Gov. John deJongh Jr. promoted and defended his administration’s proposal for a baseball, swimming, tennis and volleyball sports complex in Frederiksted in a statement from his office Wednesday, commenting on a Senate panel’s decision Monday to hold legislation authorizing the plan for more discussion.
“Aside from exhibiting confidence in long term future of the island’s economy, it will result in critically needed jobs and small business opportunities and, I believe, it will serve as a catalyst to move forward the development of hotel projects planned for St. Croix,” deJongh said in the statement.
The project will also serve as a fulcrum upon which to develop St. Croix tourism’s product and help position the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Croix in particular within the niche market of sports tourism, deJongh said.
“I cannot overstate the importance of this project at this time as it continues my administration’s commitment to execute public-private partnerships to achieve economic growth and diversification, and in this case it is towards enhancing sports facilities in our territory," deJongh said.
While this complex is planned for the west end of St. Croix, plans are already in motion to develop track and field facilities at the two public high schools on St. Croix, deJongh said.
On St. Thomas, plans call for the development of a track and field facility at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School and the refurbishment of the track at Charlotte Amalie High School, he said.
“The Paul E. Joseph sports complex initiative, the development of the two tracks on St. Croix and one on St. Thomas, and the redevelopment of the track at CAHS is part of an ongoing initiative that was started several years ago," deJongh said.
“We spent more than $10 million rehabilitating over 40 sports facilities: basketball courts, baseball fields, volleyball and tennis courts across the three islands.”
DeJongh said he believes the focus now has to be on positioning the territory in the sports tourism market and once this project gets off the ground, continuing the development of the two tracks on St. Croix and improving the facility on St. Thomas.
James Sutherland, president of GlobeVest LLC, is quoted in the Government House statement saying his company and partners are committed to bringing the project forward. International development company GlobeVest has partnered with V.I. construction company GEC to form GlobeVest V.I., which has won the bid to design and build the stadium, should the Legislature approve.
"We have had a good dialogue with the senators, a good dialogue with the testifiers at last night’s hearing and we understand the concerns raised,” Sutherland said. “Our intention is to move this project forward as a means of advancing sports tourism in the Virgin Islands and providing a top of the line sports complex for the not only the athletes who will compete on St. Croix but for the residents of the island.”
Send me my last two tax return checks! Pave the roads! Modernize WAPA! Hire back the teachers and nurses! Rescind the 8% pay cuts!
Then you can consider buying your $55m toy and all the bribe money, no-bid contracts and kickbacks that come with it.
You continue to say that GlobeVest is an “international development company” please, pray tell, where in ANY part of the World has this company built ANYTHING?? They have NO record of building ANYTHING. Nothing, nada, zip, zero. People, please read all you can about this project from anywhere but the source. Read cruciansinfocus.com and freemansground.com, if you want to get a better balanced understanding of this next scam to rip you off. It’s your money, but you seem to have no say. Why has there been no public townhall meetings? This is just a continuing pattern of the Administration and legislature in cahoots to continue fleecing the people and emptying what is left in the VI treasury. Be very aware of de wolf in sheeples clothing. He coming’ to bite we big time! Again! Oh, and what about investment in little things like water, electricity, roads, education? Aren’t these just a wee bit more important than a water polo pool – which will never happen anyhow? You decide. Basic needs to survive, or a $50 PLUS million beach volley ball facility for visitors?? Survival or sunscreen? Pretty obvious what the right answer is.
You are right on point 911. This is just another scam. Just like Alpine we need to send these people along with the governor packing. Out of our house on Mafolie hill where he spent our money remodeling.
I URGE Gov. DeJongh to put that money into fixing WAPA so that we have reliable, consistent and affordable electricity, fix our pothole ridden roads, increase visible police protection so people can walk safely in town DAY OR NIGHT,or be in their homes without having guns pointed at theirs and their family’s heads, beef up security and protection from all the robberies and burglaries that are going on RIGHT NOW, get with it on recycling programs that won’t cost us and arm and both legs, clean up our trash strewn, overgrown roadways, get rid of all the darned chickens and roosters infesting our once quiet residential neighborhoods and multiplying beyond control.
WE WANT BASIC SERVICES that we already pay for and do not receive before a paying out millions of our tax dollars for multimillion dollar stadium built by a company with NO TRACK record! Are you out of you mind?
Think the all those stadium goers and sports fans will relish bringing their flashlights to watch games in the dark when our power no longer functions? You betcha!
These crooks are a joke and unfortunately WE become the punch line. It would be laughable if it were so not funny. Borrowing and wasting 55 million dollars should be unthinkable. Should be, but it’s not. Why is that? Ask yourself, why would these incompetent flim flammers borrow that kind of money for no good and responsible reason? There must be a reason. I think to find the answer you must ask a Tief.
I actually saw Public Works filling the potholes on Hess Road on Tuesday. One truck with asphalt, one Supervisors pick up truck, and a total of NINE people (2 were directing traffic)and 2 shovels. Oh, and it was after 5:30 – so that is 9 people on overtime. And it is now Thursday – they never came back to finish the job the following day.
Thnx, Yeah Alpine…. We still have a pile of trash, the FAA still wants it gone and LEAC can’t go away while we still use oil (of which we have none)… Good Work, drive any viable options away, and then B*tch about how bad things are….
A classic case of “The will of few imposed on many”.
Your patent dislike for the Governor clouds your ability to separate him from the problems, issues and solutions. Like an angry child no matter what the issue, if he has a position you’re against it.
If you spent as much time on solutions as you worried about what the governor did, we may have a viable future. The man will be gone, same senators pilfering the general fund and the roads will still s*ck.
Get over it@
Your understanding of financing is bleak.
You can’t float a bond for something that will inherently fail. Any facility the depends on oi is unprofitable, ask Hovensa. Since even they could not afford to use oil to make gasoline……
Burglaries are a community problem more than a social issue. If your community, ie: neighbors don’t get involved, call the police when they see suspicious activity, state what they saw, then burglaries will continue.
Recycling? That is apparently what we call the roadsides. When is the Transfer Station at Peters Rest going of open. I see they manage to keep the gates closed and the grass sometimes cut.
I find the chicken and roosters comment culturally offensive…People have to eat.
Get back into EDUCATION for our youth, our dropout rate is too high. Keep them off the street. ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR CHILDREN’S ACTIONS…
The stadium is just another screen for the few to distort with emotions. Lovely and sad….
Nice comment, no inflammatory remarks there. Lets appeal to to emotions since they all serve us so well as opposed to rational thinking for the long term….
I’m not even agreeing to the concept of the stadium, just fail to see a rational argument against it.
Tourism, more non territory generated money infused into the economy, Sports, we don’t even show up for our own children (I go to the little league games, attendance is abysmal)so why would we care about what sports are represented. STATESIDE DEVELOPMENT, we hate that…. so hard to skim off money and we didn’t get our cut up front….. Our posturing will break us.
We represent 150,000 people (a small town, maybe) We have no sustainable market (other than tourism, because of our weather and beautiful surroundings, not our pleasant demeanor) and yet we have the audacity to think we are entitled to prosperity. Man Up! If we don’t compete properly with the other destinations, we will succumb to our self-destructive position of “We are the USVI, you must come and support us”
Nonsense.