Freeport, Grand Bahama Island - September 15th, 2011 the Celebrate Freeport Committee hosted an informative 3-hour forum on the Hawksbill Creek Agreement at the Foster B. Pestaina Center, Christ the King Church Auditorium to a highly responsive audience. The panel of presenters comprised of former general counsel of the Grand Bahama Port Authority Group of Companies, Carey Leonard; Grand Bahama Chamber president, Peter Turnquest; economist Hank Ferguson, and the forum was lead by committee chairman, Rev. Eddie Victor.
The panelists delivered their presentations and afterwards the audience was engaged in an animated discussion on the issues facing Freeport; its past, present, and future.
TheBahamasWeekly.com is pleased to present herewith this first of a series of video segments from the forum. This first excerpt features Grand Bahama attorney Kirk Antoni’s contribution made during the audience participation portion of the symposium. This segment was chosen as the lead-off video because in 10 minutes, Mr. Antoni, a 48 year resident of Grand Bahama Island, who knew Wallace Groves personally, presents a captivating history of Freeport, from the vision of Wallace Groves on up to today.
Mr. Antoni’s rhetorical question was, how do we move Freeport forward? He answers it in this way:
1. Resolve the ownership issue at the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA)
2. A new chairman at GBPA with vision needs to be appointed and that individual needs to be backed with funding
3. Develop the Air Sea Business Center
4. Break the monopolies in Freeport of FOCOL and Grand Bahama Power
5. Lower the cost of power from $.41 per kilowatt hour to something reasonable, $.15 to $.20. Mr. Antoni emphatically states that “we can not attract major investment here and tell them that their power costs are going to be $.41 per kilowatt hour”
6. Freeport needs to be marketed to the world; Antoni, says that in his 48 years in Freeport that it has never been marketed to the world and further, that “all our governments look at Freeport as a lost child.”
7. We have to lower airport costs.
8. We must be able to ensure major investors that this is the place to invest.
Be sure to take the time out to watch and learn from this informative video segment from the Celebrate Freeport Committee’s forum on the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. ‘Like’ The Bahamas Weekly on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our Weekly News Updates to keep abreast of subsequent videos from this fascinating forum.
