Companies operating vessels out of the Enighed Port will be facing changes as the V.I. Port Authority seeks to address the crowding and shipyard repair work being done at the St. John commercial port.
All the operators of island commercial vessels using the port were called to a meeting with VIPA officials led by VIPA Executive Director Carlton Dowe.
The meeting was closed to the public.
“There were ideas exchanged,” one barge company official told St. John Tradewinds. “It wasn’t a bad meeting.”
Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the pond have complained of late night and early morning shipyard repair work being conducted on vessels not in service from the port and V.I. Port Authority officials told the operators “in the future there will be changes,” the barge company source said.
“(Barge company owners) were saying what needs to be done to help operators,” the official said.
The sandblasting and painting work being performed with VIPA’s permission on barges in the migratory bird nesting grounds in the mangrove mitigation area on the south shore of the former salt pond “wasn’t discussed,” the source added.
“Everybody is quite aware of what they can do and when they can do it,” he said.
St. John Tradewinds has requested an accounting of VIPA wharfage charges and fees for companies with boats operating out of or undergoing repairs at the Enighed Marine Facility for 2013 and previous years.
VIPA Executive Director Carlton Dowe has asked that the St. John Tradewinds request be submitted in writing.
