It looks like the backroom dealings that have been traditional in Virgin Islands' contract letting may be facing a formidable enemy in the person of U.S. Attorney David Nissman. And it's about time.
Nissman's aggressive and steady quest to stop the V.I. government from awarding a $3.5 million sewer repair contract on St. Croix to a company that has no apparent means of completing the contract, but lots of connections to the current administration, is more than commendable. It's heroic.
And we trust he won't stop there.
The people of the Virgin Islands have become so accustomed to shady dealings and sweetheart deals, they no longer think they have any power to change this process.
It's like a gigantic mud slide headed down hill, sweeping hope, honestly and optimism before it into the ocean, with no apparent way to stop it. And it's killing, literally in this case, our ecosystem and driving away tourism with the stench of raw sewage.
Nissman's action should offer hope to the cynical and jaded and bring an eventual end to the belief, "it's just business as usual."
That mudslide of corruption has long been eroding the beauty of these islands, but it can be stopped. Nissman has the means to provide the retaining walls and silt fences and it looks like he is going to use them.