Pinel Island/Cul de Sac:--- Former councilor and member of the Grand Case Community Council Emile Larmonie is busy gathering signatures to protest against the demolition of the Key Restaurant on Pinel Island.Larmonie is the supporting the investors who took their life savings to invest in a restaurant on St. Martin where his sister was co-owner. Speaking to reporters on Sunday Larmonie said he will be forming a local Elcappe to defend the rights of the Saint Martin people as well as the right of the owners of the Key Restaurant. Larmonie said the battle with the Key Restaurant started in 2007 and recently, he read in the news that his sister Leonie Larmonie who is no longer owner or gerant of the LCM got condemned to pay a fine of Euros 9,000.00 while she must also demolish the Key Restaurant. Emile Larmonie said his sister did not pay the fine and she has thrown it on the company even though she is the one who initiated the court case. Larmonie said the court ruled that Leonie Larmonie has to pay Euros 50.00 for each day she does not comply with the decision of the court. "While Leonie Larmonie has nothing to do with the Key and a court case was going on, the owners were never notified. Everything went to Leonie's lawyer and these people who are operating the Key only found out what is happening through the newspapers."
Owner of the Key Restaurant, Catherine Randazzo said that she paid the Reserve Naturalle for over one year Euros 4,000.00 per month to operate at Pinel Island while the other two restaurants never paid. She further explained that the Reserve sent her to the President of the Collectivity to request a building permit for the restaurant that is already built and operational.
"The Reserve Naturalle was collecting this money from me while they did not give me an AOT. They said for them to give that document I must have a building permit and the person who could grant us one is the President of the COM. I went to see him with Mr. Larmonie and the President told us he cannot grant us a building permit since Pinel Island is part of the Natural Reserve, we asked the President for his explanation in writing which he gave us and we gave it to the Reserve and we stopped paying them since we do not have an AOT," Randazzo said.Randazzo said when she was constructing the Key Restaurant they "Leonie Larmonie and the other shareholders submitted a request for a building permit and the building was built based on the guidelines of the authorities. She said they intended to build two floors but government told them they could not do that. We have a pizza oven that is installed at the restaurant and we cannot use it because we could not build the second floor. Government was even telling us we could not have a roof but then we were told that if we did not put on a roof we will not get the building permit. We built this restaurant the way government wanted us to build it because the request was in for the building permit. Now they are saying that they will not grant us the building permit because Pinel Island is part of the Reserve," Randazzo said.
Architect Charged Euros 15,000.00 to Request Building Permit.
Catherine Randazzo said she acted on the advice of the COM and the Reserve Naturalle who told her that she needs to hire an architect to submit the documents for them to obtain a building permit. Those documents she said includes a building plan. The restaurant owner said she paid Jean Charles Barre, a registered architect on St. Martin Euros 15,000.00 to submit the request for the building permit. "This architect told me he knows people at Urbanism and COM and if I paid the Euros 15,000.00 I will get the building permit". Randazzo said she paid the monies and the request has been submitted but then she received a letter from the Collectivity that states that she needs "Authorization Prefectoral en Cours de Validite."Randazzo and Larmonie said after receiving that letter they made several attempts to get an appointment to see the Prefet on the matter but to date they have not seen him. "We saw someone else at the Prefecture last week and he informed us that under no circumstances we will get the building permit and they will be demolishing the Key by the end of this month.
Randazzo said the Key Restaurant has nine persons (all locals) working there and her workers are fully insured with all benefits, besides that she pays all the taxes that are required by French laws and the monies are being collected even though the government is saying she is operating illegally. "When I don't pay on time they send the bailiff to collect the money, yet they are denying me the building permit. My workers are at their wits end because any day the government will put them out of a job when the tear down the Key."
