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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesSt. John Needs to Become Its Own District

St. John Needs to Become Its Own District

Dear Source:
I left the all-Town Meeting called by Senator Craig Barshinger on St. John with two clear impressions. One was that this community has amazing tenacity and in spite of the many Meetings called and constantly attended by citizens, we continues to engage in every possible attempt to get our voice heard—as exasperating as that has become through the many years that we have continued to do this.
Having our Senator-at-Large include us in the process of identifying St. John's long list of needs once again at least involved us in the process. Thank You for that Sen. Barshinger.
The second impression had me shaking my head and asking: Why do we continue to have the same issues ongoing issues year after year after year with no resolution?
The main overall conclusion and general agreement by everyone present was this: we must have localized Government; more control of our own monies and solving our own St. John issues; or become a district unto ourselves. This St. Thomas-St. John district does not work for us in any way!
St. John gets nothing on a regular basis on just about every level from basic services on.
This is part of the reason we are so upset that we feel we are being taxed unfairly on our properties. How can we be considered a St. Thomas-St. John district in every other regard (and receive little to nothing) then change the rules and make our property taxes a "St. John rate"?
How can we have a 15 year serious parking issues on St. John and not find a solution? Many have been presented. We simply have no power or control to solve it. If this simple, basic clear issue can't be resolved how can the bigger ones ever be?
The answer is simple: These issues are sent across Pillsbury's Sound to St. Thomas where they either sit on many Bureaucrats desks who know nothing about our Island or it's issues and either gather dust because there are much bigger issues on the table or if enough of a fuss is made on St. John, gets distributed between Departments who battle all of the reasons why it may infringe on their Dept. responsibilities and "turf". Usually by then, any monies available are lost–either in Bureaucrats salaries or because it is used for another "problem".
Is it any wonder that many St. Johnian's have lost faith in our present system of Government?
Bonny Corbeil
St. John

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