News

The building constructed in 1953 to serve as the Official Residence of the Principal of the then Valley Secondary School, later as the Department of Lands and Surveys and eventually as the Education Department until recently, is being dismantled.

Anguillians turned out in large numbers on Friday, Anguilla Day, May 30, at the Ronald Webster for an Official Parade to celebrate the 41st Anniversary of their 1967 Revolution which eventually led to the formal separation of the island from St. Kitts-Nevis.

The Anguilla House of Assembly has amended Section 50 (a) of the Firearms Act which now provides a penalty of $200,000 or 5 years imprisonment for persons found in possession of such weapons and ammunition on the island.

For some reason, a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office stated that this week Monday’s second round of discussions in the current series of meet-the-people constitutional meetings at the Ronald Webster Park would focus on a string of matters. These were said to include the possible re-organisation of electoral boundaries, increasing the number of Government and Elected Members, the Public Service Commission and the Teachers Service Commission.

Deputy Governors from the five Caribbean British Overseas Territories and Bermuda began a three-day meeting in Anguilla on Wednesday, May 21, at Paradise Cove Resort, with the main discussion matter being the Public Service in the respective islands.

The three congregations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Anguilla held a combined Appreciation Day Service at the Mount Fortune Church at East End on May 17, at which Nurses, Nursing Aids, Sanitation Workers and Solid Waste Companies were honoured for their contribution to the island’s health and environment services.

Like everything else in life, there is always a feeling of uncertainty if not apprehension when there are changes, but the new owner of Cap Juluca, Adam Aron, who was in Anguilla several days ago, put up his index finger and said: “My word is my bond.” He was at the time speaking in an interview with The Anguillian about various points in his plans to guarantee the welfare and benefits of employees, maintain and promote the resort and preserve it in a way that the Government and people who own the Crown Land on which it sits would like to see it, although with some expansion. “We shall not change the character of Cap Juluca,” he affirmed.

Various aspects of the cultural tradition and ways of social life in Anguilla were relived on the Whit Monday holiday this week during the Welches Fest which was put on by a number of community-minded persons.

Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming (Elected Member for District 2), and Minister of Infrastructure, Kenneth Harrigan (Elected Member for District1), held a joint meeting with residents in both districts at the Basketball Court at East End on Thursday, May 9.

The High Court in Anguilla has handed down a historic judgment in which Resident Judge Justice Janice George-Creque delivered an overnight ruling on Tuesday this week halting the construction of a dolphin pier at the protected Sandy Point Bay Beach, Blowing Point.

The Government of Anguilla, with the support of all political factions and the general public on the island, is hotly pursuing full internal self-government even at the cost of being forced into independence although this ultimate status is not yet on the cards.

Two big and separate meetings were being held simultaneously in Anguilla in the middle of the week. One of them was the first mid-year review of the island’s tourism strategy and was held at the Royal Caribbean Resort conference room facility.

Officers of the Anguilla Fire Service battled for a considerable period at around midday on Wednesday, April 23, to put out a fire which completely gutted one of the island’s semi-traditional houses at North Valley.

On the heels of the announcement that Cap Juluca had been purchased by an investor syndicate led by noted travel industry executive, Adam Aron, former owner of the world famous resort, Dion Friedland, has distributed his gift of one million US dollars to the 400 employees. The gift, on the sale of the property, was a promise that Mr. Friedland made to the Honourable Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, on behalf of the Cap Juluca employees last year.

The Ronald Webster Park, which featured prominently over the years as the main venue for large public gatherings in the political life of Anguilla, will be the location on April 28 for a big meet-the-people forum on the island’s constitution.

A capacity crowd attended the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church at Island Harbour, Anguilla, on Sunday, April 13.

They are rolling out one after the other. First it was Festival Del Mar, the newest initiative by the Anguilla Tourist Board held in conjunction with the Island Harbour community during the Easter weekend.

The announcement that the Anguilla Democratic Party (ADP) is reorganising itself under the principles of its constitution, with the aim of contesting the next general election on the island and bringing about change, has brought swift reaction from the Hon. Victor Banks, former Political Leader of that party.

Festival Del Mar, held at Island Harbour Bay on March 22 and 23, has been described as a success despite the odds which militated against it. One of the competing drawbacks, until he was rescued, was the disappearance at sea of village fisherman, Sam Webster, which had not only overshadowed the event, but threatened its cancellation.

Anguilla’s top Clergyman, the Rt. Rev. Errol Brooks, celebrated the Tenth Anniversary of his Consecration and Ordination as the Bishop of the Diocese of the North-Eastern Caribbean and Aruba with a Special Service at St. Mary’s Anglican Church on Wednesday evening, March 26.