Dear Editor,

We read with very keen interest the action that the Public Works Department of St. Maarten took against a property owner in Sucker Garden, as was described in The Daily Herald on February 25.

We are a large group of the original condominium owners at Rainbow Beach Club, another of St. Maarten's Erato Family Enterprise, and many of us and our families have been intimately involved in the growth of St. Maarten Department for many years.

We have no contention with the action of Public Works concerning the Sucker Garden incident since we are not aware of the specific details of that case, but we are astounded that the Public Works Department's claims that "the general public should know that this type of action will be the modus operandi of the department henceforth, if the proper paperwork is not in place, and if you build illegally you can expect this kind of action."

Why is it then, as it has been pointed out in many of your previous publications, that the Erato group, which has illegally constructed an entire condominium building known as the Tennis Building at the Rainbow Complex, without any building permit, has not received the same treatment? Why has this group not received similar action from the Public Works Department? Is there some differentiation between construction by an individual St. Maartener and "so-called developers"? It seems that the big developers are immune from any repercussions from the government.

It has been further proven that there are many structural deficiencies in both of these unpermitted building and the other "legally"-constructed condos at Rainbow. This would be obvious in even a cursory inspection of these buildings. It is a complete building! The permit office had an inspector on site at least once a week for several years, and he somehow did not notice that an entire building was being built?

Why did this not receive the attention of the Public Works Building Supervision group? Additionally, even in the "legal" buildings at Rainbow, there are numerous units which were added without permits and numerous code violations, even in the properly permitted units.

Let it also be known that, despite the fact that Rainbow Beach Homeowners pay the exact court appointed monthly maintenance fees, the Erato management has shut off the elevators, turned off all the outside hallway light breakers, allowed the growth of unhealthy mold to multiply on all the buildings and refused to keep the fire extinguishers and fire exit signs up to code.

These violations have all been reported to the proper authorities. They are dangerous to all the residents, especially the elderly and disabled, in the case of a fire or emergency. Can you imagine one of our elderly residents who must use a walker or wheelchair, trying to escape a fire by using five flights of completely darkened stairways? These actions by the Eratos are another example of gross negligence which seems to be overlooked by governmental authorities for some reason.

I would appreciate if you would publish this letter in your newspaper, and I also request a public reply from the Public Works Department.

Concerned Rainbow

Beach Club owners