US Virgin Islands News

Visiting St. John? Don't do this.

No See'um's blog shows you what not to do.

• http://no-see-um.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-love-when-drivers-stop-in-middle-of.html

Pitch in at St. John's Virgin Islands National Park

"Voluntourism" is on the agenda for the VI National Park. 

The new program, beginning next year, will involve cruise ship visitors who will sign up for full-day and half-day trips to do good on St. John.

(This picture is not of a Voluntourism group.  It's from my recent trip to Costa Rica.  Helping in the Park will certainly be less intensive and more enjoyable.)

Park Superintendent Mark Hardgrove wrote about the new activities in the latest newsletter from the Friends of the VINP.  "Visitors will sign up on board and ... help preserve park resources, clean park beaches, maintain trails, remove vegetation, and stabilize cultural landscapes and historic structures." He expects there were be crews of 35 people, four days a week.

It won't be all work and no play.  Shopping and lunch will be part of the itineraries and, Hardgrove added, "In most cases these voluntourism crews will be transported by local taxis, making a positive impact on the economy," he added.

Voluntourism is not new to the Virgin islands.  A St. Thomas company, Island Meetings and Incentives has been organizing do-good groups for several years.  You can read more about them at //bit.ly/beuVH1.

Friends of the VI Park, online at www.friendsvinp.org

Roundabout is looking good!

  This what the new traffic roundabout in Cruz Bay looks like.

Nice pictures contributed by Anthony Finta of Virgin Islands On-Line.

The bottom line, the surprising! bottom line, is that the job's going to be done when promised, even ahead of schedule.  St. Thomas-based Island Roads Corporation has overseen the two-year long project.

No local will be surprised to hear that one of the holdups now is Innovative Communications, the telephone company. 

On an island where it's taken a year or more to get residential phone service, Island Roads is waiting for the utility to extend its wires and cables though underground piping.  When that happens, then the contractor can put do a final paving of the roundabout.

Asolare restaurant is relaunched

Winston Bennett is back in control at Asolare, the restaurant overlooking Cruz Bay harbor that he started 14 years ago. 

Over the years, the place has had good moments and bad ones, often related to whomever was doing the chef duties.

Evan Neal-Pishko has been overseeing the kitchen since last October.  He's keeping to Asolare's traditional approach, Asian Fusion featuring local ingredients.

The menu  includes Local Conch Chowder ($12) and House Cured Salmon Dumplings ($14) appetizers. Entrees feature Dijon-Panko Encrusted Rack of Lamb ($47) and Sesame Seared Tuna($38).

Part of Bennett's reworking of Asolare is a new web site and new photographs taken by Kathryn Wagner.  Looks good enough to eat.

• Read Asolare's reviews on Yelp at http://bit.ly/d8lcAg.  Comments are mixed, overall rating is three out of five stars.
• See Asolare's menu at http://www.asolarestjohn.com/menu.pdf

Steve Black's blueprint for Cruz Bay

A longtime passionate St. Johnian wants the new island planner and the Port Authority to seize what he calls a "rare opportunity" to create a better Cruz Bay.  Better for businesses, better for locals, and better for tourists.

Steve Black spelled out his thoughts in a letter to the St. John Tradewinds.  Some of his ideas:

Move the Customs, the Cruise Ship and the Inter-Island depots to Enighed Pond, where the new commercial area's nearly five acres is largely unused except for hourly car barges. The depots are now crammed into the small harbor known as the Creek, bordered by the street to Caneel and the National Park Service Building.

Develop boardwalks along the Cruz Bay waterfront and Enighed. "This beautifies both areas and opens the door to the benefits of a boating economy," Black wrote.

Also at Enighed, create a vendors village of local crafts people as well as a local fish market.

Like many of Black's ideas, these deserve to be heard, discussed and considered.

!!! You should not consider the Google Map here too seriously.  It shows the Westin Resort in the middle of the Cruz Bay harbor.

Virgin Islands unions to Governor: Fuggetaboutit

No surprise here to read in the Virgin Islands Daily News that the unionized government workers are saying, "No Way!" to the possibility of layoffs, furloughs or wage freezes in the face of a way-underwater Territorial budget. Moreover, the unions said their members expect pay increases next year.

