News of St. John took a stroll over to the Denis Bay property, which was recently fined by DPNR for cutting into and building on National Park land. This is what we found:
A handwritten sign warning drivers that the road is closed:
Evidence of the cut:
The mechanical room that is said to have been built on National Park land. This was built across the roadway from the home:
The retaining wall built alongside the road:
Evidence of the landslide:
National Park Boundary Sign:
The damage was pretty extensive in our opinion here at News of St. John. Check out this video to see for yourself.
You can read our original story on this here.
Please check out News of St. John tomorrow to hear what the National Park Service has to say about all of this.
The park should take the property, fine him millions in addition to the costs of returning the property to as pristine a condition as possible, then erect a public stockade in the waterfront park in Cruz Bay, place him in it for a month to be spat upon by all who love St. John.
Agreed!!! All in favor say “Aye” Motion carries.
Charles,
You spelled ‘spat’ with a “P” instead of an “H”! Silly auto-correct…
errr, Wilson’s mis-spelling. Regardless, a definite AYE!
What local company did this work? They should also be publicly shamed. Somebody helped them, did the actual damage. Who?
Totally agree with Martha. A local construction company, designers etc. are responsible for going forward with this work and should be fined and publicized as well. The owner is probably off-island and has no clue. If a precedent is not set here, we might as well forget about prosecuting any other violations in the future. The owner didn’t do all of that work himself. Someone came up with the idea of the mechanical room. The owner should not only be fined but be required to scale back the house so as to not interfere with park land, return the park land to reasonably good condition and set up a reasonable fund to maintain the damaged park land for the next few years. Our local government/legislators should stay on top of this too. Also, if the work got this far, it isn’t just the owner, the workers…they went forward with assurances from someone in authority.
The owner, a “decorator” in the states, did the drawings for the house and was intimately involved with all stages of the design and construction, visiting island often.
So, while I agree that he has “no clue”, he is well aware of what has been happening, for years, on his property (and the properties of many others).
I encourage everyone who is concerned to call DPNR in Washington DC. As per a recent person’s telephone conversation, they have no idea this travesty is occurring!
Looking forward to hearing what the parks department has to say about everything.
I intended spat, a corrupt form of spit, which I deemed appropriate for an action against a corrupt individual who—given that he is not being seriously penalized—is seemingly benefitting from official corruption. However, I happily accept an h in place of the p. Ingrao deserves nothing less.
I wrote to his company to express my opinion. If you would like to also.
[email protected] Let’s swamp him with opinions.
On his website the opening page says “Ingrao everything that is beautiful”.
I wish there was a way to let his clients know that he is involved in this very ugly construction project.
I too wrote to the company some time ago. No response.
Another thing that churns my stomach is that he won’t even be living here full time. Think you can reach the house with an egg from the water??
I’m with Martha on this one.
What I really get a laugh from is, how can the national park service see all of you drinking your beverages from glass bottles and not see this!
Love your comment Capt. John! So true~ 🙂 It’s who’s pockets you are padding….
As someone who’s watched this unfold since last October, I had couple of observations: The initial work to open and grade the road was almost finished by mid-winter, and the road was passable with 4-wheel-drive from centerline to Peace Hill–then around the first of March all HELL broke loose with the excavation and the scope of intrusion onto neighboring property, both Park and private. This appeared to coincide with a visit by a group described as “VIPs” by one of the contractors. In 2 weeks, more disturbance occurred than in the previous 4 months of work. Most, if not all, of the long succession of contractors appear to be St Thomas based.
awesome reporting.thank you!
I like the idea of going to DC for DPNR help, given the current status of our own people from that agency. Wish the park had the funds and the courage to pursue this, but that’s not going to happen in the current political climate.
DPNR is 100% responsible for reviewing, approving, inspecting, and later FINING these people. I was a CZM Commissioner on St John for 7 years and got to know the workings of DPNR. The Commissioner is appointed by the governor. Gets replaced each new governor. Then the department heads get appointed by the new Commissioner. Nobody wants to do anything to get noticed. Or replaced. Shit like this house, Grand Bay, Sirenusa, and other small projects get little or no scrutiny because they are on St John and the St Thomas people really don’t care. The Commisioner of DPNR, Alicia Barnes, us the person accountable for letting this happen on St John. But she doesn’t care, apparently, because she has no need to care about St John.
Gerry,
Perhaps their attorney is very well-connected and has leaned on DPNR to “forget about this whole issue”… maybe, just one theory.