Leona Will Vacate Administrator’s Office With Rumors of Formern Festival Queen in Position

 

 

Leona Smith

 

CRUZ BAY — Who will be the next St. John Administrator?

By tradition, de Jongh Administration Administrator Leona Smith will be getting a well-deserved rest when she leaves office December 31 as the Mapp Administration takes over in January.

Inquiring island minds want to know who will be taking over the office at The Battery and “runn’n’ t’ngs” on St. John, but Mapp Administration officials had no announcement.

The Mapp team is busy putting together a cabinet and could not confirm any candidates for St. John Administrator, according to one insider.

“The focus is on finalizing Cabinet memberts,” the St. John Tradewinds contact said.

St. Johnian Carmen Wesselhoff, a former one-term St. John Senator at Large in between the first and second of Craig Barshinger’s four-terms (Wesselhoff chose not to run for reelection), is being mentioned as a possible choice — along with a short list of politically-connected and non-government prospects with significantly less business experience than Carmen.

St. Thomas Travel May Be Sign
Ms. Wesselhoff, who was spied entering the post-election celebratory luncheon for Mapp’s St. John supporters at the Waterfront Bistro on Saturday, November 22, has some time on her hands with the car ferry Roanoake, operated by her husband Stanley “Bubbler” Hedrington, rusting in Enighed Pond since last Spring.

If its any sign, Ms. Wesselhoff is sporting a new short “bob” haircut — almost as short as Leona’s signature coif — and has been spied traveling back and forth to St. Thomas “dressed for success” and carrying an armload of paperwork.

As Smith vacates her office, she is retaining her “crown” as St. John Festival Chair, which is a purportedly voluntary, albeit lifetime, appointment — or sentence.

“I am not sure what I’m going to do next; I’ve got some options,” said Smith, who spent 16 years at the St. John Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs before assuming the post of island administrator for eight years.