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Tower shines light on local media market
(CNS Business):A local publisher claims there has been a lot of mis-information in Cayman about print-run and readership numbers of locally distributed publications in the past. Having commissioned a media audit of its own products, Acorn Publishing is encouraging other publishers in the Cayman Islands to do the same. “Cayman is playing catch-up to other developed economies that have been providing independently audited media services for years,” said Acorn’s Director Charles Grover. Lynne Byles (left), Director of Tower, which conducted the audit, said it would ensure the published print-run numbers match the actual printed copies, providing confidence and assurance to business owners that their advertising dollars are being spent as a publisher advocates.
Range of new government jobs on Cayman Brac
(CNS): Funding has been approved for the Police Marine Unit to have a dedicated patrol vesselon Cayman Brac, the premier announced at a meeting on the island Thursday night. Addressing around 300 Brackers at the civic centre on his first official visit to the Sister Islands as premier, Alden McLaughlin said that this would help improve security for the island and boost employment. He also announced that one of the outcomes following a review of the Cayman Islands Fire Service has been the approval of funding for 26 new officers, including six on Cayman Brac.
Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell, who co-hosted the meeting, announced a number of new government jobs on the island that have either been filled or will be in the near future. These included a plumber, a mechanic, a heavy equipment operator, two customs officers, two immigration posts, a road supervisor / asphalt plant operator, a labourer and an electrician.
Referring to coastal works applications for three marinas, he said that one, the Dilbert Marina next to the Alexander Hotel, which appeared to have large support from the 300 Brackers at the meeting, is complete and will be presented to caucus on Monday. The other two are with the Department of Environment, Kirkconnell said, and even though he admitted that he hadn’t looked at the environmental assessmentof the Dilbert Marine by the DoE, he said supported all three applications.
The government has just finished negotiations for 12 ships from the US Coast Guard to spend time in the Cayman Islands for “R and R” and two of those ships will come to Cayman Brac, Kirkconnell said. The ships will be here for four to five days and 120 sailors will come ashore with money to spend, he noted, adding, “We know how to welcome seamen.”
The Department of Tourism will be holding a “global meeting” on Cayman Brac on 23 March, in which 40 DoT representatives from Canada, Europe, the UK, and Western and Central US will be on the island for four days, having local interaction and taking tours, which the deputy premier described as very good exposure.
The PPM’s vision for the multi-purpose building on the Bluff, which was begun under the last government as a hurricane shelter and became known as the “Hurricane Hilton” because of the plans to have private rooms within the shelter, is to turn that into a school. Kirkconnell said that the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility demands that they complete a business case for that. However, since this cannot be completed in time for the next budget, they have decided to put that money into the roads project instead for this year but next year they will allot $500,000 to move this project forward and work with the education department regarding how to actually put in the classrooms to meet international best practices.
The road programme, he said, will continue up Peter’s Cave road and then go all the way down to the west end, in order to reach the maximum number of people.
Health City Cayman Islands will be paperless
(CNS Business Video): “Our intention is to have a paperless hospital and also to use digital technology to make healthcare safer for the patient,” Dr Devi Shetty told CNS Business in this week’s video interview about Health City Cayman Islands. For example, patients who have cardiac surgery at HCCI will be monitored at night by very senior doctors and very senior nurses in the Health City in Bangalore, India, where it will be daytime. “For obvious reasons you can’t have extremely experience nurses and extremely experienced surgeons caring for the patient in ICU all the time – it doesn't happen in any part of the world,” he said, explaining that technology will allow for patients to have round the clock care by experienced staff. Read more and watch video on CNS Business
HCCI expects many patients from US and Caribbean
(CNS Business): The goal for the partners behind Health City Cayman Islands (HCCI) is to get accreditation from the Joint Commission of the United States within the first year. “It is hard but we have done it before in India. One of our hospitals got Joint Commission accreditation in less than a year,” Dr Devi Shetty told CNS Business Video in this week's interview. Although this is not “absolutely required” by the leading medical insurance companies, he said they would be “comfortable” sending patients to an accredited facility. In addition, patients from the US – and they are expecting to have a large number eventually – are apprehensive about going abroad for treatment unless it has this accreditation. Read more on CNS Business and watch video
Beneficial ownership register would ‘cripple’ markets
(CNS Business): The Cayman Islands Law Society (CILS) has saidthat the mechanism by which beneficial ownership information can already be obtained is sufficient and there is “absolutely no need to jeopardise the privacy of legitimate business” by allowing full public access to confidential information with a publicly accessible register. In its submission to the Financial Services Ministry regarding the consultation paper on the issue, the Law Society presented a raft of arguments against the register, including costs, which would “cripple all financial markets (onshore and offshore)”. All points made by the CILS were endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce in its own submission to the ministry, which urged government "to oppose vigorously any attempt to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership information." Read more on CNS Business
Cayman Islands Chili Cook-Off is back!
