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villa rental st. john

Good news of St. John

Rotary St. John’s Rotary Club meets every Friday at the Westin Resort. 

I’ve been a guest a few times and it’s a great group, maybe 15-20 people each meeting. The membership includes a lot of business owners who give freely of their time and resources to make things better.

At a recent meeting, Rotary members talked about some of their activities. 

Bob Schlesinger, a terrific photographer – and Club Secretary – summarized the meeting in the groups; weekly newsletter (which he produces).

The first topic was a recent St. John Youth Committee rally in which scholarship information was made available so seniors can start planning on applying.

Bill Willigerod updated the group on Rotary scholarship winner, Claudia.  Her almost perfect GPA and major in psychology were pretty impressive.

Sharon Coldren reported Sputniks in Coral Bay will be starting a Learn At Lunch program.

Miles Stair and Geri Kotas explained the Reading in the Library program that Rotary volunteers at, Thursdays from 9-11 a.m.

Dave Carlson explained a challenge presented by St. Ursula's Church food program for the elderly.  He persuaded Starfish Market to donate the store’s refrigerators that are being replaced as part of the store’s renovation.

Stoplights!!!!!!! on St. John

Light It’s happened. 

The island which prided itself on NOT having a stoplight,now has several thanks to construction of the Roundabout where South Shore and Centerline roads meet downtown.

Kayre Carney at Islandia Real Estate posted this photo of the construction site.

Roundabout “We saw the installation of temporary traffic lights,” she said. "No one paid a bit of attention to (them).” 

And despite the lights, well, don’t say technology reduces labor costs. Carney says, “Now have traffic directors with whistles."

Ana fizzles, Bill misses

Bill It’s been a case of hurry up and wait for the past five days.  Last Friday, islanders began making serious preparations, anticipating Tropical Storm Ana might turn into something nasty. 

Doug Benton, owner of Crabby’s Water Sports in Coral Bay, said in an online post, “The sounds of power drills and saws could be heard in the distance yesterday.  Screens are coming down, items are being secured.”  He also said folks were “making plans for our pets — trying to figure out the best way to keep them safe and comfortable while being cooped up during these events.”

But Ana ran out of gas and passed about 6 miles southwest of St. Croix, bringing some mild rain and wind to St. John.

Then attention turned to Tropical Storm Bill. It quickly grew into a Hurricane and is now classified as a Category 2 with winds of 110 miles an hour. And while it looked for a while that Bill might be a problem, by Monday it’s projected track was north and east of St. John.  Folks sighed a bit, but Ana’s wake up call was enough to motivate people to begin nailing things down, stocking up on water and beer, and remembering they live in the middle of the ocean.

StormCarib.com said Bill will likely pass 360 miles northeast of St Thomas by 6 p.m. Thursday. “Tropical storm force winds extend currently out 150 miles and even if they extend 200 miles on Thursday, the only effects felt in the Northern Antilles, other than a huge sigh of relief, will be swells. Hopefully, that will continue and it will miss the Virgin islands.”


BillDeb and Jay at Live de Life said, “We'll probably still get some rain and wind, but it shouldn't be anything major. We'll still be keeping an eye on all the weather forecasts to see if they are right and we're keeping the storm shutters up, just in case.”

Meanwhile, Marty Beechler at Islandia Real Estate showed that entrepreneurs just want to have fun.  On the blog, he wrote, that Bill’s turn to the north is a good thing, “ I am relieved that we will be spared the wrath of Hurricane Bill but now what am I going to do with all these tee shirts?!”

Funny stuff in the paper

The latest and greatest isue of the St. John Sun Times includes an incident log for St. John Rescue, the island’s fine all-volunteer emergency medical services group.  Two of the calls in June strike me as funny.

"June 19 to North Shore Road for a motor vehicle crash.  Patient refused treatment and police took into custody." (Maybe the patient could have avoided 'custody' by going to the Clinic.)

"June 24 to Mail Center for a superficial wound from a letter opener.  Administered first aid."

