July 21, 2001 – The V.I. government and the U.S. Postal Service have agreed on a temporary expansion of the Cruz Bay post office at its current location while the search continues for a site to accommodate a larger facility, St. John Administrator Julien Harley announced Friday.
The Postal Service has 58 years left on its long-term lease of the current space in downtown Cruz Bay. The new agreement is for three years, not to count as part of the existing lease, Harley said in a release, and it will allow the post office to expand into the adjacent mini-park where the Tourism Department has long had a visitor information office.
Community members opposed to the post office taking over the small park space have been collecting signatures on a petition protesting plans for such a move, saying it would mean the death of lignum vitae and date palm trees there, which they described as fragile and rare. Plans were announced earlier this week for a demonstration at the park Saturday morning, where some protesters indicated they would symbolically chain themselves to the trees.
According to Harley, however, those concerned about the lignum vitae tree have been misinformed. "The agreement states that the lignum vitae tree will not be cut down, and a courtyard will be placed around it," he said. The release made no mention of the date palm.
The Tourism office has been relocated to the nearby Morris F. DeCastro Clinic.
Harley said the Postal Service intends to move ahead with plans to expand operations on St. John despite a curtailment in capital projects nationwide due to fiscal constraints. The three-year temporary expansion at the present post office location "will give the Postal Service time to find an appropriate spot" for a larger facility and also space for a substation in Coral Bay, he said.