St. Maarten Private Eye

Miss B’s Vendor Pleads With Duck To Respect Court Order

Dawn Beach:- The owner of Island B’s Joan Veerwoord is now at wits ends and is pleading with Peyton Lee Cromwell of Duck International to stop harassing her and to respect the court order and the decision of the Executive Council.

Veerwoord just recently got a victorious verdict when a judge ruled that she could remain on Dawn Beach and do her business as usual because the Executive Council granted her a license to operate on the beach. Verwoord told SMN News that Cromwell has now taken on a new approach she said that the developer wants to reach and out of court agreement with her.
“Only last Friday this man invited me to a meeting and the meeting lasted about ten minutes, Cromwell wants me to move into his three-story building that might have to be demolished.,” she said. Cromwell did not respect his building permit, something Verwoord pointed out the judge on June 29 during the civil case hearing. He has a building permit to build a two flat building but instead he built a three flat building.

Now Cromwell wants Verwoord to pay the sum of $200,000 in a three-year period to occupy a part of the bottom floor as her restaurant, in a building that is not in compliance to his building code.

Verwoord said that she is tired of the harassment and if the developer Cromwell Peyton does not stop his gimmicks and respect the court and government, she would have no choice but to seek assistance from the court to have Cromwell stop harassing her. “I am waiting until the beginning of the high season and if I am not able to conduct business peacefully, then I would have to do something to get Cromwell off my back.” She said.

Verwoord said that this is not the first time the developer made proposals to her, but each time they talk to me, they file a court case. “I cannot trust this man and his lawyer, I don’t even want to engage in talks with them because I just cannot trust them,” Verwoord explained. She is asking the island government whom she said is working in both her interest and their interest to see if they can put a stopping to Cromwell behavior. She said she wants to do her business in peace and they should do theirs and allow a peaceful relationship to develop in the area.

Efforts made to contact Commissioner Theodore Heyliger proved futile up until press time.

resource: SMNN (a great news source) :)