The Coral Bay Community Council (CBCC) plans to host a series of meetings to identify needs and design new community facilities. It invites everyone in the St. John community, including government agencies, nonprofits and professionals, to share their visions and be involved in the planning process for new community facilities located in Coral Bay.
The kick-off meeting to discuss community facility concepts is scheduled for 3:30-4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, in the backyard at Pickles in Paradise. (Coral Bay currently has no available public facility for a large group meeting). The CBCC extends the invitation to all – parents with children, workers, retirees and others.
A second opportunity to discuss any ideas will be possible from 1-5 p.m., Monday, April 22, at the CBCC Open House event to be held at its office. All are invited to drop by. Light refreshments will be provided. Come by and share ideas for children’s programs, adult programs, recreation, emergency and government services, meeting places, public amenities, teen centers and more.
During these meetings, CBCC will listen to people’s ideas about the types of services and multi-use facilities that will improve the quality of life for St. John residents. Although these facilities are intended to be located in Coral Bay, they will be available to serve everyone.
The April 17th meeting at Pickles and the April 22nd open house at CBCC are the first steps of the planning process that CBCC is facilitating under a $190,000 project, which includes a $150,000 USDA Community Facilities-Disaster Recovery grant and at least $40,000 in community in-kind matching funding. CBCC applied for this grant after the 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria left Coral Bay with no public meeting spaces or functional government facilities of any kind — not even a working fire station.
This initial phase of the Community Facilities Planning Project will result in three to five concepts that will be further discussed with the community in the next few months and includes developing feasible operations and management models.
In the second phase, preliminary designs and permit application studies will be prepared for two of these concepts. The design process will involve local professionals, such as planners, architects, engineers, lawyers, surveyors, archaeologists and biologists.
CBCC will research and apply for grant opportunities for capital funding to develop the facilities on behalf of the future operator of each facility. These actual new community facilities may be owned and run by the Virgin Islands government, other nonprofit organizations or CBCC.
CBCC looks forward to talking over good ideas for community facilities, such as meeting centers, athletic fields, adult education classrooms, emergency and government services center, etc.
CBCC has also reached out to a number of government agencies and other nonprofits to ask for their participation in this overall project, and it looks forward to active partnerships being developed.
For more information or to make an appointment, call CBCC at 776-2099 and ask for Rachel McKinley, or send ideas by email to plan@coralbaycommunitycouncil.org.
