May 7th   Glory                                                     

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The Galaxy Wave

Reasonable transportation to and from La Cieba 

Leaves Roatan at 7 am and arrives in La Cieba at 8:15 am

Leave La Cieba at 9:30 am and arrives in Roatan at 11am

Leaves Roatan at 2 pm and arrives in La Cieba at 3:30 pm

Leaves La Cieba at 4 pm and arrives in Roatan before 5:30 pm

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Saturday, April 12th - Garifuna Celebrate 211 Years on Roatan

On Saturday, April 12th, the Garifuna from Punta Gorda celebrated the 211th year that they landed on the island of Roatan. This years festivity was attended by thousands of people, not only from the Garifuna community, but by many others from around the island and country. President Mel Zelaya was present to take part in the celebration along with the Minister of Tourism, Ricardo Martinez and many other nationally known dignitaries.

The days started with the re-creation of the landing of the first Garifuna on Roatan. Although the first site the boats landed was Camp Bay, the gallant pioneers continued on until they found an area that was rich in fruit, water and natural materials to build a new community. That area was Punta Gorda.

When many speak of Roatan or Bay Islands culture, the first thought that comes to mind representing the best that we have to offer is the Garifuna. Hundreds of Garifuna showed off the best that their culture had to offer as they were dressed in native, colorful clothing in a parade that followed three small hand made wooden boats filled with several passengers singing and dancing in typical garifuna fashion as they traveled along the water from the entrance to Punta Gorda to the center of town.

Local food, handicrafts and clothing was proudly on exhibit throughout the day and night. If you ever want to experience life "way back when" and desire to see a tightly knit, closely guarded culture and heritage that is still very much as alive and intact as it was two hundred years ago, experience the Garifula way of life in Punta Gorda

April 10th - No fuel saving program in Honduras...for now.

The fuel saving program that began last week on the mainland and was also to begin here on the island with a poorly designed, poorly thought out plan, was shot down by the Supreme Court of Honduras. For now, there will be no fuel saving plan.

I have had the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department on my show two times in the last year. Both times, they were here to talk about the work they were doing both here and in Teguc. They brought lots of equipment for the police departments to use there and here.

April 2008 - The Maricopa County Sheriffs Department trained 160 police officers in Tegus for a month.

They brought us equipment for the police such as video cameras, cameras, finger printing and a lot more to help our police become better investigators. Our police are now able to build cases against common criminals that we were never able to do before.

For instance, if we finger print one place and find good finger prints but don't catch them, and find the same finger prints at another location, this builds a case that cannot be thrown out of court....."so easily."

It is soon election time, and there are a few politically connected, self-interest, self-serving writers and journalists in Phoenix who do not like the Sheriff and are trying to prevent his re-election. They are trying to show it is a huge waste of time and money to help us and are sabotaging this project and are succeeding so far. They are writing that these police who worked for one month with no pay, time off or reward other than the good feeling that they were helping our police, were down here looking for real estate, vacationing and living the good life on Arizona tax payers money. Nothing can be further from the truth!!!

I interviewed these guys. They did not even have time to go to dinner or take an afternoon off to go diving or snorkeling at my suggestion. After they completed their project and came to see what they could do for our Roatan police for a weekend, they flew back to Phoenix.

You can find the original columns published in "Honduras This Week" on my roatanbruce.com website. Just go to "columns" and go down a bit until you find them. You can also hear these interviews in full by clicking on the mic on the front page which will get you to the page with all the interviews. Look for the pictures of the members of the Sheriffs department who were on the show. It is also a bit down from the top of the list.

A more neutral report of what has resulted in Phoenix is in this article

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0413honduras0413.html

I am appalled and saddened at the approach these selfless journalists are taking. They have ruined the extremely good progress the police were making. Something has to be done to prevent further damage irresponsible writers are having on the security for so many down here in Honduras.

Bruce

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March 6th

Kelsey Warren's company officially announced as the new owner of RECO! On Friday, April 25th, the ENEE intervention was lifted and RECO was officially handed to Kelcy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Report from Camp Bay!

Camp Bay now has a patrol boat and we should be able to start patroling with the Oakridge police this weekend. Monday´s Marine Park meeting at Barefoot Key turned out pretty well. Everyone approved the funds for the 14.5 boston whaler with 8hp mercury engine.

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On Wednesday, January 3rd, I had a private, exclusive one hour interview with former Honduran President Maduro. It was a wonderful experience.

You will be able to hear this up-close interview on the show Monday January 7th and Tuesday, January 8th at 12 noon.

106.5 FM is now the English Radio Voice of The Bay Islands

. The English as well as the bi-lingual community from Roatan, The Bay Islands and Northern Honduras can now hear timely local news, weather, sports and important interviews as well as the best classic music this world has to offer 24 hours a day on the new 106.5 FM!
.
Honduran advertising agencies are now first starting to notice the substantial and formally untouched English speaking demographic worth millions to billions of dollars in disposable income for their clients. To keep up with the information and entertainment demands of this growing market, The Bay Islands English speaking 106.5 FM radio station listeners can now hear Light Rock classics from 7 to 9 am, The Roatan Bruce Show, a mixture of interviews, news, R & B and Classic Rock from 9 am to 1 pm, cross over Spanish, English and Island music from 1 to 4 pm, Classic Rock from 4 to 6 pm, Kool Jazz from 6 to 8 pm and the worlds greatest love songs from 8 to 9 pm. Golden classics from Frank Sinatra, Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and more from the 40's and 50's are heard Sunday to Wednesday evenings from 9 to 10 pm. The best music to dance to is heard on 106.5 FM Thursday to Saturday nights starting at 9 pm.

