Black Immigrant Daily News

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A group of bandits overpowered a security guard and stole two Toyota Hiace vans filled with goods in a robbery in Trinicity early on Tuesday morning.

Police said a 35-year-old security guard who works for Dynamite Security Services was on duty at the WebSource compound at the Trincity Business Park, when five bandits, two of whom had guns, stormed the guard booth and announced a robbery.

They tied up the guard and cut open several metal doors to different warehouses before they found the keys to the vans.

The bandits then forced the guard to open the front gate of the compound and drove of.Arouca police visited the scene with crime scene investigators from the North Central Division.

WebSource, on its official Facebook account, confirmed the robbery hs taken place and urged the public to report to the police if they saw the missing vans.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The National Roads Authority (NRA) is expected to get another four million dollars for its coffers this quarter once the National Roads Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022 passes into law.

This extra four million dollars will be taken from the Road Fund, a fund controlled by core government which accumulates all fuel import duties charged, collected and paid under the Customs Tariff Act on gasoline and diesel used by motor vehicles (excluding fuel import duties for diesel consumed by Caribbean Utilities Company) and all fees collected and paid under the Traffic Regulations on motor vehicle drivers’ licences.

Since core government controls the Road Fund, it is for the Cabinet to authorise any transfer of a restricted sum from the Road Fund to the NRA as revenue to help the NRA cover its annual operating cost, in particular, the construction, upgrading, rehabilitation and maintenance of public roads.

Regarding this, the outgoing NRA board chairman explained that “The extra funding is important because, without it, it will be a challenge for the NRA to meet its operating costs this year.”

The outgoing board chairman continued: “For full disclosure… so that members of the public can understand, what is considered ‘revenue’ for the NRA is the limited sum that is allocated to the NRA from the Road Fund, any road user charges collected by the NRA, gifts or bequests received by the NRA, other monies paid and property provided to the NRA by way of grants, rent, interest and other income derived from the investment of the NRA’s funds, monies derived from the disposal of or dealing with real or personal property held by the NRA, monies borrowed by the NRA in accordance with the NRA Act and any property lawfully received or made available to the NRA.”

The outgoing board chairman confirmed, however, that, so far, NRA’s revenues have been comprised mainly of the limited allocations from the Road Fund and not other options available under the NRA Act.

Regarding the other options for raising revenue under the NRA Act, the outgoing board chairman said that “Given the high cost of living in Cayman, I don’t think it would be in the public’s interest to implement options available to the NRA that will further increase the cost of living, for example, through road user charges.”

And, yes, it is true that there is a controversial topic that is never discussed publicly… that utility providers generally utilize the public roads for free and then charge consumers for the services they provide. However, if the NRA decided to implement a fee payable by those utility providers to the NRA, I am not sure whether the utility providers would simply absorb the costs and not pass the costs onto consumers. If such costs were passed onto consumers, then it would make the financial struggle, and other matters, worse for the public as whole.

The outgoing board chairman explained.

Given the conundrum faced with exploring additional revenue raising options outside the limited amounts available from the Road Fund, the NRA will have to find a way to make the extra four million dollar injection work to cover ongoing operating costs, costs which the outgoing board chairman suspects may exceed the total injections for the year.

Notwithstanding these and other challenges, the outgoing board chairman says that he gives credit to Minister Jay Ebanks for his approach as a leader, always taking the time to address the NRA’s concerns in his capacity as Minister for Infrastructure, being professional and constantly suggesting ways that the NRA can improve.

Alric Lindsay, outgoing NRA board chairman (steps down November 30)

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Black Immigrant Daily News

CHARLESTOWN, NEVIS, November 14, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — The Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has been singled out for praise for partnering with the St. Kitts and Nevis Solid Waste Management and Recycling Project as it enters the second phase of operation, the Bin Placement Programme.

Project Manager Ms Joyce Chang, who was in Nevis on Thursday November 10 to place recycling bins at ten locations, was during the exercise accompanied by the General Manager of the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority, Mr Andrew Hendrickson.

“It was a pleasure to be in Nevis, to work with the hotels, restaurants and one school, to set up our recycling bins,” said Ms Chang. “In this activity we shared with everyone how to recycle, what can be recycled and what cannot be recycled.”