(CNS): Cayman’s local brewery is resurrecting a culinary event that was the precursor to the Taste of Cayman but is much missed by local and visiting chili-lovers. CayBrew's Marketing Manager Matthew Leslie says the CayBrew International Chili Cook off is sanctioned by the International Chili Society (ICS) and the winning team will get an all-expense paid trip to one of the finals of the regional competition. There will also be prizes for the second and third placed teams, as well as raffle prizes for people who come to enjoy the festivities and taste some of the delicious chili recipes in the competition. It also coincides with Caybrew’s 7th anniversary on 22 March. “What’s better to extinguish chili with but Caybrew?” Leslie asked.
“CayBrew has decided to bring this event back to Cayman,” Leslie said. “This was the original culinary festival in Cayman that was the catalyst for Taste of Cayman but a lot of people have come over the years and said they miss the chili cook-off because it was good friendly competition.”
He said they wanted to prove how well they can host this event so that next year, working with the ICS it can become a regional event. As a regional event, the Cayman Islands will compete with the 40 or so countries in the Caribbean and Central America that take part in chili cook offs, such as Jamaica Puerto Rica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.
The category is “Home-style chili”, which is very broad. Teams up to four people can enter and the entry fee is $100, which also gets the team registered with ICS.
The Caybrew International chili cook off is being hosted on Seven Mile Beach on the land that is directly between the Lone Star Bar And Grill (the location for the original Chili Cook -Off) and Buckingham Plaza – the old entry way to the Hyatt.
Gates open on Saturday 22 March from noon until 8pm, and there will be bouncing castles and cotton candy for the kids. Attendees will pay $20, and they will get a wristband and five chili pots to sample the competing chilis. They can also purchase more chili pots to sample more chili.
As well as first, second and third place for the chili recipes, there will be a People’s Choice Award, Best Booth and the winner gets an all-expense paid trip to one of the chili finals
Sponsors include Cayman Airways, the Department of Tourism, Home Gas Ltd, Uncle Bill's and also Red Bull. Hurley’s Supermarket is the official Food Sponsor and all the teams that are registered will get gift certificates to do their shopping for the competition at Hurley’s.
The media sponsors for this event are Cayman News Service and CNS Business and attendees can get a “$5 off voucher” by going on either of those websites and printing off one voucher (see attached) for each person coming.
Leslie says there will be lots of music, lots of fun and raffle prizes, including Cayman Airways tickets and Home Gas is offering a big prize of a beautiful stove range, plus its installment and propane.
To enter or for more information, call 947-6699 or email CaybrewCookoff@cib.ky.
LIME investing $30m to keep up with demands
(CNS Business): To keep up with the speeds that people are requiring, LIME is investing, over this year and next, over $30 million locally to upgrade its system, according to LIME Cayman Islands CEO Bill McCabe. The ability of Cayman to compete with the rest of the world, especially in the high-end industries that thrive here, is highly dependent on the ability to connect and communicate, and that means that the demands for speed and really good infrastructure is tremendous, he said. Looking to the future, he said that they were very interested in Health City Cayman Islands’ plans for telemedical services, noting that telecoms would be at the core of that for HCCI to be able to provide diagnostics and medical services. Read more on CNS Business
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WA warns of broken water main in Bodden Town
(CNS): The Water Authority has said there is a broken water main on Bodden Town Road near Gun Square. Customers located on Bodden Town Rd, from the junction of Gun Square to the Bodden Town Police Station, will experience an interruption in service while repairs are carried out, a release from the WA stated, estimating that repairs will take about four hours. Traffic has been reduced to one lane, so drivers are asked to drive with caution and obey all traffic signs. The Water Authority said it appreciates the patience and understanding of the motoring public as they continue to provide services to all of their customers and apologizes for any inconvenience.
DoE: Dilbert marina ‘flawed’
(CNS): The Department of Environment has urged to Cabinet not to approve a coastal works application to cut a channel into Saltwater Pond on Cayman Brac as part of a plan to build a marina at the location, finding that the proposal was “so demonstrably damaging to the environment and fundamentally flawed” that it was not even worth the cost of doing an environmental impact assessment. As well as serious concerns regarding the proposal’s impact on the marine and bird life, the DoE Technical Review Committee found that breaching the protective storm ridge in front of the pond with a 100-foot wide channel would expose both coastal and inland properties, potentially as far as the airport, to increased flood risk and storm damage from the sea.
The increased risk of storm damage to surrounding properties, including the Alexander Hotel, which is owned by the coastal works applicant, Cleveland Dilbert, was among a list of issues that the review found had not been addressed in the application.
