PHILIPSBURG:--- A group of business persons operating on Dutch side of the island is busy preparing to take the President and board members of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) to court in order for them to get equal business opportunity at the Festival Village during Carnival 2016.
SMN News has been reliably informed that the group of business people hired the services of an attorney who wrote a letter inviting SCDF board to a meeting to discuss the new procedures the self-appointed president Michael Granger and his board implemented for the 2016 carnival season.
According to the information SMN News gathered is that the businesses are peeved since the 2015 carnival where SCDF board and its members basically told all vendors at Festival Village that they should purchase their Heineken beers from the Heineken booth that was inside the village. Some of the booth holders protested stating that they have been doing business with other supermarket for years and they will not allow SCDF whom they are paying to monopolize the sale of goods to them.
Earlier this year, Granger strike a deal with the owner of International Liquors and Tobacco (ILTT) Ralph Ledee who would be the only authorized dealer to sell alcoholic products to both vendors and persons at the Festival Village.
Granger during a meeting with booth holders earlier this year told the vendors that they must sign a contract agreeing to only sell products that is sold by ILTT, SMN News learnt that the meeting with the booth holdings created a heated debate because the booth holders made clear that they would not allow SCDF to dictate from whom they purchase their merchandize. Several booth holders even told SMN News that Granger told them if they did not agree to his new rules their contract to rent the booths would not have been renewed.
On Friday SMN News contacted some of the business persons that came together who basically admitted that they are contemplating taking SCDF to court if they continue to refuse a meeting with them because they are all paying the same dues to the Government of St. Maarten, thus they should be allowed equal opportunity to sell their products during the carnival season.