The medical condition of a four-year-old boy and a man are unknown after a brazen drive-by shooting in Pinewood Gardens yesterday afternoon.

Sometime around 6.25 pm, preliminary police reports indicated a white Honda occupied by four men stopped in front of a car wash on Buttonwood Avenue. Three men, all armed with handguns, got out of the vehicle and opened fire in the direction of the car wash.

According to police, persons wounded by the gunfire included a four-year-old boy, who was taken to hospital by emergency services, and an man, who was taken to hospital by private vehicle.

Persons with any information that may prove useful are encouraged to contact the police at 919, 328-TIPS, 502-9991 or 322-3337.

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While a fourth phase of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island and the Baha Mar project on Cable Beach may coexist years down the road, The Bahamas cannot sustain constructing them at the same time, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

"The Bahamas needs a major project," said Ingraham during a news conference at the Free National Movement Headquarters on Sunday. "Baha Mar would be a major project, so would Atlantis Phase Four be a major project.

"In my view it is not possible for both of the projects to proceed at the same time.

We do not have the manpower or the infrastructure to accommodate both at the same time."

Ingraham added, "Maybe 20 years, 10, or five, possibly yes. But simultaneously, no."

Atlantis is getting ready to undergo a $100 million makeover with plans to create new restaurants, a huge new teen club, a major upgrade of suites for high-rollers and a big investment in its casino, which will take place over the next two years. After that, work is expected to begin on phase four of the resort.

Meantime, Baha Mar, a $2.6 billion mega resort, is also planned, although it has recently been revealed that resort officials have yet to receive the final approval from the Chinese government, which is backing the project.

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NORTH ANDROS, The Bahamas -- Edison Key, Executive Chairman of The Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation and his executive management team visited North Andros on Friday, June 11, to review current projects and to explore several new initiatives.

Benjamin Rahming, General Manager, BAIC; Arnold Dorsett, Assistant General Manager, BAIC and Judith Thompson, Assistant General Manager, Property Management Department accompanied Mr Key.

Meeting the team on arrival were Alphonso Smith, BAIC’s Domestic Officer, Andros and Ayrett Lightbourne, Farm Manager for Andros.

The group visited the site where fruit trees and cash crops will be cultivated in a greenhouse that will be constructed, using materials and manpower from Jamaica. 

Mr Key said the greenhouse would allow the fruit trees and cash crops to be grown in a controlled environment.

Greenhouses protect crops from too much heat or cold, shield plants from dust storms and blizzards, and help to keep out pests.

Light and temperature control allows greenhouses to turn inarable land into arable land, thereby improving food production in marginal environments.

Greenhouses also allow certain crops to be grown throughout the year.

Mr Key said the project can be duplicated on other islands in The Bahamas but the Corporation is putting a lot of emphasis on Andros because of its vast acreage and close proximity to Nassau, which is the country’s main market.

BAIC has taken nearly all the supermarkets and the wholesalers to Andros, to see farmers in action during the planting and harvesting seasons, he explained.

“What we have been trying to do is to bring the wholesalers and the farmers together, so they can sell direct instead of going to the Produce Exchange, where they never know what they are going to get. This way the farmers are selling right to their market,” Mr Key said.

“The Government does not have to be involved,” he added.

Given that there is still so much land in Andros, Mr Key said in the future, four or five additional greenhouses can be constructed on Andros.

He said the reason for promoting the growing of cash crops with fruit trees is that for the three to four years fruit trees will take to blossom, the cash crops can be making money to sustain the farmers.

Mr Key also explained that cash crops that include produce like cassavas, peppers, Irish potatoes and cabbage, take only about three months from planting to harvesting.

Moreover, he noted that there are different varieties of fruit trees that are grown at different times, so farmers can also rotate the types of fruit trees so they would always be harvesting something.

In the meantime, BAIC has brought tractors as well as two refrigerated trailers to help farmers in Andros.  The trailers will be rented to the farmers to keep their produce fresh until ready for shipping to Nassau.

While in Andros, Mr Key opened the root crop seminar for farmers facilitated by Dr Marikis Alvarez, representative, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

After the workshop, Sheena Rolle, representative for Local Government in Andros explained that she and other farmers learned how to grow cash crops free of viruses and weevil in their fields. 

The BAIC team met up with Ms Rolle at the site the Bahamas Agricultural Research Centre and Local Government want to set up a farmers’ market where locals and visitors would be able to buy produce, other food items and drinks.

Ms Rolle told the BAIC team that when the boat bringing visitors comes to the island, the packinghouse is closed so farmers could sell their produce at the site thus also promoting agri-tourism.

BAIC is being asked to offer technical help and advice toward the venture.

The team also got to see a successful pasture that BAIC set up. BAIC donated the goats, fenced in the area and planted the protein rich grass that the goats graze on.

Bahamas Waste's $750,000 biodiesel plant will be in full swing by the end of summer, with its managing director confirming the first gallon is expected to be produced in July.

"I'm hoping that we will have our first gallon sometime by no later than the end of the summer," Francisco de Cardenas told Guardian Business. "The tank farm is almost finished [and] we should be pouring some floors over the next few days and I think the equipment is going to ship this week.

"As soon as the tanks are in, the guys are going to start putting them together, but we have some oil on hand so that's not going to hold us up."

When completed, the company's fleet of over 50 collection vehicles will switch from using fossil fuels and running on biodiesel, with the manufacturer's license and permits in order.

Bahamas Waste has exported 100 tons of recycled cardboard to China, with plans to ramp up production in that area.

"I think we need to export more than that, so we have hired a recycling coordinator and he's going out knocking on doors," said de Cardenas. "We're hoping he goes to people and say listen we'll try and take it off your hands, so you don't have to pay tipping fees on them.

"But it's going to be a joint-type thing, we can't afford to buy it from them because it's tough as it is, we're working with all of our customers to see how it can be a win-win for everybody."

Approximately 500,000 gallons a year of used cooking oil is set to be utilized for the production of biodiesel, with much of the supply coming from the industrial sector such as hotels and restaurants, but residential oil will also be used.

The biodiesel production facility will consist of a small generator to run the processing equipment, a raw material tank, a methanol tank, a diesel tank and a tank blending the finished product with regular diesel.

Bahamas Waste also recently indicated strong interest in bidding for the government's proposed garbage collection contract. The company is taking a two-pronged privatization approach - firstly proposing to bring in Miami-based Cambridge Development Company to run the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill site, and handing domestic waste collection over to private Bahamian companies.

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