was in compliance with the surplus, net worth, cash reserves and financial risk ratios, it was not in compliance with the borrowing and net debt ratios as the debt servicing ratio was at 10.5% (which should not be more than 10%) and the net debt was at 98.1% of core government revenue (which should not be more than 80%).
The Statement of Public Debt shows that the net public debt for the EPS is CI$522.341 million.
The minister said government was “making great strides to improve the quality of its financial information and in turn improve the auditor general’s opinions on the government’s financial statements.”
In the Office of the Auditor General’s progress report, “Financial and Performance Reporting Status Update as at 30th September 2013”, he noted, 39% of the underlying government agencies’ financial statements, which were audited for the financial year ended 30 June 2012, received unqualified or “clean” audit opinions.
Thirty-one percent of the financial statements, which were audited for the year ended 30th June 2012, received qualified audit opinions. The audits of the remaining 30% of financial statements were not finalized and no audit opinions had been issued at the date of the audit report.
However, the financial statements represent the government’s financial position from two financial years ago, Archer noted.
"Government entities are focussing on improving their internal controls to ensure that revenue and expenses are properly recorded, supported and reported," he said. "In addition, the Treasury Department is currently in the process of procuring software that will improve the Government’s efficiency of producing and reporting accurate and timely financial information."
Laying the latest audited report in the House, he told members, “It is hoped that over the upcoming years, as further improvements are made, that the Government’s financial information will become more credible and reliable.”
Employment Ministry to track job seekers’ progress
(CNS): The Employment Ministry is developing an assessment process for job seekers who want help from an employment services officer in their search for work that will include psycho-social assessment, mental health screening, career assessment and an assessment of employability skills, Minister Tara Rivers said in a statement to the Legislative Assembly Thursday. She said that this process, which should be in place by the end of April, was in response to feedback from employers and job seekers about the discrepancy between the skills an employer wants and the level of skills present within a segment of Cayman's unemployed population.
She said the process would help to identify the level and type of support and services required to move job seekers closer to the job market. To support the intake and assessment process, the minister said, the Computer Services Department is building a professional development interface, which will record the activities that the job seeker has committed to engage in.
“This interface will track the progress of job seekers and hold them accountable to engaging in the work necessary to address their respective barriers to employment. This interface will also facilitate the opportunity for online case management of individuals who are seeking support and services from multiple government agencies,” Rivers said.
Rivers said that a review of the work of the National Workforce Development Agency (NWDA) Employment Services Unit found that a strong collaborative relationship with the Immigration Department and its boards was crucial to ensuring that Caymanians have a fair and equal opportunity in the recruitment process, and that the immigration department and its boards rely heavily upon the ESU to provide the necessary information to make informed decisions regarding the granting of work permits.
“In response, my Ministry with the support of the Computer Services Department set out to expand the NWDA database to include an Immigration Interface which will ensure that that immigration department and its boards have the information required in a timely manner to make informed decisions,” she said. “The delivery of such a system was a major campaign promise and is absolutely essential to enhance the collaboration, the efficiency and the effectiveness in the way these two agencies – the NWDA and the immigration department – interact with one another.”
On 25 February the ministry launched the NWDA-immigration database interface, which, the minister said, “is designed to facilitate significant positive change in the way Immigration and NWDA work with each other”.
She said the database is facilitating transparency in the work permit process; providing an efficient and effective way for employers to communicate efforts to hire a suitably qualified Caymanians; and providing an effective and efficient way for the NWDA to provide information to the immigration department and its boards that will allow for informed decisions to be made by them when processing work permit applications.
Under the new process, after an employer registers a job with the NWDA, the agency system runs a query to identify job seeking clients who broadly meet the requirements of the post. Then an NWDA employment services officer reviews the matches for appropriateness and with authorization from job seekers, refer candidates that are a reasonable fit for the post.
NWDA job seeking clients are able to view job posts and have the option to self-refer and the employer clients receive notification of matches for those who have self-referred or who have been referred by the NWDA. The employer, who is responsible for reviewing all candidates and determining their suitability, is provided with a section on the database where they can record the outcome of each referral.
If the employer does not select a Caymanian and chooses to apply for a work permit, the immigration department and its boards will be able to pull up the referral record and view the list of people who were referred or self-referred, the rationale for the referral and the reasons the company gave to explain why no suitable applicant was found.