The Project Manager explained that Project Driver, Mr Franklyn Rogers, would be picking up all the properly sorted recyclable material every Wednesday to take it to the landfill where a baler is now in operation. She thanked all stakeholders who have also partnered with the Recycling Project by having the recycling bins placed at their properties.

“I would like to appreciate all of the stakeholders and also special thanks for Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority because they have provided strong support to us to allow us to handle and manage our operations, and to help in transportation for operations in the recycling facility,” said Ms Chang.

The three-year (July 29, 2021 to July 28, 2024) US$1 million St. Kitts and Nevis Solid Waste Management and Recycling Project, which was officially launched on Friday March 4 at a ceremony held at the Solid Waste Management Conference Room in Taylor’s Range in Basseterre, is being executed jointly by the Federal Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Action, and the Taiwan Technical Mission in St. Kitts and Nevis.

The Bin Placement Programme will see bins placed at schools, hotels, restaurants, community centres, churches, and local retail businesses in an effort to establish recycling channels.

“Essentially what was done today by the Taiwanese Technical Mission, the St. Kitts and Nevis Recycling initiative in collaboration with the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority is that we went around to various stakeholders who are on board with us,” said General Manager, Mr Andrew Hendrickson, speaking at the Four Seasons Resort where two bins, one for plastics and another for metal recyclables were placed.

Saying that it was a wonderful initiative in the history of Nevis and that he was proud to be associated with the activities on Thursday, he added: “We went to these places among others and we dropped off the recycling bins particularly bins for recyclable plastics as we well as the metals, and this is a very wonderful initiative which the Nevis Island Administration, and by extension the Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority, we are very proud to be associated with this, because what we are doing is also piggybacking because that is the direction in which we would like to go in terms of recycling and preserving the environment.”

They were accompanied by Project Technician, Mr Geofhani Gumbs, Project Driver Mr Franklyn Rogers, and two observers from Taiwan, Mr Darren Chen and Mr Mark Hsu who are on an eight-month attachment.

“I just want to thank the Taiwan Mission in St. Kitts and Nevis for the great contribution that has been given to me, something I have been trying to do a lot, but now I have help,” said Mr Llewellyn Caines, CEO Sunshine Beach Bar and Grill, Pinney’s, after his establishment received three recycling bins. “I want to say thank you very much, as a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Keep Nevis clean and let’s live life, and have fun and stay healthy.”

At the Four Seasons Resort where an elaborate recycling programme is in place, Director of Purchasing who is also the leader of the Green Team Committee at the property, Mr Clint Smith, observed that there is a drive now that is coming from corporate not just from Four Seasons Nevis, but all Four Seasons around the world, that they reduce their carbon footprint on a whole.

“With the recycling programme, I myself had three bins located on the beach and in the rooms division area, for the property to collect the plastic bottles and today Joyce has brought two additional bins for us to collect more plastic containers and also metal cans,” said Mr Smith. “This is a great initiative. It is the way of the world right now – it is a direction we want to go not only as a people, but as a company as we need to protect our environment.”

Other locations where the bins were placed are: Golden Rock Hotel (one for metal and one for plastic), Nevis International Secondary School (one for metal and one for plastic), Lime Beach Bar (one for metal and two for plastic), Montpelier Beach Bar (one for metal), Montpelier Plantation Inn (one for metal and one for plastic), and Oualie Beach Resort (one for metal and one for plastic).

