Lawmakers Criticize DPW for Overgrown Roads; Department Blames Vendor Payment Delays

When legislators took the Department of Public Works to task for overgrown brush along public thoroughfares across the territory, they quickly learned that the obstructed sidewalks and roads were just another consequence of the Government of the Virgin Islands’ chronic inability to pay vendors promptly. “It’s just unacceptable,” said Senator Franklin Johnson, who lamented that failure to maintain roadsides had transformed two-lane roads into one-way streets. DPW Commissioner Derek Gabriel admitted that it has gotten “out of control,” particularly on the island of St. Croix. However, a “perfect storm of factors” seems to be worsening what several have described as a hazard. Increasingly heavy rains have been partially blamed for the rapidly growing grass, as Governor Albert Bryan Jr. alluded to in a recent press briefing, but DPW's inability to pay roadside contractors is the primary cause of the issue. “These are small businesses…and when we can’t pay them for sometimes a fifth, sixt...