This process will ensure that immigration is aware of every person that was referred or self-referred and the outcome of the recruitment process, the minister explained.
“It is important to note that there is no legislation that mandates employers to register their companies with the NWDA or post available jobs with the NWDA. While this interface facilitates transparency in the work permit process, it only accomplishes this for jobs that are posted with the NWDA where persons have applied for the post through the NWDA,” Rivers said.
“What my Ministry has done is to create a valuable and critically important service and we are encouraging employers and job seekers to utilize it in the process of recruitment and job seeking. The approach right now is to create something that is useful to job seekers and employers, and we are inviting feedback as we further develop the system to ensure that it is fit for purpose.”
A district outreach programme is also underway, in which the Training and Development Unit of the NWDA has partnered with Library Services to deliver NWDA employment services at the District public library branches on a monthly basis. “Through this opportunity Caymanians can meet with a representative of the NWDA at their district library for assistance with any activity related to job seeking including registering with the NWDA, searching for jobs on the online portal, self-referring for jobs, resume writing, and interview preparation,” Rivers said.
Mac moves marina motion
(CNS): The leader of the opposition presented a private member's motion to the Legislative Assembly Wednesday calling for government to give unqualified support for the proposed marina on Cayman Brac at Saltwater Pond, adjacent to the Alexander Hotel. Several members of the Dilbert family, who own the hotel and have applied for a coastal works licence in connection with the marina, were present at the civic centre on Cayman Brac, where the LA is sitting this week, as McKeeva Bush called the project a “beacon of light” for the island. The government voted for the motion, but only after it had been amended to say that its support for the marina was contingent on the results of an environmental impact study – a position it already held, regardless of the motion.
During the debate it was revealed by Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell that the Dilberts have told Cabinet that if they are allowed to develop the marina, they have plans to expand the Alexander Hotel, even though they have previously stated that the hotel is on average only 25% full.
The motion also called for the Brac to have its own “environment oversight committee”, made up of Brackers, which would not, apparently, include the Department of Environment. The DoE, Bush told the House, had been running an “orchestrated effort on CNS to badmouth the developer and all kinds of evil” and making everyone “believe that they are the worst type of people in the world”.
Brackers were suffering, he said, with as many as 300 people on welfare and the island dependent on $13 to $16 million (per year) in government subsidies. Soon, he said, the islanders would have to deal with the same criminal activity as Grand Cayman if they let the people there “ground you into the ground because of their environmental likes and dislikes”.
The opposition leader said the proposal had been “attacked” by the DoE, and accused the department of deliberately giving wrong information to stop the project from moving forward. He claimed the marina, which would take one to one and a half years to build, would stimulate the Brac economy in all sorts of ways.
Bush noted that government had received a letter “signed by 21 solid Cayman Brackers – educated Brackers and with good common sense”, who had made “a unanimous decision” to ask government to relax environmental considerations and approve the project in the next two weeks.
“The Brac people is going to have the say,” he said, calling for a timeframe so that “no one from the DoE can draw it out”, and said that similar projects on the Brac should have similar treatment.
Nevertheless, the government stood firm that the project required an environmental impact study, and Premier Alden McLaughlin pointed out that Cabinet already approved the project in principle several weeks ago, contingent on the result of the EIA.
The deputy premier, who is the first elected member for the Sister Islands, shared a conversation he had had with Cleveland Dilbert, the patriarch of the family. “One of the things I said was that we had to do an EIA because my legacy was not going to be that I destroyed the West End of Cayman Brac,” said Kirkconnell. Cleveland, he recalled, had said that he did not want it to be his legacy either, “so I am very confident that he meant that he wanted to ensure that it is done in the right way,” he said.
He said they were all saying the same thing – making sure that the project was done right – and he maintained that he wanted this project to go forward.
Whistleblower motion fails
(CNS): The Progressives and C4C members voted down a motion to adopt the recommendations made by the complaints commissioner to protect whistleblowers in the civil service. North Side MLA Ezzard Miller brought the motion to the Legislative Assembly Wednesday on behalf of the committee with oversight of the complaints commissioner, of which he is chair, saying members were very concerned at the handling, by both senior servants and past political leadership, of previous reports that had dealt with whistleblowing. However, one member, Roy McTaggart, voted against his own committee’s motion and in-line with the rest of the MLAs on the government bench, with the exception of Alva Suckoo, another member of the oversight committee, who abstained.
