While Cruz Bay is often referred to as Love City, residents could have called the town Oil City last Thursday afternoon, October 18.
Oil gushed from a vehicle starting near Estate Lindholm on North Shore Road up past the Lumberyard Complex and along Centerline Road all the way to the Department of Public Works building on Gift Hill.
“We received a phone call around 2:30 p.m. that there was an oil slick from over by Estate Lindholm to past the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Centerline,” said DPW St. John Deputy Director Ira Wade. “The leakage was on the road all the way up here by Public Works.”
V.I. Police Department officials closed portions of the oil slicked road while DPW personnel covered the area with sand, Wade explained.
“It had to be a leak in a vehicle from a broken hose or something,” he said. “People were having problems getting traction on the road. Police closed off parts of the road while we sanded it down to absorb the oil.”
Wade experienced the slick roads first hand.
“I was coming up the road to send more people out and was having trouble getting traction,” he said. “We had a full truck load of sand down there and a couple of back hoes.”
VIPD officials were able to track down the offending vehicle, the owner of which should expect a few bills in the mail, Wade added.
“The police were able to find the vehicle,” he said. “The driver had fled but they got the plate number and they will trace down the owner. I expect each division will send them a bill — Police, Fire and surely Public Works will send them a bill.”
