Jayda Mackey had all the character traits St. Anne's School officials look for when deciding who would wear the badge as head girl. She is dependable, participates in school activities, maintains a high grade point average (GPA), and has been named to the honor roll every semester. Then, there's the fact that she is trustworthy, ...
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TWO men were charged in the Magistrate's Court on Friday after being found in possession of dangerous drugs by police.

TRANSPORT and Housing Minister JoBeth Coleby Davis says government may be close to locking down prospective areas in the western portion of New Providence "that will be better" than the area at Prospect Ridge proposed by the previous Minnis administration.

The minister has said this week that her technical team advised that government should step away from the highly anticipated Prospect Ridge development for young professionals, the brainchild of former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

Dr Minnis has said around 30 names had been pre-approved for the development.

In response, Minister Coleby Davis said those people were still eligible for the Davis administration’s housing programme.

Additionally, the minister said she has set her sights on a goal of building 1,600 homes during this term in office.

“We have the list of persons that were pre-approved and like I stated on yesterday (Thursday) when I was speaking to the press that those pre-approvals they coincide with actually value,” the minister said during the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly press briefing.

“So, that’s the value that you are approved for by your financial lender and so that doesn’t take them out of the category to being homeowners. That still puts them in the category of being homeowners.”

She continued: “It’s just that it may change the location of where the property is and that does not rule out west.

“We have already invested in having someone begin searching for other places out west and I had a very fruitful conversation yesterday and I’m hopeful that we will locate new locations out west for those persons who wish to live out west.

“But the east is a beautiful place to live as well. Elizabeth is very beautiful to live so don’t get distracted. We’re definitely looking for property out west and we think we may be close to locking down some areas that will be better and for us to start right away.”

She also defended the cost that has been chosen for various homes.

According to Mrs Coleby Davis, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis would have liked the cost to remain at around $120,000 per home. However, it was not doable due to inflation.

The homes range from $120,000 to about $190,000.

“Actually, I will tell you the prime minister wanted just $120 (thousand). So, that’s his target.

“What we were faced with and obviously we’re still in a crisis, a pandemic and there is inflation and so the cost of material and the cost to build has went up and extremely high and it’s important to remember a lot of these contractors are small contractors.

“A lot of them haven’t had work for maybe two, three years. A number of years and so we have to make sure that we balance it.

“Yes, we can put people in their home and it can be affordable to the extent that we still allow these contractors to be able to take something home to their families and not just transfer the funds to purchase the material and then have nothing left for themselves to take home to their families and so we have to find a healthy balance.

“But I will tell you that we have a data base right now at the Department of Housing we have a number of persons that have qualified up to over $210,000.

“They are quite comfortably ready to move into the homes and so where there may be some concerns with the cost, we have persons that actually are ready and are qualified for the numbers that we’re putting out.”

CHARLES W Saunders, arguably one of the most prolific pastors this nation has ever seen, died on Friday. He was 91 years old.