Referring to the Clifford Report and the Luck Report, both of which had made recommendations regarding whistleblowers that had “not seen light of day”, Miller said that in order to prevent Complaint Commissioner Nicola Williams’ report, “Let the Whistle Blow”, from suffering a similar fate, the committee has instructed him to move the motion that government adopt and implement the recommendations contained in the report as policy and resolve that such implementation include the passage into law of whistleblowing legislation.
West Bay MLA Bernie Bush seconded the motion, which was supported across the opposition bench.
Addressing the Legislative Assembly, which is sitting this week at the Aston Rutty Civic Centre on Cayman Brac, Miller reminded members of the findings of the report: that public servants in the Cayman Islands are extremely reluctant to report wrongdoing for fear of reprisals, and that victimization and retaliation is common, with no protection for the whistleblower.
The commissioner’s recommendations, he said, called for stand-alone legislation, a positive duty to report wrongdoing, changing the culture of the civil service so that whistleblowers were seen as reporters of wrongdoing, and that those reported of wrongdoing were punished. She also recommended the drafting of a whistleblowing policy document, a confidential hotline, and ensuring confidentiality of the whistleblowers, as well as an education programme and creating a ministry portfolio for Public Service and Integrity.
Miller congratulated the commissioner on the professionalism, sensitivity and thoroughness of the report, a sentiment echoed by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who said that his office had considered it, “and while we do not agree with every recommendation, we do accept that this is is matter which we need to give urgent attention to,” he noted.
Manderson said that considerable work had been done already; the attorney general was already in the process of drafting whistleblower legislation, he said, adding that hehas also set up a confidential email where staff could contact him. His office, he said, was taking the recommendations seriously and they were “progressing as quickly as we can”.
However, the motion failed when all government members except for Suckoo voted “no”.
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As dump grows, Brackers urged to learn the three R’s
(CNS): An initiative launched on Grand Cayman by all the service clubs to encourage people to recycle has now spread to Cayman Brac. Reduce (avoid buying stuff with a lot of packaging), reuse (find other ways to use items when you’re done with them) and recycle – the three R’s – is the critical message that has now been presented by representatives from the “Join In” campaign to all the students on the Brac at the primary and high schools and at the UCCI campus, as well as Brac service clubs and anyone else interested. As the dump on the south side of the Brac grows, now almost reaching the height of the Bluff, residents are asked to collect aluminium cans and put them in the bins around the Brac and to start collecting glass and plastic, even though these are not yet recycled on the island.
The service clubs recognised that recycling needs to happen on all three islands but the project is just too big for a single club, Kiwanis President Kadi Pentney (pictured above at the Brac dump) told CNS when she and Rotary Sunrise President, JD Mosley-Matchett, came to the Brac to fire up Brackers to start recycling.
There are Department of Environmental Health (DEH) recycling bins for aluminium cans all over the island: at all three primary schools, Panama Canal Park, Kirkconnell’s Market, Billy's Supermarket, West End (RUBIS) Texaco, the Market Place, Brac Snack Shack and at the West End Community Park.
Residents are urged to collect all their cans and dump them in the bins; it’s OK to keep them in the plastic bags they are collected in, just stop putting them in with the rest of the garbage so that they just go to the landfill site, Pentney and Mosley-Matchett said.
“People are ready to recycle but they don't know what to do,” Pentney said, noting that most people don’t even notice that the recycling bins are there until it’s pointed out to them.
The “Join In” initiative is keen to work with the DEH in their efforts and have asked the DEH representative on the Brac, Thomas Augustine, what they can do to help. One way they want to do this is to find ways to keep glass and some plastic out of the Brac dump. While these materials are already being recycled on Grand Cayman, this has not yet begun on the Brac, and the service clubs are making efforts to coordinate with the private recycling companies and the DEH to get this going.
They are hoping that the companies will supply some of the bins required – they need about six – but are also looking for sponsors. The bins are around $250 each and sponsors can put their logo on them for additional advertising.
In the meantime, they are asking Brackers to start separating and collecting plastic bottles (without the caps) and glass as well as beer and soda cans, so that they can demonstrate the need and show that they are willing to participate.
Ideally, the Brac should have its own glass crusher, and the campaign is hoping that they can find a sponsor or someone to raise funds to buy one. Currently, glass collected on Grand Cayman goes to the Dart glass crusher to be reused and sold for construction.
