Public Finance Authority board members approved funding requests Thursday that will allow Public Works to install standby generators at emergency shelters around the territory and Housing, Parks and Recreation (HPR) to continue fixing up local basketball and tennis courts.
At last month’s meeting, board members reprogrammed $55,000 to HPR to fix up the tennis and basketball courts at St. Croix’s Elena Christian Junior High School. Department representatives said Thursday they had discovered the courts were in worse shape than previously thought and more money would be needed to add an extra half-inch of asphalt to the surface.
"We’ve almost had to start from scratch," HPR Commissioner St. Claire Williams said during Thursday’s meeting.
The department anticipates finishing up with the project by the end of the month, added Roy Canton, HPR’s territorial director of planning and development. Canton said the original scope of work included adding an inch of new asphalt on the courts, along with striping, fencing in the tennis courts and putting in new backboards at the basketball courts, which he said can cost between $2,000 and $4,000 a pair.
Normally, school projects wouldn’t fall under HPR’s purview, but the department runs a tennis program through Elena Christian, Williams said after the meeting.
Board members voted to reprogram an additional $12,000 for the project from funds previously earmarked for the stalled Hospital Street project on St. Croix.
The board also reprogrammed $16,000 in funds left over from the Estate Bethlehem renovation project for the addition of new aluminum bleachers at the D.C. Canegata Sports Complex’s basketball and tennis courts.
"With all the improvements we’ve been making there, the facility really is getting tremendous use," Williams said later.
He added that the department is working with Virgin Islands Rotary to raise funds for new playground equipment for the complex, which he said is deteriorating. The only problem is that the money might not come in until next year, Williams said.
The new equipment would be handicapped accessible.
PFA Board Chairman Gov. John deJongh Jr. said the department should maintain its partnership with Rotary, but also encouraged Williams and Canton to put "something together and submit a request" in case more money is needed.
Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls also made his case Thursday for the reprogramming of about $491,417 that would be put toward the installation of standby generators at designated emergency shelters around the territory.
The money is the last of the funding previously allocated for the St. John parking project, which PFA Director Julito Francis said later would be replaced by new matching fund bond proceeds.
The generators were recently supplied to the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Smalls explained during the meeting. Public Works will be working with VITEMA and Property and Procurement to make sure the generators are installed, he added.
"These units were provided free to the government and transported by the military," Smalls said. "It’s our responsibility now to make sure they’re installed."
The generators are in "pretty good shape," with some having been used for no more than 24 hours, he said.
During a brief executive session, the board also approved the PFA’s fiscal year 2010 budget, which totals $6.9 million — $3.4 million from the authority’s project fund and $3.5 from the internal revenue matching fund.
Present during Thursday’s meeting were board members Angel Dawson, deJongh, Debra Gottlieb and Keith O’Neale Jr.