Magens Bay Authority board members voted 5-0 against the proposal by local businessman Michael Ball for an eco canopy tour that would have traversed through Nature Conservancy land and ended in the Magens Bay Arboretum.
The vote was taken during the board’s monthly meeting Friday morning at Magens Bay.
The project, first proposed by local businessman Michael Ball, would have entailed creating an eco park using the existing Nature Conservancy hiking trail and a canopy tour that would be constructed and managed by The Original Canopy Tour company. The eco park would have begun with a drop-off point, designed as a loop, on Ball’s property directly off of Magen’s Bay Road. From there, hikers would have been given trail maps and directed to the start of the trail. The trail, on land owned by The Nature Conservancy and currently maintained by the Magens Bay Authority, would have been manned with trail guides.
Canopy tour riders would have proceeded to the first of four or five platforms that would, according to Ball, be designed with wood and other natural materials to be camouflaged in green.
According to the proposal, the canopy tour platforms would have been similar to the deck built in the hiking trail by The Nature Conservancy.
A patent-pending, dual-line safety system would have propelled riders by gravity during a 600-foot descent, traversing a natural water gut for approximately 1.5 miles, with stops at four platforms.
Riders and hikers would have come together again in an area between the beach and the Alphonso Nelthropp Arboretum but Ball had said that the landing site could be moved if necessary.
At Friday’s meeting board member Katina Coulianos asked board chairman Aubrey Nelthropp to recuse himself from the vote due to a conflict of interest. As reported previously by The Source, Nelthropp had sold the land proposed as the starting point of the canopy tour to the Vernon and Eva Ball Trusts in 2005 for $1 million.
Nelthropp immediately protested, saying, “You don’t have to tell me what my responsibilities are … This is not a communist country. No one is going to tell Aubrey Nelthropp he can or cannot vote.”
After much discussion by board members and legal counsel regarding Virgin Islands conflict of interest law, Nelthropp continued to object.
“Nobody dictates to me anything,” said Nelthropp.
Before the vote, board member Elliot Davis addressed the board and the 35 community members in attendance, giving an emotional explanation for his vote against the tour. Davis felt the property was given to the people of the Virgin Islands by Arthur Fairchild with the intention of preserving the land, including the wildlife, flora and fauna, to be enjoyed for generations to come.
Board members Dayle Barry, Coulianos, Davis, Leo Francis and Robert Moron voted against the canopy tour. Nelthropp and Barbara Petersen abstained from voting.
Erie Matthias, a regular at Magens Bay, spoke to the media about her reason for attending the meeting.
“We wanted to make sure our grandchildren enjoy what we have been able to enjoy, the beauty of Magens Bay Park in its natural form, “ she said.
Hugo Hodge Sr. told reporters he is retired and his job now consists of coming to Magens Bay every morning to exercise with his wife, Bernice Hodge, and friends Caroline Davis, Michele Peterkin and Mathias.
“As a user of the trail,” said Hodge, “we wanted to make sure that the birds and wildlife remain undisturbed.” He said he was excited to learn that the peace and tranquility he enjoys at Magens will remain the same.
Frank McConnell, who had donated 25 acres of land adjacent to Magens Bay to The Nature Conservancy, left shortly after the vote, happy that the proposal was denied. According to McConnell, he donated the land with the idea that it would be preserved and that requirement was included in the deed.
A local tour operator who works closely with Ball but preferred to remain anonymous, was disappointed in the outcome of the vote but said they were currently looking at other sites that would be feasible for the eco canopy tour.