The cans collected on Cayman Brac are sent to Grand Cayman. The aluminium cans and some plastics collected on Grand Cayman are crushed, baled and, when they have a full container, sent to Miami and sold.
“One person can make a difference,” Pentney said, “because they can encourage other people to recycle. One child can become a whole class, and then a whole school.”
CNB closes Edward Street branch with no staff loss
(CNS Business): Cayman National Bank has closed its Edward Street customer service centre but the bank says all 13 staff members will be redeployed elsewhere in the company to manage the redistribution of client business traffic. CNB said in a statement that the lease for the building is expiring this year and the branch no longer serves the firm's strategic objectives, so they decided not to renew the lease. CNB President Ormond A. Williams stated, “In this difficult economic climate where businesses are reducing their staff complement, we have taken the approach to retain, retrain and redeploy our existing staff, which is a true testament of the Cayman National ethos and commitment to the socio-economic development of our community.” Read more on CNS Business
Pond smell could get worse
(CNS): Plans by the owner of the Alexander Hotel on Cayman Brac to dig out part of the adjacent Saltwater Pond in order to get rid of the bad smell could backfire. Not only is there no certainty that excavating one third of the pond will help alleviate the stink but it could actually make things worse, according to Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie. Hotel owner Cleveland Dilbert informed staff earlier this week that he was shutting down the Alexander after Cabinet insisted that he had to produce an environmental impact assessment before they could approve his coastal works application, which is part of a project to turn Saltwater Pond into a marina. However, it appears the hotel will not be closing after all.
"The Alexander Hotel will remain open as we work in partnership to find solutions," Deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism Moses Kirkconnell announced on the PPM Facebook page Wednesday, following “extensive talks” with Dilbert. (Below: the hotel sits next to Saltwater Pond, which emits a strong smell when the water level is low.)
Talking to The Caymanian Compass the same day, Dilbert claimed negotiations with government this week were “successful” and that he had been given authority (though the article was not clear by whom) to begin work on the “basin section” of the pond, pending approval from the Development Control Board.
However, commenting on the article, the DoE director said that several points needed to be clarified.
“Regarding the multiple claims in the article that excavating the pond will address the odour problem, the applicant has provided no evidence that excavating one-third of the pond will fix the smell. What of the remaining two-thirds which will be up-wind of the hotel?” Ebanks-Petrie asked. "To the best of my knowledge, there has been no proper investigation of the hydrology of the pond, the depth and characteristics of the sediments in the pond, or of the geology (for example, will it need to be blasted before it can be dug) in the location in which the Dilberts intend to excavate", she added.
“If the geology permits them to dig to their proposed depth, this will come with its own challenges in terms of maintaining good water quality. Deeper, artificially created ponds generally have poorer water circulation and poorer light penetration, both of which will likely contribute to low dissolved oxygen levels and poor water quality. In addition, by removing the sediments the connection to ground water will likely be enhanced, thus creating the potential for the introduction of excess nutrients through connections with deep wells from septic tanks on the surrounding properties as well as from land-based run-off,” she explained.
“If not approached carefully, and without a full understanding of both the natural pond ecosystem and the exact cause of the smell, excavation could result in making things worse,” Ebanks-Petire warned. “One of the DoE’s long-standing concerns is the detrimental impact on the marine environment resulting from opening this pond system to the sea.”
The DoE director also addressed suggestions in the article that the Dilbert family might not be fully responsible for covering the cost of the environmental impact assessment (EIA).
“Developers pay for EIAs because they have an obligation and a duty to demonstrate, with facts, that what they are proposing will not have irreversible, adverse effects on the environment and society. In this case the developer is proposing to impact public crown-owned resources (the pond belongs to the crown, as does the seabed),” Ebanks-Petrie said. “In our view this creates an even greater imperative for the developer to demonstrate that no harm will be done.”
She also questioned some of the claims made by Dilbert in the article about the marina project.
“Mr Dilbert acknowledges that he is not an environmental expert but claims that ‘after extensive research and consultation on our part, we are very confident that the proposed project, overall, will prove to not pose as a threat,” the DoE director said. “To date, Mr Dilbert has not produced any of this ‘extensive research’ to aid the decision making process. If he has this information, he needs to make it available to the DoE and the government as soon as possible.”
CNS has asked the Dilbert family what extensive research has been done and if any of it is documented and is awaiting a response.
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