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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
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Stop the Developers

Dear Source:
Great letters to the editor Helene Smollett, Irmela Neumann, Jose Belcher & others! SpringLine Architects for the developer 'reaching out to the community' was a meeting in November for the core group of the Friends of Mandahl and then a 'community' meeting on Sunday February 1, 2009 at the Nirvana Temple in Mandahl which is down a long unpaved unlit road. There was no lighting inside the meeting room so that it was necessary to cut the meeting short when their host ask us to please leave as it was not safe to walk on the rocky dirt road at night. Oh and did we mention that the notice for this meeting was 3-4 letter sized pieces of paper distributed on just two roads in Mandahl.
Is the developer really that naïve that he believes only the immediate neighbors are concerned about Saving Mandahl Bay and the Mandahl Salt Pond? We have island-wide support. The battle cry started with Vessup Bay and continued with Great St. James on the East End and on to the Northside with Hull Bay and Inner Brass and marched on to the west end with fighting the cell towers and now finally the northeast coast with Save Mandahl Bay. This fight crosses every racial, age and socio-economic line. We are all in this together! The developer talks about mitigation plans for damage to the eco-system. If we do not allow them to dredge and build out the marina then there is no need for mitigation plans.
The Gov't of the Virgin Islands made a huge mistake in 1964 giving the original owner of Hans Lollik carte blanche with the lease for the Mandahl Salt Pond in destroying natural resources in the name of 'progress'. Read Norman Smith's letter in this forum about the 'mistakes of parents' 50 years ago in the name of 'progress'. We know so much more now about ecology, the environment and how to save our precious natural resources. Let's not repeat errors that were made all those years ago.
Come out to the CZM hearing on Thursday March 5, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Lockhart School (behind the post office in Sugar Estate) and learn everything you can about the future you want to see unfold for yourselves and your children and grandchildren.
Fred and Sharon Hupprich
St. Thomas

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