The station will also take a concept from many of the most successful AM and FM talk stations in the United States and offer several one hour promotional info-mercial like talk shows on Saturday morning. Starting at 7 AM, interactive talk shows will be hosted by experts in the field of law, real estate, travel, computers, cooking and "be your own builder." Other show ideas are currently being considered. Some hosts are soon to be named and others have yet to be decided upon. On these shows, call-in questions will be answered by the experts for everyone to benefit.

There is a Free Trade Zone Agreement.

The new official start up date is the 15th of December. President Mel Zelaya was on the island for a few days to officially welcome in the new Free Trade Zone Status for the Bay Islands. Cayos Cachinos will not be a part of the Free Zone. Don't expect instant benefits from the new law.
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Donate Your Broken or No Longer Used
TV's, DVD's, VCR's or Computers

Please donate valuable electronics that you no longer want, need or that no longer work. Call Heston Webster at 445.1575 or just drop by his work area opposite the old Paradise computers at the entrance to Coxen Hole with whatever you want to donate. Please tell him it is for school kids in need. He will know what to do with it!

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The proposals to purchase RECO were opened on November 15th.

It was supposed to be a simple process. Some of the Bay Island best and get together with a few of Teguc's best to form a sub-committe for a week and come up with the name of a new owner to give to the "commitee" in Teguc. The group huddled together for over two weeks instead. Through a structured procedure to measure who would be best capable of carrying RECO into the 21st century with both technology know how and the funds to carry their plans out, one company was chosen. Everyone agreed...except one person. The President decided because of the disagreement, that chapter was to end in a hung jury.

I am all for standing by your principles. I am all for standing up against the masses if what you truly think is right is different from what others think is right. The problem is, RECO is a very fragile system right now. The big unit #1 is out of service because it is in dire need of an overhaul. That leaves us with big unit #2 and all the smaller caterpiller units. Without #2, we have no voltage regulater and any energy coming through the wires would be disasterous for our electrical equipment without it. In other words, everyone at RECO is saying we need to get a new owner in here now or else....

ENEE, the National Electrical service placed information in the national Spanish newspaper saying everything that was decided up to this point was no longer valid. The President named another committee with to members of the Roatan community and 5 members from Teguc would now decide who would be the next owner of RECO. Drum roll please. This is exactly what we did not want...people outside our community having the ruling decision making power to decide anything they want for us.

They asked for 8 more days starting Monday the 3rd to come to another agreement. The RECO drama continues for at least 8 more days when they at that time, they will come up with the name of a new perspective owner. The owner will then have at least 10 days to come to contract with the government.

Then that owner, will have to do whatever they can as quickly as they can to rebuild RECO. Who knows how long that will take before the very first steps can be taken. All with the big unit #2 time clicking away before it breaks down.

Let's croos all our toes and fingers that it doesn't get too windy and knock down the already fragil distribution lines and that it does not get too hot so that demand does not get too high and over tax unit #2.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ground breaking took place on November 15th
for the new $50 million dollar Mahogany Bay Carnival Cruise line
port of call to open October 1st, 2009.

When Mahogany Bay, Honduras' newest and largest $50 million dollar two cruise ship port facility opens on October 1st, 2009, they will truly be partners with the people of Honduras. The Carnival agreement would benefit every islander. This will happen because Carnival Corporation had no plans to enter into the on-shore excursion, transportation or gift shop business."

Other facts about the soon to be port? Within five years, Roatan is expected to host 225 cruise ship calls with 500,000 passengers annually from Carnival Corporation ships such as Holland America, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises as well as Carnival Cruise Lines. Mahogany Bay will have a 35,000-square foot Welcome Center with retail shops, restaurants and bars. It will include a 60-foot-high lighthouse, a lagoon with cascading waterfalls and a nature trail.

September 10, 2007
Costa Maya Closed 'Til September 2008
Roatan Inherits 67 Additional Port of Call dates

Costa Maya announced today that it will not reopen until September 2008. That port, located on Mexico's Southern Yucatan, was literally at ground zero when Hurricane Dean, as a Category Five storm, went ashore late last month. Also receiving major damage was the nearby fishing village of Majahual.

In a statement issued today by the developers of Puerto Costa Maya, they have been working closely with all pertinent government agencies to secure the necessary permits to immediately begin the reconstruction process.

While Costa Maya itself is a commercially developed property, nearby Majahual, an ocean front town that lies five minutes outside the gates, also needs rebuilding and the statement today notes that 100 workers are conducting clean-up of the beach and small fishing village. Restoration of services, including phone lines and electricity, are already underway.

In the meantime, while cruise lines had already announced near-term port replacements for Costa Maya, they're now needing to plan for substitutes for a longer time. At this point, the following changes have made -- and stay tuned as we'll update cruise line movements as we receive them:

Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Legend will call at Roatan instead of Costa Maya.

Royal Caribbean International
Voyager of the Seas will not swap out Costa Maya for another port but will instead extend its call time at Roatan and Progresso.

Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Sun, which begins a new itinerary from Miami beginning October 27 will call at Roatan, Belize City, at sea, Great Stirrup Cay (NCL's "private island").

September 5th, 2007

No Hurricane Felix! No Problems For Roatan!

After being away for a few weeks, we were greeted upon our arrival by blue skies and balmy weather at the Roatan International Airport. We were also told for the first time about a powerful hurricane in the Central Atlantic that was lurking along the South America coast. Having heard all about Dean taking the hurricane alley route along the Jamaican Coast, Cayman Islands and the Cancun Peninsula, it was especially frightening to learn of a hurricane that was gaining in strength along this southerly route.