There was no supporting technical report to determine the feasibility of excavating the channel with a mechanical excavator, which was the stated intention in the application, nor was there any technical information to support the safe operation of the channel design, orientation and placement, and there was no evidence of any engineering study regarding the structure of the breakwater, or groyne, which Dilbert intends to build by placing large boulders onto the seabed.
The committee pointed out that this structure would need to be properly engineered to withstand high energy wave activity without damage to the structure or neighbouring coastline properties. “The department would have expected to see documentation of the engineering considerations utilized in the design of the rock groyne breakwater, including a cross section profile drawing depicting height and slopes employed, size of rocks etc,” the review noted.
The DoE found significant issues with the proposed method for excavation of the channel. While the application stated that silt screens would be used to control sedimentation in order to protect the reef, the scientists conducting the review said the use of silt screens in the rough offshore conditions in this area was “simply not feasible”.
Addressing the proposal that the rock groyne would serve as the road from which the channel will be excavated, the review noted, “The typical reach of a mechanical excavator is less than 40 ft so it will not be possible to dig the entire 100 ft width of the channel from a single groyne. The oblique angle of the end of the seaward end of the channel will require a significant fill pad to create the required reach for the excavator. The fill pads will be vulnerable to wave activity and will generate a significant amount of sediment for the many months the construction will require.”
Responding to concerns raised by the National Trust, which are supported by the findings of the DoE technical committee, Dilbert said in a release Thursday that the Trust had been “grossly misinformed”.
While the DoE, which has made extensive and long term scientific studies of the reefs, found that opening the channel would have a severe detrimental impact on what they have found is the healthiest coral reef on the Brac, Dilbert said he had received a “number of phone calls from divers” discrediting National Trust’s concerns regarding the damage to dive sites in the area from the development of his marina.
The DoE scientists not only found that the initial dredging plans would damage the reef from the resulting sedimentation but that frequent maintenance dredging to keep the channel clear would present an ongoing issue. However, Dilbert, without any apparent scientific evidence, dismissed any risk of sedimentation. Their plans, he said, were to first excavate the basin (within the pond), “then start the channel afterwards, connecting the two at the very last stage, after the basin has had a chance to settle”.
Dilbert wrote in his release, “It is certainly no secret to people familiar with turtle nesting habitats in Cayman Brac that this area of the coastline is certainly not a popular area for nesting turtles.” However, the DoE, which actually leads the study of nesting turtles in the Cayman Islands, stated clearly that the works would, in fact, “require the removal of active turtle nesting beach”.
The DoE also found that the business case for the marina had not been made: “The scale and extent of impacts associated with this project, including impacts to surrounding properties, are too significant to adopt a ‘build it and they will come’ approach. In addition to the fact that the seabed is Crown property, Saltwater Pond is still a Crown-owned parcel … and the government has a duty to ensure the best and highest use of this property for the benefit of all the people of the Cayman Islands. The applicant should therefore be required to produce detailed market research and a robust business case which is commensurate with the significance and magnitude of the predicted impacts to public resources.”
In lieu of any actual business case, Dilbert found proof of the economic viability of his marina in the fact that someone else had also made an application to build one.
“Surely we all can agree that if another developer is also pursuing the same initiative then that is only demonstrative of the private sector’s opinion as to the viability of operating more than one safe harbour in Cayman Brac,” he said in his release, finding additional evidence in the conditional approval given to his proposal by the Development Control Board. The DCB, “comprised of full time residents of Cayman Brac, successful business men and women, having recommended approval of all three safe harbours, shares this sentiment.”
The DoE technical committee concluded, “A proposal of this scale and location would ordinarily require an Environmental Impact Assessment to aid in decision making and potential mitigation. However given the probability, magnitude and significance of the potential impacts, the DoE is confident that an EIA would likely not provide any additional justification ormitigation opportunities that would support approval or demonstrate that the benefits of the projects outweigh the costs.”
Dilbert noted that both CNS and the National Trust had erroneously stated that the area to be dredged was 19.25 acres of sea bottom, which was the figure he had mistakenly used on his application that both the Trust and CNS had seen in the planning department. The actual areas affected would be 0.12 acres of seagrass and 1.73 acres of seabed, with the removal of 17,000 cubic yards from the seabed.
However, DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie told CNS that this error did not affect the findings of their review of the proposal.
See DoE Technical Review Committee report and Cleveland Dilbert's release below.
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LIME CEO says customer service must improve
(CNS Business): LIME Cayman Islands needs to provide significant improvement in the area of customer service, the new CEO, Bill McCabe told CNS Business in this week's video interview. He said it was clear that the company had some great infrastructure and great networks in place but "the whole customer service area" needs improving. They have already begun to make changes, he said, so that when customers in Cayman phone the call centre they now get through far quicker than they did even two months ago. The call centre is based off-island because that means greater efficiencies for LIME but people complain that the customer service staff "don't know what it's like to be in Cayman" and they get frustrated when they call. Read more on CNS Business