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- WAPA’s St. Thomas Business Office Closes Early on Friday, Memorial Day
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority will close its St. Thomas business office and payment windows at Beltjen Place…
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On Thursday, April 25, the St. Thomas community was enjoying J'Ouvert when the celebration was shattered by gunshots which injured three people. Public safety officials immediately canceled the remainder of J'Ouvert.
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- UVI Celebrates V.I. African Heritage Week and Liberation Day
The VICCC is hosting a "V.I. African Heritage and African Liberation Day" forum on Saturday on St. Thomas and an "African Heritage Parade/Walk and Roundtable" on St. Croix Monday.
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2013-05-23 20:54:22- Pirates Invade St. Croix for Fun-Filled Adventure
Pirates are coming to St. Croix – the bold swashbucklers of the late 17th century whose exploits wrote a colorful chapter in the history of the Caribbean.
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2013-05-23 02:12:02- Complex Students’ Reef Mural Installed at Sunny Isle
A student-created mural highlighting the impact of human activity on coral reef life was installed Friday at the Sunny Isle Shopping Center.
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2013-05-21 23:15:50
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PRINTWhile Jeffrey Prosser was playing out his financial malfeasance, we rewarded him handsomely with a full complement of EDC tax breaks that conservatively cost the Virgin Islands $12 million a year. But now that we have a company doing the right thing, we seem to want to teach that company some lesson by not giving it any help at all as it tries desperately to save the territory’s biggest employer and our only land-line phone company.
The long, challenging road out of the desperate straits that Prosser left the Virgin Islands Telephone Company in was lined with antique and broken down equipment that needed to be replaced, pension plan and social security payments that needed to be made, and supplies that needed to be completely replenished.
The new owners have already done that while concurrently building a brand new network and continuing to contribute to the territory’s charitable organizations. Prosser took great and grandiose pleasure in touting his charitable contributions, but when it was time to sign the check he was off jetting from one mansion to another nowhere to be nailed down.
We will never know the cost of the lost opportunities handed down from Prosser’s reign in companies that didn’t come to the islands because the phones didn’t work. The final mile was not there. If Prosser had had a moment of doing the right thing for anyone but himself and his few cronies, we might today be the communications hub of the Caribbean and even the Americas. And yet we gave him every single break he ever asked for and then some. Year after year, the Public Services Commission alone accepted empty envelopes instead of the audited financials he was legally bound to produce and make public. And many here looked the other way while drinking the fine champagne and flying on the pretty jet paid for by the rate payers and creditors.
Today, the new Innovative is asking for a watered-down tax break package of $3 million that will go down every year of the five years of the certificate. The package, among other things, includes substantial charitable contributions that we desperately need in the wake of HOVENSA’s departure.
We can count on this company because it has already done what was promised when it took over. The pension and social security payments have been made in full; millions have been invested the new network and scholarship programs, employee educational opportunities and dozens of other community initiatives have been funded.
We hope – no pray – that the wise men and women of the Economic Development Commission will look very seriously and favorably on the new Innovative’s request for reconsideration of EDC benefits and will do the right thing and support the good behavior. Give this company a little break!
No tax breaks for innovative while they are outsourcing all of the jobs to Texas and bringing Puerto Rican to take Virgin Islanders jobs. Let them go to Puerto Rico and Texas for EDC Tax breaks.
Well said. I totally agree.
Sorry you two,
there is in NO WAY anyone trained in this sector to do the jobs that these 'outsourced' positions are doing. Period. We may have a smattering of some telecommunications journeymen/management, but no where near enough to supplant the speed and accuracy in which ever division they are put to task. None and DONE. Most of which now live here, obviously and pay taxes, and as for the Sub-Contractors, well, they spend alot of money here as all these projects could take several years to complete. It's Just the way it is and the way it will always be. It becomes a "per square foot" intelligentsia level and population equation, that's all, as a matter of fact some of the upper management are Colombian, schooled in some of the best learning institutions in America. Just for your information.
