The St. John Source reports Bob O’Connor’s pumping gas again.
"After being closed for more than a week, St. John’s Texaco gas station opened Tuesday. ‘It was stocked with gas Tuesday,’ Texaco Caribbean spokeswoman Isabelle Guerin said." Full story.
Fall restaurant closings
Ruth at St. John Spice has become the unofficial reporter for what’s open and what’s not during the down season. Her list is alphabetical. Print it out and bring it with you between now and Nov.
(Buy some Blind Betty hot sauce. Locally imagined, locally produced, globally tasty.)
The best man won
John deJongh, a civic-minded businessman from St. Thomas,
easily won the Democratic primary to become the party’s candidate for
Governor in the November general election. He and his running mate, St.
Croix’s Gregory Francis, will run against Kenneth Mapp and Almando Liburd and Sen. Adlah Donastorg Jr. and Cora Christian. This was DeJongh’s second try at the gubernatorial job; he ran four years ago as an independent but lost to Charles Turnbull.
The winning candidates garnered almost 52% of the votes cast in what
is reported to have been a record-setting turnout during last
Saturday’s voting. During the campaign, DeJongh visited St. John and pledged
to help the island get its own planner and to have authority over the
St. John Capital Fund, and to study whether St. John should have its
own high school.
Francis, on the ticket for Lt. Gov., told the St John Source,
"John and I want to bring the Virgin Islands back to how it used to be
– an open and respectable government for all and not just a few." A
supporter of the candidates, Steve Nisky said, "I think all of
the islands realized we had a breath of fresh air and a government
that’s going to work in the daytime, not in the late of night." More
from the Virgin Islands Daily News.
Ferry service reduced
The number of ferry runs between St. John and Charlotte Amalie
is being cut to three a day. Normally, there are four. This month and
next, ferries will depart the St. Thomas waterfront daily at 9 a.m., 1
p.m., and 5:30 p.m., and from Cruz Bay at 7:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and
3:45 p.m. There is no change in the hourly service, 6:30 a.m. to
midnight between St. John and Red Hook.
St. John beer barons plan new bar
A couple of college buddies say they will open a brew pub in St. John this winter in an unnamed shopping plaza. Chirag Vyas and Kevin Chipman say they will use it to test market their beers. The two are the brains behind Virgin Islands Pale Ale, which they began selling almost 15 months ago. It’s available on island as well in New England, where they work with a distributor based in Portland, Maine. They “perfected” their recipe (pale ale with a hint of mango extract) and moved to St. John about two years ago, returning after a brief respite in residence during their college years.
Since then it’s been classic boot-strapping. Sterilizing bottles themselves, using blank cardboard cases for six packs, and packing shipments themselves sometimes after working bartender shifts at local restaurants. Their total investment, so far, is less than $100,000, they told the newspaper.
Real estate sales slow
The spike in home prices on St. John over the past few years has become a dull headache, like in hangover. Diana Beam of Re/Max Island Paradise Realty
told the St. John Source sales are off 24 percent and the average sales
price is down 10%. She said prices "skyrocketed" in 2005 but are now
"leveling out." Another real estate sales person. Rosemary Sauter,
also cited the inflated prices but added business began to soften after a report of an alleged rape of a St. John woman last fall. Sauter said that while some property values doubled and tripled before this year, now some have fallen as much as 25%.
Here’s the latest from the Multiple Listing Service.
* Houses: 110 (up 1 from 8/13)
* Commercial: 23 (unchanged from 8/13)
* Condos: 41 (up 1 from 8/13)
* Land lots: 263 (up 4 from 8/13)
Maho land deal will protect
A New York businessman’s plans to build a resort-type "think tank" at Maho Bay have fallen through, according to John Garrison, an officer of the Trust for Public Land.
Garrison also reported his success in his seven-year effort to protect
the land where the project had been considered, 415 acres inland from
the beach within the Park. Garrison said all but one of the Herbert
Marsh family heirs which own the property have agreed to sell the
property to the Trust, after which the land will be deeded to the
park. The heir which has not yet agreed controls about 38 acres of the
parcel and, conceivable, could develop it. John Fuller, president of the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park, said he was "ever so grateful" for the Trust’s efforts, the St. John Source reported. "It removes a serious threat to the Park." The Friends’ Web site has more information: http://www.friendsvinp.org/maho_action.htm
Maho recycling yields $250K
Maho Bay Camps‘ "Trash to Treasures" program is generating a quarter million dollars in sales, according to Stanley Selengut, the pioneering ecotourism developer. In an article about "green" resorts, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
quoted Selengut saying proceeds from the efforts to turn much of the
resort’s glass and aluminum into craft items and fine arts supports the
resort’s conservation programs. While Maho’s commitment to the
environment draws many of its 20,000 visitors a year, Selengut said,
"Others stay with bus because of our stunning location and may not even
be aware of the philosophies behind our operations." The resort
emphasizes the use of recycled building materials such as "plastic
lumber" and glass tiles, the newspaper reported. Wooden walkways above
the ground prevent erosion, reducing runoff which can harm the beach
and coral. Selengut defined ecotourism, saying it "tries to give
travelers a responsible peek at places off the beaten path."
Big Trees get their own book
If you have been to Cinnamon Bay, you have seen a huge old
kapok tree near the beach and the archeological dig. That tree is
nothing compared to lots of other trees in the territory, and which are
chronicled in a new book, Remarkable Big Trees in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Meeting Place Trees, Grave Marker Trees, Jumbie Trees, Spirit Trees,
and Tree Shrines are a few of the trees explained by author Robert
Nicholls, a professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. One of the biggest trees in the VI, he wrote, was a locust tree at Caneel Bay.
Westin timeshares to start at $20,000/week
The Westin St. John Resort and Villas plan to convert about 186 hotel rooms to 94 two- and three-bedroom vacation villas, the Virgin Islands Daily News reported as part of a story headlined, “Timeshares, conversions sweeping V.I.” The Westin plans, reported earlier here, will leave the resort with just 100 regular hotel rooms. An estimated 90 percent of the Westin’s current 93 timeshare villas have already been purchased. Prices for a week in the new units, depending on the time of year and the number of bedrooms, will range from $20,000 to n$100,000, the Daily News reported.