Three days out, Hurricane Felix had become a category 5 storm, the most powerful on record. It had 165 mph winds with 200 mph gusts. It caused flooding on islands like Aruba and Curacao along the north coast of South America, two islands not familiar with hurricanes, let along category 3 to 5 hurricanes.

As the hurricane progressed, it was gaining in strength, but continuing on its westerly path, rather than taking that familiar rise up towards Cancun. Two nights before, it appeared that our vulnerable island was looking at a possible head on collision with the storm. All indicators said it was heading right towards us.

That was when the Mayor's office announced a mandatory evacuation from the islands, especially for all tourists and people living in low lying areas and in poorly constructed homes or shelters.

Credit goes to the Mayor of Roatan, Dale Jackson, The Governor of the Bay Islands Arlie Thompson and the Congressman for the Bay Islands Jerry Hynds who organized plans 48 hours before the storm was to hit. Orders were announced on local radio and television stations to make sure that tourists on the island for vacation were evacuated.

Government officials have worked with local, national and international airlines as well as the President of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, organizing several jet airplanes to come to the island to help evacuate tourists. Around a 1000 people left by Monday night.

Islanders living along the coastline areas in structures that will not be able to withstand up to 150 mph winds and possible greater than 8 to 18 foot storm surge waters, were all asked to evacuate or go to higher ground to friends and family. Others high on the list of concern were people who have come from the mainland of Honduras looking for work and living in poorly constructed, makeshift homes. They too were asked to evacuate the island and were offered free passage on the local Galaxy boat service back to the mainland. Many chose to take advantage of the transportation offered to them and left. The problem was, the storm was continuing to head due west and if it stayed on that same path, would end up exactly where the people leaving the island were headed. That is exactly where the storm ended up.

Networks such as The Weather Channel, CNN and Fox were all covering the storm. The Weather Channel contacted me and asked me to report live on the air what precautions were being taken for the storm and to protect lives. The only problem was, in order to stimulate ratings, when we discussed Roatan, they showed pictures of people from Aruba and Curacao walking in flooded waters up to their waist.

CNN apparently reported Roatan was exposed to heavy downpours resulting in flood waters. The reality was, we were still experiencing partly cloudy skies and absolutely no winds. This caused families and friends to worry and fear for our lives. Who were they to believe? Pictures they were seeing on TV or us saying, "that simply is not happening."

Felix killed at least nine people, left 11 missing and destroyed about 5,000 homes when it slammed into Nicaragua's remote Miskito Coast as a powerful Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds and pushed inland, dumping heavy rains.

In Puerto Cabezas, the region's main town near where Felix made landfall, the hospital was flooded. That force officials in the fishing town to set up a makeshift medical center in a university building.A boat with 45 aboard is missing. Nearly every building in the region was damaged or destroyed. Felix peeled roofs off shelters and knocked down electric poles in the region, which has about 60,000 residents and 12,000 homes.

Eight hours after Felix hit land in Central America on Tuesday, Henriette's eye struck Baja California - the first time Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes made landfall the same day, according to records dating back to 1949.

A moderate, magnitude-5 earthquake struck the Gulf of California before dawn today near where Henriette was passing, but no damage or injuries were reported. Do you think mother nature is not very happy with us?

We were truly blessed to have had absolutely no problems or damage from this storm. We hope people from the mainland recover from the harm they have suffered as a result of Hurricane Felix as quickly as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the summary of the American/Canadian meeting with Congressman Jerry Hynds, Mayor Dale, Jackson, Governor Arlie Thompson, San Jose Guardiola Mayor Perry Bodden and Wally Bodden, representative of St. Helene, on Friday afternoon, July 6th at 4 pm at Coral Cay.

It was stated right from the beginning that the Bay Islanders have in no way directly blamed the new owner of Barbarette Island for the loss of lives of the four teenage boys from St. Helene.

The ensuing demonstration that blocked the streets of Coxen Hole came about as a result of what was said on Spanish television blaming Americans for the event. The Congressman stated that, "Energies were misdirected when demonstrations blocked the cruise ship streets leaving everyone with the question….what did the cruise ships have to do with the problem in Helene?"

Governor Arlie Thompson restated that, "The National Police took quick action in arresting the three Spanish people who were on the security speedboat that rammed the small island built boat with fifteen young teenage boys aboard. They were captured and immediately taken to jail. Two days later they were taken to court. The sentencing takes place in two months."

Arlie Thompson continued by saying, "Everyone wants all Americans to feel safe and secure. At no point did the incident in St. Helene have anything to do with American people."

Mayor Perry Bodden told the audience that, "They were working on having strong security in the East End." He emphasized that, "No one has any problems with American people and that without the American people who lived on the East End, there would not be any of the progress being made there. American's are needed there to do better." He stated, "He was glad to have all Americans and wanted them to know his door was open whenever he was needed."

Wally Bodden stated that when he arrived on St. Helene a few hours after the accident when three 17 year olds died, "There was over 100 people gathered together to storm Barbarette and burn it down. I was able to deter the people from doing the wrong thing. My son was running the boat with fourteen other boys and was seated next to one of the boys that died. Two more boys other than the three that died were still in serious condition on mainland hospitals. For years, I was warning the authorities that these men were going to kill someone one of these days. The last time was two weeks befor the crime."

Locals were hoping that when the new owner took over the island that he was hire other guards. That did not happen. He also stated that these three men were going to be traced so that once they get to the mainland, that they are not lost in the system or released.

The first member of the audience to stand up to make a comment or ask a question stated that, "Being bi-lingual, how frightening it was to watch the local Spanish news station the following nights as they incited Spanish speaking people reporting how Americans were all responsible and that as Americans, we have the government paid off."

