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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchives60 MORE DAYS FOR GREAT POND PARK PLAN

60 MORE DAYS FOR GREAT POND PARK PLAN

Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews last week granted Gov. Charles Turnbull’s request for 60 more days to devise a park plan for government land on Great Pond Bay.
After blocking the exchange of public property at Camp Arawak between the V.I. government and Beal Aerospace on Dec. 15, Andrews gave the administration 60 days to pick a department to come up with a "flexible, comprehensive master plan for the use of the property and structures as a park facility."
Turnbull chose the Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation to draft the plan. Commissioner Ira Hobson selected, among others, Raymond "Usie" Richards and Valmy Thomas to sit on the task force.
Late last week, Hobson said the task force had submitted – within the court-ordered deadline — its recommendations to him and he subsequently turned the plan over to Turnbull.
"I wanted to make sure we didn’t let the time line pass," Hobson said. "It’s for him (Turnbull) to reject, accept or alter the plan."
Since the plan was turned in, however, the administration requested an extension from the court. Andrews granted a 60-day extension on Feb. 22, according to Andrews’ law clerk. Neither Hobson nor Turnbull assistant James O’Bryan Jr. could confirm whether Turnbull has seen the plan. The governor left the territory last week to attend the Southern Governors' Conference in Washington, D.C.
"I don’t really want to tell anybody what the plan is before it goes to the governor," Hobson said.
In his order, Andrews stipulated that the plan must include a means of funding and that money collected for the plan must be deposited in a separate account independent from the V.I. government’s general fund.
Hobson conceded that money is the biggest obstacle a future park faces.
"We don’t have money to do this," he said. "However, that doesn’t preclude us from planning it. And that’s what the task force did, they gave us a layout.
"Basically the plan is a good plan. It’s simply a matter of once we have the money it’s doable."
The 14.5 acres, commonly called Camp Arawak, was donated to the people of the Virgin Islands by the late Frank Wiesner in 1974. The deed stipulated that the property, which contains the ruins of a Danish colonial-era great house and other cultural and archeological artifacts, was to be developed into a park.
Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the government’s cash shortfalls, however, have left the great house in disrepair and the property undeveloped.

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