Sunday Tidbits – October 1st

Hello everyone and happy Sunday. Here is your daily St. John update… A big thanks to Celia of the St. John Community Foundation for compiling all of this information.

Great news from Coral Bay!! The Fire Station now has an upgraded generator from Army Corp of engineers. Fuel and maintenance will be taken care of by FEMA. WAPA and the Army will sit down early this week to discuss installing a mini grid on Coral Bay side of island. Also, a line of sight for a hotspot has been established.

To help with transportation, the Bloomberg team will be running an 18 passenger shuttle at noon and 2 p.m. from the Cruz Bay ferry dock to the Coral Bay Fire Station, making stops along the way as needed. This schedule will be increased/decreased as needed.

Food needs: The Red Cross has agreed to extend meal support through October 11th at The Longboard and Cruz Bay Landing with meals delivered to Coral Bay. Indigo Grill and 420 continue to serve self supported and with donations and selfless volunteers. Again, a HUGE thanks to all involved on this!

In other food news, our friends on island are reporting that several markets have stocked shelves including fresh produce!

News on our furry friends: Animal rescue teams with supplies and carriers for the ACC and K9CCC was slated to fly to St. John yesterday. The bulk of sheltered and surrendered animals will get off island either today or early this week.

Boat Removal – This from VINP’s Jayne Schaeffer: “I am trying to get the NPS to take responsibility for removing vessels from HH and other areas of the park in a careful manner. Nothing has been decided yet. … All I know is when hurricane Marilyn hit, others took the lead on removing vessels, …and damage was incurred to park resources then. We are methodical. Our goal is intact boats, no fuel or waste leakage, no more damage to our beautiful park. I know folks want their vessels now. Please help me get this done correctly. Thanks, Jayne Jayne Schaeffer- Deputy Superintendent Virgin Islands National Park, VI Coral Reef National Monument”

What’s open? The St. John Business Alliance facilitation is gearing back up and is uniting with https://www.facebook.com/groups/USVIbusinesscommunitystjohn. Business owners are urged to check in as “Open for Business” and customers can see where they can go for food and services on St. John and in St. Thomas!

If you are a business owner, and have particular issues that you need help addressing,please  email [email protected].

Volunteer efforts: Interested in volunteering? Please register with VOAD here: https://usvivoad.communityos.org/cms/irma

Donations: Looking to support the rebuilding efforts? You can donate to the St. John Community Foundation at http://thestjohnfoundation.org/donate or Kenny Chesney’s Love for Love City Foundation at www.kennychesney.com. We will have more on that this week.

And lastly, we want to extend a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Michelle Fage and Jason Cawthron. The couple, both residents of St. John who were evacuated following Hurricane Irma, are getting married today in Massachusetts. Congrats!! xoxo