The second person to stand up stated there was a lack of information to all Americans and there was a need for an hour of news just for Americans or English speaking people on the local channels.

I asked the politicians to please come on the show on a monthly basis to communicate with English speaking people. Only the Governor Arlie Thompson has been on the show in the last year and a half. Congressman Jerry Hynds committed to appearing on the show the last Friday of every month whenever possible.

The Congressman stated that local news does not report the entire story. "It is not news but opinion. They did not report that the men were captured and in jail. Then radical people take over a street by the cruise ship dock and I call that terrorism. They are trying to terrorize our island. What they did has nothing to do with the reality of Roatan."

A third person stood up and said there was a lack of information and communication and that to hear about the St. Helene incident from the US Embassy and how poor it was for the image of Roatan just was not right.

Arlie stated that, "Once law breakers are arrested, they no long have anything to do with the process. It is out of their hands. It is wrong for the reports to try to throw the problem onto Americans. I must tell you all that I met with all the families of this tragic event last week. All of these English speaking and understanding people at no point did any one of them hold Americans responsible for this event. They were very clear with that. In fact, they were waiting to meet their new neighbor."

The forth person to stand up said anyone could go to the local station and purchase 30 minutes or an hour on local television if they wanted to pay for it themselves, or go out and get advertising and appear in front of the cameras themselves.

I was asked to go into television to offer more information. I responded by saying "The Spanish guys have the rights to local television in Coxen Hole. I had to go through them to be on the air the year I was on the air doing exactly what you are requesting now. I video taped all the interviews with the guests I had live on the radio and played the video of the interview that night on local cable."

But after taking money from sponsors and many times receiving poor quality of production or transmission, I could no longer continue. I have not been able to come up with a workable situation since. I have been asking another station in French Harbour to have live local television programming in English for two years without success.

The Governor let everyone know that the politicians were available. The Mayor was in his office from 1 pm to 10 pm. The Governor gave out his cell telephone number for anyone to call, 9998-0083. Congressman Jerry joked, "also call that number for insurance."

A fifth person got up and stated that there needs to be more communication within the English speaking community. She noticed the beginning of a split in the community when she overheard young black boys telling a young white he could not play where they were playing.

A sixth person said, "because of so many changes are happening so rapidly, and having had so many years of a great relationships between foreigners and islanders, we need to be more conscientious if we are to keep up with that relationship." She stated, "beaches are public beaches and that her soon was run off there a year ago by gunfire. She urged her son to continue to go back there because beaches are public. She went on to say that it is partly the new owners fault for what happened because he did not properly train his employees. You cannot expect people from Helene who have been hunting or fishing to eat for centuries to suddenly stop doing that in the very place they have been doing it because someone came in and bought the island."

Congressman Jerry said, "Yes, he is partly responsible because he is the owner. How much knowledge did he have? He bought it less than a year ago. He probably spent less than ten days there since. Kelsey will tell you that when he is around, there security guys are different. They are hardly to be seen or noticed. I was told about this guy before. I told the Mayors that when Kelsey comes next time, let's meet with him and tell him what is going on so he can do something about it. Before he returned again, this event happened."

Jerry explained, "Beaches are public. You can do what you want on the beach. If it is owned by someone, you need to respect it. If you are going to come to the beach, you can't leave garbage there. You cannot go into the privately owned land. Also, this act happened on the ocean. These guys chased them down." He went on to describe the people of Helene as, "the most decent and easiest people on this earth."

Mr. Bodden went on to say that, "You cannot impose your will on other people's culture. They hunt because they want to eat something or get enough to feed their family. I am not saying he sent these people, but it was his boat, he paid these people to work for him. If any one of you people were to step foot on Barbarette, the first thing you would hear is a gunshot and questions would be asked later by the same person."

Another person talked about "Who is a Bay Islander". He stated, "He is someone who was born on The Bay Islands, that person almost always speaks English as a first language. You could be black, white or Spanish. Color has nothing to do with it." He stated that, "Foreigners have always been welcomed by Bay Islanders. The Bay Islands are at a crossroads. It can continue to move towards prosperity and become an oasis in this part of the world, or it could slip into a pitiful situation involving racial situations."

Jerry went on to agree with the speaker. He said, "The new legislation that we have is designed to deal with this problem. The most important is to make this island safe. The law says we cannot stop migration. The new law can slow it down and we can regulate it. We need the labor. They will do the manual work. We need to know who they are and what their intentions are."

It was stated that guns can not be carried outside and away from the home. This is Honduran law as well.

It was requested that a letter be put together stating that, "we as Americans all feel satisfied and safe here after this incident and that the Embassy, The Ambassador and the world needs to know we see this island as a safe and friendly place to be and live."

A group was requested who wanted to draft a letter. Not sure if a committee was formed because the meeting disbanded.

The issue of docks was brought up and where they were all public. It was stated that as long as the dock was on private property and was not on a beach, it was indeed private property. If it was on a public beach in places like West Bay and Sandy Bay, it was public property for anyone to go on.

It was suggested by another that people should go to Canaturh Bay Islands meetings (Tourism Chamber of Commerce) that take place every other week to learn a great deal about the latest issues on the island. (Feel free to e-mail me to get more information.) That implored people to take actions if they want to see changes made.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A Tragedy Hits St. Helene

On a hot and sunny June 21st day, a group of fifteen teenagers and young adults took their small boat from St. Helene to do what they have been doing their entire lives, their parents have done their lives and their parents have done their lives. They went diving off Barbaret Island and came ashore to find coconut water or mangoes. On their way home at about 1 pm, the Barbaret security guards came at them in a boat with a 200hp motor engine and rammed them not once, but twice killing 2 boys right away. A third boy died later in a La Ceiba hospital while another remains in a coma. Still another might lose one of his eyes.