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Black Immigrant Daily News

People still looking to book trips home to visit family or take a vacation during the holidays need to act fast and prepare for sticker shock.
Airline executives say that based on bookings, they expect huge demand for flights over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Travel experts say the best deals for airfares and hotels are already gone.
On social media, plenty of travellers think they are being gouged. It’s an understandable sentiment when government data shows that airfares in October were up 43% from a year earlier, and US airlines reported a combined profit of more than $2.4 billion in the third quarter.
Part of the reason for the high fares is that airlines are still operating fewer flights than in 2019 even though passenger numbers are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.
“Fewer flights and more people looking to head home or take a vacation for the holidays means two things: Prices will be higher, and we will see flights sell out for both holidays,”
says Holly Berg, chief economist for travel-data provider Hopper.
Yulia Parr knows exactly what Berg is talking about. The Annandale, Virginia, woman struggled to find a reasonably priced flight home for her young son, who is spending Thanksgiving with his grandmother in Texas while Parr visits her husband, who is on active military duty in California. She finally found a $250 one-way ticket on Southwest, but it’s not until the Tuesday after the holiday.
Parr figures she waited too long to book a flight.
“My husband’s kids are flying home for Christmas,” she said. “Those tickets were bought long ago, so they’re not too bad.”
Prices for air travel and lodging usually rise heading into the holidays, and it happened earlier this year. That is leading some travellers in Europe to book shorter trips, according to Axel Hefer, CEO of Germany-based hotel-search company Trivago.
“Hotel prices are up absolutely everywhere,” he said. “If you have the same budget or even a lower budget through inflation, and you still want to travel, you just cut out a day.”
Hotels are struggling with labour shortages, another cause of higher prices. Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, which owns travel-search sites including Priceline and Kayak, says one hotelier told him he can’t fill all his rooms because he doesn’t have enough staff.
Rates for car rentals aren’t as crazy as they were during much of 2021 when some popular locations ran out of vehicles. Still, the availability of vehicles is tight because the cost of new cars has prevented rental companies from fully rebuilding fleets that they culled early in the pandemic.
US consumers are facing the highest inflation in 40 years, and there is growing concern about a potential recession. That isn’t showing up in travel numbers, however.
The number of travellers going through airport checkpoints has recovered to nearly 95% of 2019 traffic, according to Transportation Security Administration figures for October.
Travel industry officials say holiday travel might top pre-pandemic levels.
Airlines haven’t always done a good job handling the big crowds, even though they have been hiring workers to replace those who left after COVID-19 hit. The rates of canceled and delayed flights rose above pre-pandemic levels this summer, causing airlines to slow down plans to add more flights.
US airlines operated only 84% as many U.S. flights as they did in October 2019, and plan about the same percentage in December, according to travel-data firm Cirium. On average, airlines are using bigger planes with more seats this year, which partly offsets the reduction in flights.
“We are definitely seeing a lot of strength for the holidays,” Andrew Nocella, United Airlines’ chief commercial officer, said on the company’s earnings call in October. “We’re approaching the Thanksgiving timeframe, and our bookings are incredibly strong.”
Airline executives and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed each other for widespread flight problems over the summer. Airline CEOs say that after hiring more pilots and other workers, they are prepared for the holiday mob.
Travel experts offer tips for saving money and avoiding getting stranded by a cancelled flight, although the advice hasn’t changed much from previous years.
Be flexible about dates and even destinations, although that’s not possible when visiting grandma’s house. In a recent search, the cheapest flights from Los Angeles to New York around Christmas were on Christmas Eve and returning on New Year’s Eve.
Look into discount airlines and alternate airports, but know that smaller airlines have fewer options for rebooking passengers after a flight is cancelled.
Fly early in the day to lower your risk of a delay or cancellation. “If something goes wrong, it tends to progress throughout the day — it gets to be a domino effect,” says Chuck Thackston, general manager of Airlines Reporting Corp., an intermediary between airlines and travel agents.
There are plenty of theories on the best day of the week to book travel. Thackston says it’s Sunday because airlines know that’s when many price-conscious consumers are shopping, and carriers tailor offerings for them.
For the most part, airlines have dodged the accusations of price-gouging that have swirled around oil companies — which drew another rebuke this week from President Joe Biden — and other industries.
The accountable US, an advocacy group critical of corporations, linked airline delays and cancellations this summer to job cuts during the pandemic and poor treatment of workers.
“But generally, we would say the airline industry is not currently at the same level as big food, oil, or retail in terms of gross profiteering,” says Jeremy Funk, a spokesman for the group.
Brett Snyder, who runs a travel agency and writes the “Cranky Flier” blog about air travel, says prices are high simply because flights are down from 2019 while demand is booming.
“How is it gouging?” Snyder asks. “They don’t want to go (take off) with empty seats, but they also don’t want to sell everything for a dollar. It’s basic economics.”
Travelers are sacrificing to hold down the cost of their trips.
Sheena Hale and her daughter, Krysta Pyle, woke up at 3 am and left their northwestern Indiana home an hour later to make a 6:25 a.m. flight in Chicago last week.
“We are exhausted,” Hale said after the plane landed in Dallas, where Krysta was taking part in a cheer competition. “We started early because the early flights were much cheaper. Flights are way too expensive.”
They’re not going anywhere for Christmas.
“We don’t have to travel. We’re staying home with family,” Hale said.
By David Koenig

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