The territory’s self-described "historian-governor" pledged Thursday at the dedication of the St. Croix Heritage Trail to find the funding needed to keep the long-awaited project on track.
Gov. Charles Turnbull’s promise of support came after Heritage Trail coordinators warned that if $30,000 included in a recent economic development bill isn’t generated by the government, the project’s administrative office will close by May.
"Trust me," Turnbull told a room full of visitors at Fort Frederik in Frederiksted. "This historian-governor is going to try and do all he can do.
"We’re going to find innovative ways to find additional funds. Don’t ask me where," Turnbull said, noting that the trail is a key in marketing St. Croix as a premier heritage-tourism destination. "Our economic recovery is tied to this."
The Heritage Trail project, which was conceived four years ago, is being funded by $250,000 in federal highway money, said George Tyson, its coordinator. Engineers from the Eastern Federal Lands Division of the U.S. Department of Transportation will be on St. Croix in the next few weeks to survey scenic overlook and pullover areas on the trail, although Tyson said he was concerned that money set aside for those projects is being diverted by the Department of Public Works to other road projects.
Public Works is the conduit for federal transportation funding.
"Unfortunately, we’ve been told that [money]won’t be forthcoming this year," Tyson said. "St. Croix isn’t going to have any significant improvements on the Heritage Trail until 2002."
Aloy Nielsen, Public Works’ director of federal highway engineering, said that while work on the trail project has been slowed, it will continue.
"It’s just pushed back a little," he said. "We’re still shooting for the latter part of this year. It will be done."
What will be done is the construction of nine scenic overlooks and pullovers along the 72-mile trail. Four of the overlooks will be on Scenic Drive West and one will be above Great Pond on the island’s south shore.
The remaining funding will go to produce new informational materials.
Significant progress was made in the project’s first year with the printing of 25,000 copies of a Heritage Trail brochure and map and the placement of directional road signs along the route. Several publications have since featured articles on the island’’s newest tourism product, the latest being a 10-page piece in the February issue of Caribbean Travel and Life magazine.
The Heritage Trail, named one of 50 National Millennium Legacy Trails in the United States, highlights historic buildings and ruins, visitation sites and nature areas.