All the political leaders stated right from the beginning that Bay Islanders have in no way directly blamed the new owner of Barbaret Island for the loss of lives of the three teenage boys from St. Helene. They wanted the Americans to know that the ensuing demonstration that blocked the streets of Coxen Hole came about as a result of what was said on Spanish television blaming Americans for the event. The Congressman stated that, "Energies were misdirected such as when demonstrations blocked the cruise ship streets leaving everyone with the question….what did the cruise ships have to do with the problem in Helene?"

Governor Arlie Thompson restated that, "The National Police took quick action in arresting the three Spanish people who were on the security speedboat. They were captured and immediately taken to jail. Two days later they were in court. The sentencing takes place in two months. Everyone wants all Americans to feel safe and secure. At no point did the incident in St. Helene have anything to do with American people."

Little League Baseball on Roatan
Spring 2007

For the first time, Little League teams across the island are receiving major league baseballs, gloves new and nicely broken in, shoes, bats, uniforms and all the other equipment needed to be fully prepared to play baseball. Kids 8 to 17 are now playing with their new equipment from Sandy Bay, Coxen Hole, Gravel Bay and Flowers Bay. Other teams are possibly forming in other areas of the island. Equipment has been donated by people and organizations from the United States. Any and all donations are welcome.

The Lights Stay On.....Well..Most of the Time
April 7, 2007

After several frustrating months of almost daily planned blackouts, ENEE, the National Energy Company of Honduras was finally able to secure at least four used generators. They arrived one week before Semana Santa was to begin. It was a toss-up whether we were going to be able to have the power needed to service the addional tens of thousands of people that were expected to populate the island from the mainland.

Many thought the government either didn't care enough, was not financially able enough, or was not organized enough to do what most people thought was a necessity. Others thought it was a political cat fight as to why we on Roatan were suffering so much for so long without help. Was it possible that Hollywood could be right here on Roatan? Could it be that the national government was actually going to come through to assure that everyone celebrating Semana Santa here this week would have enough electricity? That generators would be sent here just in time....installed just in time...electricity able to reach every corner of the island....just in time?

Well, we had the Hollywood ending...for the most part. Generators were installed and the word from the manager of RECO was that the planned power outages were over and a thing of the past. He was for the most part right. Except for a few shorter power outages, everyone on the island over Semana Santa had electricity.

Historic Moment in Bay Island Education History
February 23, 2007

Led by Cam O'Brien, the owner of the Bay Island Beach Resort in Sandy Bay, the schools of The Bay Islands will soon have an "Adopt a School" program to help match the needs of local schools with the businesses that want to support their education effort.

The first of its kind meeting took place Friday evening, February 23rd at the Coral Cay meeting hall. Present was Mayor Dale Jackson and Congressman Jerry Hynds. Almost one hundred people from both schools and businesses were there to kick start this important program.

All part of a "School Is Kool" plan to assure more kids attend and stay in school, schools will soon have a business owner and leader in the community to call on when they need supplies or services of any kind.

Another program called "School Is Kool Scholarships" program will assure that any student that wants to continue past 6th grade can do so no matter what. It will also help students who want to continue past the 11th grade can continue into higher education levels.

RECO is taken over by ENEE

February was the month that President Mel Zelaya came to Roatan twice to sooth the transition from RECO Board of Directors running RECO to the national government. The government will run RECO for six months and then return it to a private ownership.

The island now has all the deisel fuel we need to meet our needs. Now we don't have the generators to do it. The generators can only produce 60% of the power needed. That means Roatan will have to face brownouts to share the amount of power available to us for as long at three months until a new emergency generator can be imported to the island.

RECO Has Run Out of What it Takes
to Electrify the Island
January 19th, 2007

Due to a summertime demonstration by local islanders troubled by the high and rising cost of fuel, RECO was forced to roll back prices to winter 2005 levels when fuel was less expensive, to many of the people on the island who could not (or did not want to) pay their bills.

Six months later, RECO has not been able to keep up with payments to diesel fuel suppliers casting the island into darkness for hours several days in a row. People island wide without diesel powered back-up generators have woken up several nights and mornings with no power.

This morning, Sandy Bay had power, but French Harbour and Flowers and I am sure other areas did not have power for several hours.

How is RECO dealing with this emergency? They will be cutting off all people who are not up to date with their bill paying. If that would only mean that they would enforce this decision to many larger companies that have owed millions of Lempiras for the last few years, we might not be in this problem now.

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Julio Benitez Named Top Bay Island
National Police Commissario
January 15th, 2007

Commissario Julio Benitez

Former Sub-Commissario Julio Benitez, formally under Carlos Mejia has been named the new Bay Island
National Police Commissario. The Bay Islands is blessed to have this bi-lingual, highly professional police officer and great family man to head our security forces on The Bay Islands.

His caring for all islanders has been apparent right from the beginning when he shared his security plans with me well over a year ago. Since then, crime has taken a remarkable decline.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TTI - Tropico Out of Business!

As of January 5th, one of the major Internet providers on the Bay Islands, Tropico- TTI, is no longer in business. It is said that because of business inpropriaties, their business was closed down. That means about half of the island people and businesses using Internet was without service starting that day. As of yet, there is no definate plan to replace the service. Canaturh Bay Island President Romeo Silvestri summerized the thoughts of a meeting that just took place stating, "our people and tourism in general should not suffer because of any possible wrong doing by that company. We do not believe that was the best tactic to use to close down the company the way they did when it negatively effects so many people on our island."

Happy 2007 Everyone!

