Philipsburg:--- A solid waste facility will cost St. Maarten over 120 million US dollars in capital while there will be an operational price tag of 22 million per year announced Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Heyliger on Wednesday when asked about the Solid Waste Facility that he has been working on. Heyliger said currently St. Maarten is spending 1.5 million guilders per year to manage the current landfill which he knows is not the ideal solution for garbage disposal.Heyliger said he contacted a company in the United States that claimed they can construct a solid waste facility on St. Maarten at no cost but for him the proposal sounds more like "a holy grail" when St. Maarten does not have to invest any money. He said the company in question does not have working plant that he could depend on. He said St. Maarten will not be a guinea pig for anyone. When an agreement is reached with any company they must have a back up facility elsewhere that is working that they can fall back on in case the one constructed here does not work.
The deputy Prime Minister said trying to find a facility for St. Maarten with a price that the island can afford has been a real trial for him. He said several discussions went very far but the cost of such a facility is what poses real problems for St. Maarten. He said purchasing energy from the plant is not only government's intention but it must be the same for GEBE. He said if government had good cooperation with GEBE they would have gotten further especially since cost of energy is constantly rising.
Heyliger made clear that he has no intention to go to the people of St. Maarten to tell them that they would have to pay $200.00 per household to dispose garbage when these people have to deal with the additional taxes government implemented. He referred to a statement his late grandfather made to one of his colleagues years ago when he was told that he should be shot at dawn. "I don't want my grandfather to come back and haunt me if I add more bills to the people of St. Maarten," Heyliger said.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he is still looking for a possible solution but he feels that a solution with the debt relief would help the island greatly. The Deputy Prime Minister said St. Maarten has agreements with the Dutch that has not yet been met and he intends to bring the matter up when Her Majesty visits the island later this year.
When asked if he held discussions with the companies that worked on St. Maarten's road network, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of VROMI said these are some of the problems they face since the companies are using outdated contractual positions. He said the companies are only offering a one year guarantee. The VROMI Minister said he was told that rats dug away the foundation for Front and Back Street causing the road to be high and low.
Heyliger said since executing these road projects he is learning something new each day and right now he has to indicate on bids that government is looking for rat resistant asphalt and concrete work. He also indicated that both Front and Back Street will be repaired while maintenance will have to take place every three years.