News

There have been some good reviews of the just-ended 2011 Summer Festival in Anguilla which are both encouraging and commendable.

One of the comments has come from Governor Alistair Harrison who has responsibility for law and order through the Royal Anguilla Police Force.

Anguilla Credit Management Ltd., an auctioneering subsidiary of Keithley Lake & Associates, presided over the auction sale of the Viceroy development on Wednesday, July 27, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre. The sale was on behalf of SOF Vlll Hotel ll, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group in the United States, and Chargee of the property.

Anguilla’s celebrated and eminent jurist, Dame Dr. Bernice Lake, QC has formally gone into retirement with a big send off and thank you from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, the Anguilla and OECS Bar Associations and other members of the legal fraternity and family and friends in the region and the island. The extraordinary assertive, adversarial and legal giant, who earned the respectand admiration of her colleagues everywhere, was the recipient ofa full measure of tributes at a special sitting of the Court on Friday, July 22.

The Anguilla Tourist Board’s new cultural and social activity, called The ValleyStreet Festival, has turned out to be an event that has caught the attention, and involvement, of many people including visitors. It is the second such function to be held on the busy main road across from St. Mary’s Anglican Church.

Now that the Anguilla Community College, led by Professor Delroy Louden, has been fully established, it is attracting various offers from several institutions of higher learning abroad.

A five-member team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began a ten-day fact-finding mission in Anguilla on Wednesday, this week.

If there had been an alternative plan in place to operate the Air Traffic Control Tower, in the event that the Clayton J. Lloyd Airport had lost the ability to provide regular cover for aircraft, the situation that arose several days ago would have been averted.

It is expected that there will be much talk and interest in the schools of Anguilla about gender quality, when teachers and other persons eventually take the matter into the classrooms.

Opposition Leader in the Anguilla House of Assembly, Evan McNiel Rogers, Elected Member for Valley North, was ordered to leave the House of Assembly by the Speaker, Mrs. Barbara Webster-Bourne, on Monday, July 4. She called on the Sergeant-At-Arms, Carl Ruan, to remove Mr. Rogers, whom she accused of disorderly conduct.

A five-day Gender Affairs Workshop opened in Anguilla ends Friday, July 8, having covered various major areas of focus, and brought together a number of stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

Three young ladies will this year be competing in the Miss Anguilla Pageant due to take place on Thursday August 4. The three contestants are Shara Hodge of Long Bay who currently is employed at Scotiabank; Marejah Smith of Island Harbour who is studying law at the University of Derby in the UK; and Olufunmike Banks-Devonish who is studying at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada.

The Government of Anguilla-appointed Tax Reform Committee has been told that businesses on the island are hurting to a great extent. This is said to have resulted from current taxation, and the sluggish economy, and it is thought that it is only a matter of pride why some businesses are still open.

The eleven-member strong Anguilla National Culinary Team returned home on Tuesday afternoon, jubilant over their success at the Taste of the Caribbean Competition held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Miami, Florida, June 22-26.

Twenty-four Sixth Form Students, at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, graduated on Wednesday, June 29. It was the school’s 13th graduation ceremony which was held at the Teachers’ Resource Centre, under the theme Leaving Empowered, Equipped for the Future.

The Anguilla Teachers’ Union, which comprises some 250 members, with Emma Ferguson as President, has laid out to Government its various concerns about taxation, cuts in salaries and the high cost of living. In the words of ATU member, Michelle Queeley, those were issues which “plague our nation’s most noble body of educators.”

Two fifth form students at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, Chelsey Hughes and Senegal Carty, are now in Wisonsin attending the World Affairs Seminar from June 18-24 at Carroll University. Their attendance was arranged through the Rotary Club of Anguilla with the assistance of a number of sponsors in Anguilla and in the United States.

Anguilla’s National Culinary Team left the island on Tuesday this week, to participate in the Taste of the Caribbean Competition at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Miami, Florida, from Wednesday to Sunday (June 22-26).

Festivals are growing in numbers and popularity in Anguilla among residents and visitors alike and the Welches Fest, held on Whit Monday, this week, is fast emerging as one of the very popular annual events. People from all across the island turned out in large numbers at the festive occasion, filling to capacity the village playground just across from Maxwell Vanterpool’s residential and business premises.

The Anguilla Electricity Company has met an urgent need for equipment at the Electronics Lab at Campus A of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. ANGLEC’s General Manager, Tommy Hodge, presented EC$10,000-worth of equipment to Head of Technical and Vocational Training, Janis McKeag, on Wednesday this week, for use by students and as part of the company’s celebration of its 20th Anniversary.

A Case Study of Sandy Ground, Anguilla, relating to the Livelihoods, Gender, Poverty and Development sector, (LGPD) is set for Monday, June 20, at the Pump House Restaurant. The event is a component of the Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) project being implemented in fifteen Caribbean countries, Anguilla being among them.