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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesVIWMA Board Makes Room for New Administration's Members

VIWMA Board Makes Room for New Administration's Members

The absence of both Executive Director May Adams Cornwall and Chief Financial Officer Deandre Atwell ensured that the agenda was brief at the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority’s final board meeting of the year on Monday. The meeting, which was the last to be held with all of the members of the current board, took place at Red Point Wastewater Facility behind Cyril E. King Airport.

Darryl Smalls, the current chairman of the board, and Dodson James, the current secretary, will both step down in 2015 due to change in territorial administrations. They are currently the board’s government representatives.

At the meeting, Smalls and James received accolades from board members and VIWMA staff for their years of service. Smalls joined the board in 2007. James, who served previously as chairman, joined in 2008.

VIWMA Chief Operating Officer Steve Aubin acted on behalf of Cornwall at the meeting, but he did not have reports to present to the board from either Cornwall or Atwell. Nor were staff summaries available to be presented, although Smalls insisted that they be sent electronically before the end of the business day.

In the absence of the executive director and the chief financial officer, Aubin updated the board on a small underground fire that the VIWMA is attempting to extinguish at the Bovoni landfill. Aubin gave his assurance that the fire, which is not producing any above-ground smoke, is no threat to public safety and is localized in two small areas. The authority has dealt with similar fires in the past, he said.

Aubin also said that VIWMA officials have taken members of Governor-elect Kenneth Mapp’s transition team on site visits and held meetings on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. Aubin said that he did not anticipate the changing makeup of the board to present any problems to the authority during the transition period.

In addition to Aubin, chief engineer Jim Grum also spoke briefly to the board about progress being made towards the eventual closure of the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills on St. Thomas and St. Croix. In 2010, the EPA sued the Virgin Islands government over conditions at the territory’s landfills.

Grum said that steps are being taken to keep both landfills in compliance with federal regulations until their closure, but that the biggest obstacle has been a lack of funding for projects that would create additional air space at the landfills.

The board’s final order of business was a motion to set a spending limit for VIWMA’s executive director at $100,000. It was approved with four yes votes.

A previous motion raising the spending limit from $50,000 to $100,000 was first repealed because the document, which initially set the spending limit at $50,000, could not be found.

Aside from Smalls and James, board members LaVerne Ragster and Norbert Rosado were also present at the meeting. Vice-Chairman Valdamier Collens was excused from the meeting.

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