Ana has arrived

Bill 1:40 p.m. Monday Update:  The ferries are running normally, and the St. Thomas airport is open.  No plans to close, according to the Port Authority.

8 a.m. Monday:

So far, not awful. “Just rain and gusts of wind,” according to the Live de Life blog. “A little snotty out here this morning but it could be worse. The winds are 20+ sustained and a few gusts above that. Lots of rain, but the main track of Ana went way south so that's a good thing.”

The Islandia blog linked to Intellicast for hurricane information.  It’s quite good.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Bill has grown it winds to 75 miles an hour and has become Hurricane Bill.  The latest forecast track shows it passing to the east and north of the Virgin Islands.  Bermuda appears to be the target.

Renovations at Caneel

Caneel Bay Resort has been given permission to update what’s been used as a house for the property’s manager.  But, according to a report by the St. John Source, the 1960’s-era house may be available for rental after work is done to remove the termites, add a bedroom and a pool.  An OK for the project came from the St. John Coastal Management Committee.

CZM member Gerald Hills was described as opposed to some of the work.  he said it was possible there could be abuse.  He went on to caution  that if during excavation human remains were found, the project has to be stopped.

The project’s architect is long-time St. Johnian Michael Milne.

Read the Source story here: http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/local-news/2009/08/11/czm-oks-fixing-caneel-resort-managers-house

Ana may miss

Ana Update: Good news

Late Sunday, the National Hurricane Center downgraded Ana to a tropical Depression – and the forecast track now looks to take it south of St. John.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Bill – a more serious storm – is now looking like it will pass north.

Stay tuned.

Stop Cruz Bay to downtown ferry service?

Ferrydock_cruzbay_1 It wasn’t in the headlines of the St. John Source or the Virgin Islands Daily News. It should have been. 

In reporting the Public Service Commission's decision to cut 50% of the ferry service between Cruz Bay and Charlotte Amalie until fall, both stories gave little attention to the suggestion from the PSC chairman that the service be eliminated, period.

That came after the Commission heard a consultant say the STJ-STT route is a money-maker only during the winter months. Overall, the downtown route lost $450,000 last year, he said.

So, Chairman Joseph Boschulte raised the idea of killing the route. 

The Source quoted him saying that if the ferry companies are franchised to get a six-to-eight percent return, “then you should be getting a six-to-eight percent rate of return.  When is it time to pull the plug?”

Pull this, Mr. Boschulte!

The ferry companies asked the PSC for permission to cut all the downtown runs right away.  But the Commission refused and ordered half-service until Nov. 1. (Leave CB 9:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m., and 3:45 p.m.
Return 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.)

VI storm dissipates, more serious stuff coming

Td2_fri_5am Tropical Depression 2, which looks to pass north of St. John early next week, is no big deal.  But, the islands are no on alert watching two more potential problems moving west off the coast of Africa.  You can track them here.

As of Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center issued what it said will be its last public advisory about what it said has “decayed into a remnant low pressure area.”  Winds are measured at about 30 miles an hour.

Weather forecasts for next week don’t look alarming.  AccuWeather expects rainfall to total 1.25 inches on Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures in the 90s.  All that humidity in the air will push the ‘Real Feel’ to 100 degrees, not  too pleasant.  But better than hurricane conditions, right?

Aaa Meanwhile, there are two more storms coming across the Atlantic which are showing potential to become cyclones or something more serious.  One of is estimated to have a 30%-50% chance of growing into something larger, while the other has a greater than 50% chance.

Rainy Monday

Td2It’s beginning to look a little more serious. 

At least one villa management company on St. John has begun the process of boarding up homes in advance of the expected arrival of winds and rain from Tropical Depression 2.

The National Hurricane Center now says it’s likely to graze St. John early Monday

The center’s ‘Discussion’ seems to downplay the likelihood the storm will develop into anything more serious. “There is a distinct possibility the cyclone could weaken to a remnant low or tropical wave,” it explained.  “The depression remains weak and poorly organized” with winds around 30 miles an hour.”