Senators and union leaders,meeting lat week, agreed on little. 

But the president of the police union on St. Croix realizes he's got no leverage in his opposition.  "The possibility of layoffs are built into the union’s collective bargaining agreement," he told the senators. The Virgin Islands Daily News explained, "All that is required is 20 days notice from the governor. I f the government has to lay off workers, the union can do nothing about it."

• Read the Daily News story: http://bit.ly/aqs6cM

If Virginia's for Lovers, Virgin Islands are for Bees

St. John and the Virgin Islands have plenty of sunshine but few outlets for agriculture, says Kathryn Wagner, a photographer on the island.

"An island-wide beekeeping initiative has struck residents as an answer to the lack of locally produced goods," she wrote on her blog.

"Beekeeping and bee farming are agricultural activities that have low impact on the land, and do not require much space to become profitable small businesses. The bees will not only help to support the farmers, but also support the ecosystem of the National Park."

Over the winter, Wagner chronicled a 10-week class in beekeeping, attended by many locals, "who have gone on to begin raising their own hives. My hopes are with the many beekeepers that local honey, candles and beauty products - not to mention a new industry -  will soon become available as a result of a beekeeper's efforts."

• Wagner's photo gallery of bee keeping: http://bit.ly/dtbxEh
• Wagner's St. John blog: http://bit.ly/dtbxEh
• The SunTimes also wrote about beekeeping class at http://bit.ly/debA9y

Pigs fly

"On Tuesday, Governor deJongh convened a meeting of his cabinet to provide an overview of the current fiscal condition of the territory

"The Governor and Director Gottlieb detailed for the cabinet members some potential initiatives that may be implemented to ease the government’s cash crunch including the implementation of an absolute hiring freeze on May 1 and freezing existing salaries of all Executive branch personnel.

“I had a frank discussion with the union leaders about the state of the territory’s financial health as we begin to craft our budget for the new fiscal year.”

• Details of the Governor's cabinet meeting here

Virgin Islands photog swims with the fishes

The Virgin Island's Steve Simonsen has made an international reputation for himself specializing in marine photography. 

The St. John resident's underwater images of divers, coral reefs, and fish have been published in magazines including Caribbean Travel & Life, Scuba Diving and Sport Diver.  His work is also on display in his book, Living Art.

Recently, Simonsen's been drawn to video projects, one of which will be shown in rough cut at the Marketplace Thursday night.  He will talk about the experience of making the film "Leatherbacks of St. Croix."

The documentary focuses on the conservation of Leatherback sea turtles at Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge on St Croix. Working alongside members of the Fish and Wildlife Service and The West Indies Marine Animal Research and Conservation Service, Steve hopes the film will help raise awareness of the endangered creatures to help protect, recover and sustain the threatened and endangered marine animals of the West Indies.

Leatherbacks is one of two projects being shown at St. John Film Society's Free Movie Night Thursday.  The other chronicles diminishing 'spawning schools' in the VI's. Fishermen are struggling to preserve their livelihoods, and scientists from the University of the Virgin Islands are racing to understand how to restore and maintain fish populations across the Caribbean.

• More information about St. John Film Society is available at http://bit.ly/cnGxLe
• Order Steve's book, Living Art at http://bit.ly/chW4cF

Unrest at the Westin

A number of Westin Virgin Grand Villa owners are unhappy. And they're looking for other owners to join them in challenging management.

In a phone call to NewsofStJohn.com, one owner charged that some of the costs of adding dozens of new units to the project have been passed on to existing owners without their approval.

Gene Jaspan, in ad advertisement in the Tradewinds, said,"We are villa owners who want to prevent Starwood from making more costly changes without required owner consent."

"We also want to revise the by-laws, which give Starwood complete control of the Board of the owners’ association until the very last unit is sold. And we want to elect independent owner representatives to that Board."

However, he charged, Starwood will not give the dissidents the names of other owners so he can contact them to solicit their support. "If you are interested in obtaining more information or participating, please email ... CruisingEMJ@gmail.com."