The resort’s generators are located in the maintenance area of the Westin property, above.
Residents from Rock Ridge Road all the way to Virgin Grand Estates were complaining last week about the noise emanating from the Westin Resort and Villas.
The noise wasn’t the sound of tourists splashing in the waterfront pool late at night, but the droning of generators, explained one Rock Ridge Road resident.
“The generators will be on for hours at a time and all night sometimes,” said the resident. “It’s invasive and intrusive. It’s quite annoying to say the least and ruins the tranquility that we all want.”
But the noise is not really the Westin’s fault, according to resort officials.
The Westin turns on its generator when requested to do so by the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, explained Westin general manager Mike Ryan.
“WAPA asks us to voluntarily go off line,” said Ryan. “If we choose not to, they will come by and take us off the grid.”
Resort officials attempt to lessen the noise impact by trying to save as much energy as possible and only running one of its two generators, Ryan added.
“We’ve been trying to lessen the load on the property by not running certain compressors and things like that so we don’t have to draw as much electricity and only have to run one generator,” he said.
While Ryan was sympathetic about disrupting the Westin’s neighbors, resort officials don’t have much of a choice in the matter, he explained.
“The reason WAPA takes us off line is because we’re a big consumer of power on St. John and their commentary has been that it allows them to maintain power to the other residences on the island,” said Ryan.
Westin officials are looking into ways of lessening the generator droning, but ultimately would not have to run their generator if WAPA provided sufficient power, Ryan added.
“We’re trying to be open and we’ve had conversations about the capabilities of muffling the generators better,” he said. “The best solution would be to get dependable power from WAPA.”
Although one Rock Ridge Road resident threatened to picket the resort, no generator noise protests were report at the Westin last week.
