Feb. 22, 2002 – He's urging police officers to be lenient dealing with traffic situations in Cruz Bay, Deputy Police Chief Angelo Hill said Friday at a meeting of the Rotary Club of St. John.
"There's just no parking," he readily acknowledged.
Police Chief Novelle Francis, the main speaker at the Rotary meeting, said he is surprised that the island doesn't see more "road rage," given the situation.
Cruz Bay is choked with vehicles. The situation is serious enough in the slower summer months, but in the busy winter season, parking spots as almost rare as snow in the tropics. People drive 'round and 'round the town area hoping to luck onto someone else pulling out from a space so they can run into the post office for their mail, make a quick stop at the bank or run an errand.
The problem worst along the waterfront. In previous years, police were quick to ticket villa managers who jockeyed with taxi drivers and others for space at the Cruz Bay ferry dock. This year has seen a change. An officer is on duty to keep traffic moving, not to harass any drivers.
"I greatly appreciate the police's efforts last weekend," villa manager Lisa Durgin said at the Rotary meeting, at the Westin Resort. Throughout the week, other villa managers made similar remarks. They said police officers were understanding when villa managers were delayed while picking up guests on the dock and couldn't return promptly to their vehicles. Durgin said last weekend's traffic was probably the heaviest of the winter season, with hundreds of people arriving to spend President's Day week at a vacation home.
Working things out is a matter of respect, Francis said, but if anyone doesn't join in the spirit of cooperation, the police will make them move.
Traffic congestion also plagues the Creek. Drivers trying to get onto and off of the barges clog the small area. With no space to queue up, motorists waiting to drive onto barges park haphazardly around the Creek bulkhead. Additionally, the area has notorious traffic jams as drivers exiting the parking lot and others arriving from Boulon Center Road vie to be in the same space at the same time.
Drivers who double-park in front of the Nature's Nook vegetable stand across from the Creek entrance don't help the situation. "It's an accident waiting to happen," Shirley Joseph said.
The Port Authority owns the Creek and hires off-duty police officers to patrol the area. Those officers can issue tickets and enforce laws, Francis said.
The chief also said the Police Department is working with villa managers to develop directions to vacation villas that will be kept at Central Dispatch. This is expected to end the problem of officers not being able to find places where their help is needed. "So when you say 'Blue Skies,' we'll have a schematic to look at," he said, referring to the practice of giving vacation villas fanciful names.
Francis told the more than two dozen Rotarians and guests at the meeting that the Police Department has trouble hiring enough officers. "Community safety is compromised," he said. And since the department can't have an officer on every corner, he added, cooperation from the public is essential to help solve crimes.
St. John recently got four new police vehicles, Francis said, and he expects some new recruits to be assigned to the island after they graduate from training. While the island has relatively little violent crime compared to St. Thomas and St. Croix, it does have occasional bouts of burglaries. To help prevent them from happening at vacation villas, he said, the department is working with villa managers to produce a pamphlet of safety tips for guests.
And don't be surprised if you come home one day and find what looks like a traffic ticket on your door. Francis said officers will be issuing "security checklists" pointing out where homes are vulnerable. Things like "poor lighting, open doors, overgrown bushes," he said, urging residents to fix the problems noted as one way of deterring crime.