GREAT BAY (DCOMM):--- On March 16, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs Rhoda Arrindell officially opened two (2) Gym Halls and an outdoor sports field at the Milton Peters College.
These facilities will be used by the students of the Milton Peters College and the Vocational Training School.
The outdoor Sports field, with dressing room, will also be used by the people of South Reward and surrounding communities.
"Our students and the South Reward, St. Peters, and Ebenezer community, among others, now have a modern facility for physical education—an important aspect of our educational vision," Minister Arrindell said.
"More importantly, I am challenging all the young people who will be making use of the facilities to also be responsible for its upkeep in the sense of making sure that they are not vandalized, defaced in any way, and kept clean and in good shape at all times," the Minister added.
The urgency of this project came about after Hurricane Luis in 1995, when the gym halls were destroyed.
The need for the new sports facilities was made very clear during discussions as far back as 2005/2006 between DERPI and the school boards concerning infrastructure.
It was made part of an overall infrastructural plan for the PSVE schools.
In this regard, St. Maarten Academy PSVE was the first school to open its gym hall in 2009.
The construction process for these Gyms started in the beginning of 2008. The construction team consisted of representatives of VROMI, USONA, Pream Architects, and Cypress Construction. The project was managed by DERPI. The construction process took longer than originally planned due to some technical problems. However, all the problems have been solved and the gym halls can finally be put to use.
The project was financed by Dutch Development Funds through USONA in the amount of NAF 3,750,000.