"there is in NO WAY anyone trained in this sector to do the jobs that these 'outsourced' positions are doing. Period" Then train them.
@diggster
Yes special training to wave a flag to direct traffic. I wonder wht type of training one need to have to get a job like that. I wonder what type of training one needs to be a laborer to shovel dirt out of a drench. Yes replacing and outsourcing all the operators operations one needs lots of training. NO EDA benefits for this company.
Sorry you two,
there is in NO WAY anyone trained in this sector to do the jobs that these 'outsourced' positions are doing. Period. We may have a smattering of some telecommunications journeymen/management, but no where near enough to supplant the speed and accuracy in which ever division they are put to task. None and DONE. Most of which now live here, obviously and pay taxes, and as for the Sub-Contractors, well, they spend alot of money here as all these projects could take several years to complete. It's Just the way it is and the way it will always be. It becomes a "per square foot" intelligentsia level and population equation, that's all, as a matter of fact some of the upper management are Colombian, schooled in some of the best learning institutions in America. Just for your information.
Ms. Shaun Pennington and Diggster,
You both deserve several gold stars, because what you've posted is indeed very much true, more than what most of the citizens of U.S.V.I. know or for the most part, care to know...
The current workforce within Innovative can't meet the demands of implementing a more sound and updated telecommunications infrastructure... Especially if they’re used to such outdated technologies, that not even the manufacturer of those technologies support them anymore... So of course Innovative WILL have to get people who can and will do so... When it comes to the numbers, dollars and cents if you will, which must work alongside sense as well, timing is always essential and Innovative has a time schedule to meet...
This false sense of "V.I. Pride" isn't going to get the U.S.V.I. out of its economic as well as social and political rut either... I do know first-hand that what Ms. Pennington and Diggster have written is indeed truth, and that's why I back them...
Levin40 and Cgtstx, while Mr. Prosser and his cronies, which are indeed made up of former senator(s), governor(s), lieutenant governor(s), attorney(s), radio personalities and community leader(s) who are predominantly natives were taking from you and only gave you all sheep eggs and silver-golden nothings, you all took it gladly and chanted "Prosser is for us!!!" or "Prosser is one of us!!!"...
Even when he was so desperately trying to get Innovative headquartered outside of the U.S.V.I. and beyond the jurisdiction of the U.S.A., you all were still chanting how good and/or great a man he is...
But now, the veil has been removed thanks to outside intervention and the depths of his malicious intent towards the U.S.V.I. revealed, people like you still want to talk and/or act like it was better when Prosser had his way...
If the new Innovative is doing what Prosser and his cronies would not and did not care do for the U.S.V.I. then by all means an EDC agreement should be negotiated in a manner which will hold Innovative to helping better the infrastructure within the U.S.V.I., and not just within the telecommunication realm... Oh and by the way, it would be in their best interests to do so, don’t you think?!?
But then again, for such as a deal to take place, the U.S.V.I. would need people within their government and/or community leadership who can indeed negotiate such a deal, which from what I've seen over the decades, they do not have to begin with...
What everyone seems to forget is that NO ONE would bid on Innovative, and the current owners got it for only a small percentage of the money they were owed. If they had not accepted the deal, Innovative would have gone out of business completely or have been aquired by the GVI to run.......and we know how well they run things....
Cruzaniron, if I'm following you correctly, then you too deserve gold stars as well...
can someone please explain how what Innovative does and what ViNGN will do are compatible? Isn't there a conflict, in that both organizations will be utilizing, upgrading and offering internet broadband services? Why must we pour tens of millions of dollars into both? What am I missing here?
YEAH 911, I was wondering the same thing!! Is it competition? Is it assistance?? What...? because most of the underground and overhead is well in progress from Innovative, it's contractors & subcontractors. Also, parts of STT and STX islands are already servicing TV and some phone lines with Fiber Optic. On the list for these Fiber upgrades is Water Island and Hassel Island also. Very ambitious, yet very doable, considering some of the Undersea contractors available.
Do you think this has been on the front page long enough? Yes? No? Maybe?