Great article! But I would change a few things: -The population of St. Eustatius is not 4,000, it’s around 3,000. -The island is not 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, it’s actually around 3.5 miles long and 2 miles wide. -I would add that the island has a rich history, being one of the busiest trading ports in the 18th century.

Please make sure the visit is video recorded and posted on YouTube on the Saba Chanel.

May the persons doing the feasibility study consider the following two suggestions as partial possible solutions to look into for feasibility/usefulness:

1. An outdoor shallow rectangular pool (I have no clue if salt or fresh water will make the most sense to keep maintenance costs low) in the middle of the (sometimes too) hot and sunny paved public school grounds at St. Johns. The evaporating water will cool the surrounding air a bit between the classroom buildings and it will be eye candy to all there even if not swimming that day and bring the mood and pride up. The depth ought to be such that the feet of the primary school children can touch the bottom.

An indoor (too cold for outdoor half the year), shallow pool setup has worked extremely well for a primary school and the rest of the neighborhood in Hamburg, Germany for the past decades. https://www.schwimmschule-turmweg.de/index.html

When the public primary school is not in session the same pool is used to give, for a fee, swimming lessons to children and adults from the public by local swim instructors. With a shallow pool, it will be warm enough even in the rainy season. If there is interest in exploring this as a partial solution, I can get the exact measurements of the pool at the local public school in Hamburg Germany as a reference. Older people living in St. Johns could enjoy for a modest fee then this same pool when school is not in session and there is no for-pay official swimming class being conducted in the pool that hour.

There will be, though much-increased water usage due to people taking a quick rinse before hopping in the pool and rinse off the chlorine when getting out. If freshwater is expensive not sure if salt water is a possible alternative to reduce operational costs. The venue with the shallow pool could be occasionally rented out for evening outdoor parties due to the relatively-warm temperature of the shallow water.

In the rainy season, some find the pools at Tropics and El Momo too cold to be useful for more than eye candy, but a shallow pool would be much less cold, especially at that very sunny location, and thus actually usable even in the rainy season. Pre-school children would also be able to have fun floating around with swim noodles or using little kick boards in the pool when school is not in session. Primary school children will associate their school days with some of the best times of their lives.

2. Making adjustments to Cove Bay if needed to serve as a venue for formal swimming lessons as well as for its current use for swimming and splashing.

Things have come a long way for sure over my last 24 years On Beautiful Saba.

I especially love the attention paid to the hospital the roads and the infrastructure. But one issue I am still standing strong on. Watching to begin to take place here again, is the fact that something needs to be done regarding the island’s main means of financial support….Tourism!!

We are known as a fine dive island, offering not near as much as other islands for entertainment, a full class Medical School, beaches, casino’s, nightclubs, etc. Why only one dive shop with another dive license thrown into a drawer???. This needs immediate attention and this is whom I am following into our voting booth soon! Please consider the island business and our Island reputation here! It is such a sad situation and not getting any better.

Thank You. See you in March!

Well,
The Island Council of Saba did a good job getting the topic addressed by the BES. Laws on the books need reviewing, especially, ones from the 1960’s.
There are many aspects and layers to the proposal. It’s not an easy decision.
Proponents of the idea, myself included, would like it discussed again, hopefully sooner than 60+ years from now.

Cover up all the way around. We only hear prosecutors side of the story. You have to be crazy to take their press release as truth or accurate. I was there in 2015 and the police tried to feed me information I knew it’s not true. I tried helping but they didn’t want to hear it. Dr Reed said I was mistaking and probably saw different guy some other day. After one short interview they never questioned me again. It was a sketchy investigation from the beginning.

Condoleances to all

Manslaughter just means that he did not “intentionally” kill the victim and that the death was reckless or accidental. This is not a Sherlock Holmes case by any stretch of the imagination. The truth never changes and his lies to cover up his deeds is what got him convicted. Its just a shame that most laws are there to protect the criminals rights and nothing is there to protect the victims.

Is it me or there is something very wrong with this case. “An autopsy showed that she had died in the night due to strangula­tion and possibly also by obstruc­tion of breathing through the nose or mouth, and that her arms and wrists were probably tied.”

So the court says she has been sexually assaulted, with hands tied, and strangulated, but at the same time they says it’s a man­slaughter.

Someone did very bad job and now they are trying to cover it up. But what else can you expect from the kangaroos courts.

As someone who followed this case, I have serious doubts about the whole thing. It has been scientifically proven that human recollection is not always true, and two people could have totally different recollection of the same event. It has been 7 years. Obviously people won’t have good memory of everything. If someone is guilty there should be overwhelming evidence. What bothers me the most is the fact that they didn’t prove that his statements are wrong, only that court thinks they are. And the court thinks they are because it is convenient to them and they get to close the case.