Money from the admission fee at Trunk Bay and fees charged to boaters using V.I. National Park’s overnight moorings will fund repair of the park’s Red Hook dock on St. Thomas, park maintenance chief Keith Macneir said.
“It will cost about $600,000,” he said.
The dock will close Wednesday for repairs. The park expects the job to be finished in June.
The dock, located across the bay from the V.I. Port Authority’s Red Hook ferry dock, is used by Caneel Bay Resort and the Westin Resort and Villas to pick up its workers who live on St. Thomas but work at the St. John resort.
According to Macneir, the resorts won’t be able to use the dock for up to three weeks while the park constructs a floating dock with a gangway for use while the permanent dock is under repair. Additionally, an area near the ramp will be available for smaller vessels, but Macneir said the water near the ramp is too shallow for Westin and Caneel boats.
In addition to the resorts, Macneir said the park and agencies like St. John Rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard, the V.I. National Guard, and the British Virgin Islands police boat use the dock.
“It’s not a dock for public use,” Macneir said.
The work includes encasing the dock’s pilings in concrete and replacing the deck.
Let me get this correct: The dock is part of a National Park, is funded with public money and the public can not ue it. BUT, if you are a business that pays the required fees you can use it. And two big resorts get this privilege? Sounds like a nice subsidy for the Westin and Caneel. I was especially annoyed when after being chastised by park officers for parking on the grass/dead weeds with our 3 year old children in tow, the park then put down gravel over the “grass” for Caneel Bay workers to park where the ferry picks them up at the subsidized dock. If the Westin and Caneel had to pay the true cost of this land and dock in Red Hook, they would be looking elsewhere.