The things I have to do to keep my name in front of the public. I volunteered to tread into the icy cold waters of West Bay Beach on New Years Day with several other brave souls to help bring in the new year. I don't think I will be able to do it again it was so dangerous. It is a great way to celebrate the new year here on the island. 

The end of the rainy season?

This year, we experienced a rather mind rainy season. It was over around the middle of December just six weeks or so after it began. During those six weeks, we had a week or so of rainy weather, but nothing like past years. The sun came out on a consistant basis just in time for all the holidays when so many people visit out island.

The Bay Islands Named
Free Zone, Free Port
by National Congress!

The majority of the National Congress came to Roatan the last week of November 2006 to help record a new page in the history of Honduras. After a lengthy session that continued into the early morning hours, the National Congress agreed to make The Bay Island a "Free Port" or "Free Zone."

This is going to be an incredible boost to everyone on the island. Imagine not paying income tax, sales tax or duty on imports?

To help understand exactly what happened and also to learn what last minute changes were made in the agreement and why, I have an exclusive interview with Italo Tugliani, the man who authored the new law (along with Congressman Jerry Hynds) to help explain the new agreement.

"This is a remarkable law that creates a Tourism Free Zone for the Bay Islands which includes Roatan, Utila and Guanaja," said the esteemed lawyer Italo Tugliani. "The law has different components. The first is a financial component."

1. All the activities, investments and business opportunities related to tourism, which is most of the activities of our community, are duty free. In other words, you can import anything you need for your business without paying any kind of duty or taxes to introduce these goods or services to The Bay Islands.

2. All tourism type businesses are going to be excluded from paying income and sales tax. The only tax that will be applied is the four percent hotel tax.

3. Another tax that will be maintained but will be reduced will be the Capital Gain Tax. It will be lowered from ten percent to four percent. The seller will have to pay 4% tax on the profit made from the sale of property. This applies to corporations as well.

4. An environmental component that will be enforced is the taxes collected from The Bay Islands will stay on The Bay Islands to be reinvested through the Free Zone Administration for public services. This will give us an opportunity to improve our way of life. It will be oriented towards health, education, energy, and of course the environment.

5. Another issue is security. There will be enough money to pay for good security and equipment needed for the police and to educate the police. We will also have controls to identify people who are traveling to The Bay Islands.

6. No one will be allowed to carry guns on The Bay Islands. This will exclude police and guns you may have in the home. You may have a licensed gun inside your house for your own safety and protection. Guns will not be allowed anywhere else.

Only minor changes occurred during the session with the congressmen.

1. To avoid unfair competition with the people on the mainland, it was decided that the amount originally allowed mainlanders to come and purchase here was too high. It will be lowered from $3000 to $2000 or even less.

2. The composition of the Free Zone board was altered. Three Secretaries of State was added to the Commission. They are the Secretary of Finance, Tourism and Environmental and Natural Resources. We have the four Mayors (Roatan, Jose San Guardiola, Utila and Guanaja), The Governor of The Bay Islands, the representative of the Chamber of Tourism, The Chamber of Commerce and the representative of the neighborhood. If you count the locals, we are eight. If you count the government representatives, they are three. The person on top of the board with be the Minister of Finance.

Off shore banking will not be a part of this agreement. It was left for a second stage of the development. It will take approximately 140 days for the law to go into effect. Right now, there is nothing other than law. There will be a long road to building the Free Zone that will officially begin in the spring of 2007.

The other author of this agreement is the Congressman Jerry Hynds. "I want to thank everyone for their support. I am happy that we got some legislation that will make our area a better place to live. We will have some benefits that no one else will have. We will go from having nothing to having everything and that is a great change!"

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The start of the rainy season?

The rains first started coming down early Saturday (October 28th) evening ruining many of the Halloween party plans across the island. It remained rainy on and off on Sunday but as many woke on Monday morning, the heavy rains were there again and continued all day long signaling that we have most likely entered the beginning of the rainy season.

After that, we had a couple of weeks of delightful summerlike weather again. On Friday, November 17th, the rains started again and continued to rain hard for the next few days.

Many welcomed the rains as a break from the six months of summer we have had with temperature highs in the upper 80 to lower 90's the entire time. It also meant nights of air conditioning as temperatures rarely reached below 82 in the evenings.

From my four year experience here, the rainy season lasts around two months. Those two months could consist of two to three weeks of continuous heavy downpours. In past years, the rainy season was late night and early morning rain coming off the mainland of Honduras. It is impossible to tell what type of rainy season we will have this year. Everyone is aware how hurricane free we were this year.

Four years ago, the rains started at the end of November and continued until the very end of January when there was 21 days of torential downpours. Three years ago, it was again very rainy with rains starting in the middle of October and ending the middle of December. Last year, it rained quite a bit in September. We all remember the near hurricane experiences we had here on the island in October and well into November.

It seemed to me that construction crews were hardly put off by the weather in the last two years except for the obvious hurricane times.

Free Zone Presented to National Congress
by President Mel Zelaya

The bid to make the Bay Islands a Free Zone was presented to the National Congress on Tuesday October 25th. The President was here on the island to officially welcome the opening of the Flowers Bay West Bay Road. It was there that he announced to those in attendance that the Free Zone status was more a reality than ever before. It is possible that by the end of the year, The Bay Islands can become a Free Zone.

The entire National Congress will come to Roatan on Tuesday, November 28th and Wednesday, November 29th for a final look at Roatan before making their decision. I am told the vote will take place right here on the island. The decision should be made public on the 29th when the President Mel Zelaya comes to the island to cap off the event.

Continental Airlines Announces New Nonstop Service
Between New York and Roatan, Honduras

HOUSTON, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental
Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News) today announced new
nonstop Saturday service between New York at Newark
Liberty International Airport and Roatan, Honduras,
beginning December 16, pending government approval.

