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Last weekend in the Virgin Islands was filled with blue skies. It was also a very peaceful weekend, with residents gearing up for the holiday season beginning with Thanksgiving which falls on Nov. 26 this year (next Thursday).
Nonetheless, there were some items of interest that occurred over the weekend, most on Friday, which — if you haven't already digested — you should know about.
This is the 13th Edition of the Monday Digest.
WAPA to Resume Disconnections
The authority said that beginning with bills dated Nov. 17, it will recommence disconnections, with approximately 12,500 past due accounts totaling $20.6 million being put on notice of the need to collect starting with the ongoing billing cycle.
WAPA said that as of Friday, the average delinquent electrical commercial client owes $3,301 dating back to February usage while the average delinquent electrical residential customer owes $738 for the same period. Both residential and commercial active accounts benefited earlier this year from the governor’s $15.5 million Cares Act which credited $250 per active residential electrical account and $500 for each commercial account, according to the release.
Divi Casino Will Remain Open For Now
Superior Court Judge Jomo Meade on Friday issued an order that superseded the V.I. Casino Control Commission's, which on Tuesday ordered that the casino be closed for 14 days, and levied a $500 fine on the Carina Bay Resort for each day it remains closed. Judge Meade's order allows the casino to stay open until a court hearing.
The V.I.C.C.C. order came after multiple reopening delays from the resort, which has been closed since 2017.
The V.I.C.C.C., which has jurisdiction over gaming facilities and their adjoining businesses such as resorts, had given Grapetree Shores and Treasure Bay VI, owners of the resort and casino, an abundance of chances, with the owners of the resort and casino making and receiving multiple requests overtime calling for extensions to previously set reopening dates following Hurricane Maria's devastation to the properties.
First Attempt at Cruising in the Caribbean in Covid-19 Era Aborted
A cruise line had to dock in Barbados last week and abort the remainder of its voyage — which included St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada — after 6 Covid-19 cases were confirmed aboard the vessel.
The development brings in plain view the difficulty in resuming cruise travel during a pandemic that is still raging. The virus is surging in every part of the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
AgriFest 2021 Set for Memorial Day Weekend
The traditional month for the annual V.I. Agriculture and Food Fair, known as AgriFest, is February, but Covid-19 has caused the organizers to push the event to the Memorial Day Weekend (May 29-31). Even so, questions remain as to how the massive, three-day undertaking — which sees tens of thousands of people descending on the fair grounds in Estate Lower Love — would be executed if Covid-19 remains a problem.
In other news, Senator Donna-Frett-Gregory's bill to provide amnesty on penalties for a number of taxes (property, gross receipt and income taxes), passed the Committee on Finance and is headed to the Committee on Rules and Judiciary for further vetting; Governor Bryan says horse racing could be a thing again in the USVI following a preliminary agreement between warring parties VIGL and Southland Gaming; the Trump administration has transmitted $2,780,000 in Capital Improvement Program funds to the USVI; and a man was caught on camera puncturing the tires of a vehicle that belongs to his ex-girlfriend.
The 12th edition of the Monday Digest is here.
