VI National Parks Get Funding

This was in The Source Today -- www.stjohnsource.com

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$1.6M in Stimulus Funds Go to V.I. National Parks
By Lynda Lohr — March 5, 2010

National Parks on St. Croix and St. John received $1.6 million in stimulus funds, compared to the $750 million the National Park Service received for all its parks.

The money will be put to good use, park officials said Friday.

Buck Island Reef National Monument on St. Croix received the bulk of the money, with $997,000 going toward repairs related to 2008's Hurricane Omar. Joel Tutein, superintendent of all national parks on St. Croix, said the works includes repair of a storm-damaged trail system, picnic area, shoreline, and pier. The money will also pay to replace, recover and relocate boundary and regulatory buoys.

"And the money will assist in replacing damaged moorings and underwater snorkel buoys," Tutein said.

Christiansted National Historic Site on St. Croix got $393,000 for myriad projects related to Omar recovery. Tutein said drawings and the scope of work documents currently in development. He said he hopes that bids will soon be solicited for making the repairs to the historic site.

The money will also go to repair and rehabilitate an historic house, repair and rehabilitate historic landscaping damaged in the storm, repair the Danish Customs House, repair the Danish West India Warehouse, repair an historic flagpole, repair storm damage to the Steeple Building, replace skylights in comfort stations damaged , and reshingle the bandstand roof.

Salt River National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve on St. Croix received $32,000 to conduct conservation and maintenance work with Youth Conservation Corps participants.

"We were able to hire 12 kids last summer," Tutein said.

V.I. National Park on St. John got $178,000. Superintendent Mark Hardgrove said most of the money went toward Hurricane Omar related repairs as well as other much-need fixes.

Lameshur Road will get $25,000 worth of gravel to repair spots like the one near the Salt Pond end of the road where crews recently removed a huge rock that impeded traffic. Hardgrove said that some of the road's steeper areas will receive a concrete coating. That will also cost about $25,000.

The rest of the money will go to replace old-style hurricane shutters on park facilities that were damaged in Hurricane Omar.

"They need the accordion type," Hardgrove said.

Funds will also be used to replace glass windows in some of the park's buildings with impact resistant ones that meet the Miami-Dade County hurricane standards. This means the park won't have to put up shutters when a storm threatens, Hardgrove said.

"And we're still cleaning up some vegetation in the back country from Omar," Hardgrove said.

Hardgrove is hopeful that the park will also get additional Stimulus Funds through the Federal Highway Administration to put towards the ongoing North Shore Road paving project. Hardgrove said the project is slated to cost $4.4 million