Can the Minister please explain why he would allow such a major delay to occur, and not respect the wishes of parliament who approved these members to be installed?
Does the Minister understand the implications of his lack of urgency having affected the ability of many monuments in St. Maarten to undergo urgent repairs and preparation for the hurricane season?
Does the Monument Council have the correct number of members on board, and sufficient expertise?
How many “urgent” requests versus how many “regular” requests for advice were sent to the Monument Council?
Is the Minister allowing sufficient time for the Monument Council to conduct their proper due diligence in advising on reconstruction efforts of Monuments?
Can the Minister request an update from the Monument Council to be shared with parliament on their current workload and backlog, and their plan for addressing these?
Does the Monument Council have any sort of budget for assisting monuments?
How many requests and from which monument holders did the Council receive requests for funding assistance?
Did the Minister request from the trust fund any funding for the Monument Council, if yes how much, if not why not?
The cistern before Walter Plantz square.
The property Watkins House Front Street #113.
The Ministry had no means then or now to offer financial aid to monument homeowners.
The Monument Council’s role is advisory and not a funding agent.
The government-established roof rebuilding excluded wooden structures and monuments.
Front Street property “The Old House” Meetbrief 363-1997.
What is the status of the Monument Passangrahan? Why is the property being split up?
Can the Minister share with us why these properties have not been repaired as yet?
What communication has he had with these property owners?
What policies are in place?
Landsverordening houdende nieuwe regels met betrekking tot de grondslagen voor het behoud van monumenten
Landsbesluit, houdende algemene maatregelen, ter uitvoering van de Monumentenlandsverordening
Landbesluit inrichting en werkwijze Monumentenraad
Landsverordening houdende nieuwe regels met betrekking tot de grondslagen voor het behoud van monumenten
Can we get a complete list of monuments, divided by districts?
Why has the Monument Council not replied to owners of the properties of Front Street #113 as well as Property Meetbrief 363-1997 in regard to their urgent requests to begin repairs to the property?
Ans:
A response was drafted to the owners of Front Street #113, but in the immediate period post-hurricane Irma, this response failed to reach the monument owner. Since the tenure of the previous Monument Council expired in May 2017 the monument owner met directly with the previous Minister of Education and was advised to have a professional historic architecture expert inspect the building in order to give an advice as to whether the building can be restored. Since the establishment of the new Monument Council in February, 2019 the Council has now taken up this request, and a response is in process.
The owner of Meetbrief 363-1997, Front Street #59 had requested a demolition permit for the monument. For further explanation concerning this request, you are referred to the answer given to question 9c.
What is the plan to ensure that the properties will be restored?
Ans:
The Monument Council is ensuring that all requests for monument permits are handled expeditiously.
Finalize the establishment of the Monument Fund so that the 750,000 euros that were made available through the Ministry of OCW for monument repairs can be used to restore some of the monuments on St. Maarten. The proposal on the table is that the SOAB would establish the Fund post-haste and that this newly created Fund will be charged with managing the funds.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport will prepare an inventory of the monuments in the Philipsburg area and submit it to the Steering Committee for funding, through the Council of Ministers as soon as possible. The inventory will refer to the listing of monuments that were included in the report that was written by Nanette de Jong of the Cultural Heritage Agency in the Netherlands and submitted to the Department of Culture in April 2018.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport will also make an inventory of all the monuments outside the Philipsburg area.
Once the Monument Council has processed all of the requests that they have received for monument permits, the Council will systematically review all the other monuments and offer their unsolicited advice as to the status and the future of the monuments.
Is the Ministry targeting local families and making it hard for them to rebuild, while foreign entities are being allowed to fast track their way to rebuilding efforts in St. Maarten?
MONUMENTS OF SINT MAARTEN
Designated Monuments from 2005
Nr
Monument Name
Designated
Year
Designated Monuments from 2008
Nr
Monument Name
Designated
Year
Designated Monuments from 2009
Nr
Monument Name
Designated
Year
https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com-k2&view=item&id=26767:minister-smith-responds-to-mp-brison-on-monuments&Itemid=451