Continental will operate a Boeing 737-700 with space
for 12 customers in first class a nd 112 in coach on
the Saturday-only flight to Roatan, located on the
northern coast of Honduras and a favorite among scuba,
golf and sport- fishing enthusiasts. The flight will
depart New York/Newark at 9:50 a.m. and arrive in
Roatan at 1:35 p.m.

The return flight will leave Roatan at 2:25 p.m.,
arriving in New York/Newark at 7:45 p.m. Flights are
timed conveniently to allow connections for passengers
at Newark Liberty. Continental also offers year-round
service to Roatan, from Houston, Texas.

Framed by tranquil bays and mountain forests, Roatan
is a popular gateway for eco-tourism in the diverse
tropical region. It is home to nearly 100 dive sites,
excellent, well-established dive resorts and
operations, and the most developed tourism
infrastructure in the Bay Islands, Honduras.

Continental Airlines is the world's fifth largest
airline.

The "New" Roatan Bruce Show changes stations
and is now heard on 106.5 FM

As of August 7th, the show is heard on a new station that will ensure more guests, new music and all new studio productions. Thank you for making the shift to 106.5 FM

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August 2006

Roatan Bruce Interviews
The RECO Emergency

The Roatan Electric Company has been faced with greater challenges in recent weeks than ever before. Several factors have led to a recent series of necessary blackouts from 4 am until 8 am for almost a week.

Early Saturday morning on July 29th, the electricity first went off on Roatan. "Normal diesel supplies were not available out of Port of Cortez and smaller boats carrying fuel from La Ceiba was called upon to meet some of the needs," said Clint Bodden, acting General Manager of RECO. "Deemed the coolest part of the day by RECO to help ease the shortage of diesel fuel, the electricity was turned off."

The entire island was cast into darkness. English speaking people were the most caught off guard because there was no source to inform them that this was going to take place. Instead of being able to notify the public of this fuel shortage on my show, this emergency occurred just after the final Roatan Bruce Show on 107.7 FM.

With the air conditioning, fans and lights off in my home, it wasn't long before we were awakened by the stifling heat. Being left totally in the dark, the search for flashlights was especially stressful when my two year old starting crying. Being used to a fan on her all night long and a night light to keep away the monsters, by the time I got to her crib, she was soaking wet and scared. Getting back to sleep in the heat was difficult if not impossible. Little did we know that this was going to happen several times more in the coming days.

The sources of the problems for RECO are many. Some of them were exposed by the demonstrations weeks before when islanders hit the streets blocking roads all across Roatan in protest of rising RECO bills. Fuel adjustments had recently rose from 86 cents to over 120 per kw hour. This dramatic and sudden rise in rates set off demonstrations. Several demands were made of RECO by the community Patrionados before the blockages came down.

"The people requested that I step down as well as a few other members of the Board of Directors", said Clint Bodden. "They have also asked that RECO rates be returned to the level that was present in February. February was a time when it was cool and not as much fuel was being consumed. It was also a time when diesel fuel rates were much lower. There is no way RECO can continue to provide service for people in the heat of the summer if they do not pay higher rates."

"We only have thirty days credit with our suppliers" continued Bodden. "If we are not able to collect what is owed from the people, we will not be able to meet our responsibility to pay for next month's diesel. The island will then be cast in darkness. I ask the people to please come in and pay their bill. If they are not able to pay in full, we ask them to speak to our customer representatives about a payment plan. If they are not able to meet your needs in full, ask to talk to Aaron or myself."

Another shadow RECO is dodging are the charges that certain people or businesses on the island are not paying their bills at all.

"We have asked that all businesses from resorts to markets who have previously not paid their long standing bills to not only keep their present day bills current, but to begin an aggressive payment plan to pay off the previous bills," said Clint Bodden. " If these businesses do not begin a plan with us, they will be cut off very soon."

Several steps are being taken to alleviate the current problems. A new large generator is on its way from Europe and should be on Roatan by the end of the month. This energy fuel efficient engine could save 10% on diesel costs. Alternative methods of power are several months away from being used here on the island. Wind generated power is just one of them. Also, a search for a new General Manager for RECO is underway. Finding the right person with proper technical and leadership qualifications will be a challenge.

People are having problems with the high cost of energy everywhere in the world. If everyone does their part to pay whatever they can, Roatan will be saved from major blackout problems in the future.

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August 2006

Roatan Bruce Interviews
New Police Radio System Contributed by Canaturh Bay Islands
Era of Better Police Communication is Assured

After so much effort, Canaturh Bay Islands headed by President Romeo Silvestri has been able to contribute to the greater security for everyone on the island. They have purchased police radios that will enable police officers to be able to communicate with each other not only within their own district, but with the entire island of police. $12,000 was raised at a fundraiser for the police in 2005 to make this contribution possible.

After working with just cell phones as the sole means of communications for many years at the cost of the police officers, police communication has dramatically improved with the purchase of radios. This will guarantee a much quicker response to all calls of crime committed on the island.

"We can count on the private sector of Roatan to help with security matters," said National Police Commissario Carlos Mejia. "Together with the private sector, we can resolve all the challenges to having all the Bay Islands secure and to take care of crime.
We have already achieved a dramatic reduction of crime on the Bay Islands. These efforts to continue to lower crime are just the beginning. The police are committed to give the islands a crime free atmosphere."

Never has the cooperation between the police and the community at large been greater. From what used to be a futile relationship is now on of trust, mutual respect and teamwork.

"I am willing to receive this generous contribution from Canaturh Bay Islands on behalf of the police and all the members of your organization," continued Carlos Mejia. "We really appreciate this effort that you have made to us. The National Police of Honduras and especially the Police of Roatan will not rest; we will fight with all our strength to continue to combat crime against every citizen. We will not stop until we can lower the rates of all crime on the island. We will always be grateful to you all. Thank the Lord. Thanks to the community. Thanks to everyone who participated in donating this communication equipment to further help the reduction of crime on the island."

"I was recently robbed of some money, said a Board of Directors member of Canaturh. "If people think they can get away with criminal activity, they will do it. If police are better equipped to handle crime and if we can help them fight crimes, than we can reduce the number of crimes. I am increasingly impressed with the quality of police officers sent to Roatan. This contribution is just a token of what we do with the police in the future."

Many thanks to the current police administration on the island for taking such an interest in keeping the community free of crime. After a few rocky years of too much crime, many measures have been taken to make sure we do not go through those times again.

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July 14th, 2006 - Roatan
Arlie Thompson named new Governor of the Bay Islands

The new Governor Arlie Thompson with the now former Governor Janice Johnson on July 13th.

The former Governor of the Bay Island Janice Johnson, the new Governor of the Bay Islands Arlie Thompson, Mayor Dale Jackson, unknown, Mayor Alton Cooper of Utila and Mayor Perry Bodden from the Jose San Guardialo District

July 5th - Roatan

Near the end of June, sixteen people left Cuba in the dark of night to find a better life. On July 5th, these Cuban Boat Refugees landed on Palmetto Bay Plantation after a ten day trip that was supposed to last only five. They did so on a hand made boat made out of hammered steel drums. They are twelve men, three woman and one 11 year old girl. One man was a Mayor of a city. He brought his wife and two children with him. Others are educated nurses, accountants, lawyers, chefs and auto machanics.

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On June 17th and 18th was the Second Annual Shrimp Festival at Parrot Tree. It was another success.

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In early May, the departing National Tourist Police Chief Jaime Barahona left the island after giving over 2 1/2 years of dedicated service. Also leaving the island was Duputy Commissario Jorge Carias. Jorge made great strides in bring the police and community together as never before. Jorge, you will be missed!

The new National Police Chief of the Bay Islands Commissario Carlos Mejia and the new Deputy Commissarion Julio Benitez came on the show in early May. They have both proven they are also dedicated, professional and experienced police officiers who bring a four year plan to improve the security of the Bay islands.

Also new to the island replacing Jaime Barahona as The National Tourist Police Chief is Andres Funez. We welcome them all to the island and know they too will do a great job to make the island secure for everyone.

On April 29th and 30th, Jonesville hosted the 3rd Annual Pirate Fair. There was live music, great food, a parade complete with firetruck and horses and much more. It was a great day!

This world class fireworks display took place on Thursday, April 13th in the West End in front of the Buchaneer Restaurant. It was a great event lasting over twenty minutes.

On Sunday, April 3rd, there was a streetfair in The West End to raise money for the building of a new police station there.

National and Tourist police guard jail as locals were arrested and later released on bail....all to raise money for the new police station.

Karl Stanley, Lorin Starr and Bruce Starr spending time in jail
as they await bail.

Roatan Bruce Interviews
Minister of Tourism Ricardo Martinez

Roatan Bruce: Thank you for coming to the studio. Tell me about some of the most important issues you are dealing with today?

Ricardo Martinez: The cruise industry is very important. The Port Authority is no longer going to collect the dock fees from cruise ships. They will now be collected by the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Why did this make sense for the Bay Islands? Royal Caribbean is going to invest five million dollars on the first phase of the dock transformation and on a shopping center. I am trying to convince them to build a convention center as well. In exchange, we are giving them the normal incentives.

But once we surpass the 350,000 passenger goal, and we are up to 285,000 in 2005, they are committed to build a second pier for 17 million dollars. What is not so obvious about having a prestigious cruise line calling Roatan their home is, if we are hit by a hurricane, other cruise lines will leave and not return for awhile. That will not happen with Royal Caribbean which considers us their home. They will do everything in their power to put everything back in good working order as soon as possible. They will continue to bring business long after the storms are gone.

Roatan Bruce: People are worried about what is going to happen with the projected 750,000 tourists coming to the island in the future. Many of them are most likely uneducated about the reef. Our reef has to be taken care of to make sure we remain a sustainable tourist destination.

Ricardo Martinez: I think you are addressing this situation very well. This gives me the opportunity to make a public apology about PMAIB and some of the bad things done in the past by this environmental agency for The Bay Islands. This project, managed by The Minister of Tourism in the past, also accomplished a lot. Some of the good things are the Cadastral project that has eliminated a lot of the conflicts about property. We also now have an index of health for the reef showing what areas of the reef are in good shape and which ones are bad.

We now know that human elimination is the greatest threat to the reef. The second most damaging to the reef is erosion and sand. The fishing threat is also a problem. I agree inexperienced snorkelers and divers have been and are still damaging the reef. The more people that come, the more they will damage the reef.

That brings me to why I am here on the island today. I am meeting with the InterAmerican Bank and their top officials analyzing and reviewing what has been done in the past and what we will do next. We are going to put a water system in Pollytilly and new garbage dumps in Guanaja and Utila. We will also do more potable water systems on those islands as well as Flowers Bay. We are also coming up with a very pro-active educational program to teach the population on ways to protect the reef. We are putting together the financing to protect the reef and keep the tourists coming.

Roatan Bruce: I was not fully aware that the environmental agency PMAIB answers directly to the Minister of Tourism. Maybe it is because they are such a secret and a mystery to me and everyone else here on The Bay Islands. We don't k