Sept. 25, 2002 – Sen. Emmett Hansen II has canceled the Government Operations Committee hearing that had been scheduled for Friday on St. Croix to take testimony on the Tourism Department's marketing plan for the island.
Hansen, the committee chair, said he has reviewed the plan and that discussion has reached the point of "diminishing returns, and nothing further is to be gained."
In August, he canceled a similar meeting at the last minute when Tourism Commissioner Pamela Richards sent word that she would not attend.
As a result of town meetings Hansen held on St. Croix on tourism as it relates to the island's infrastructure, a private sector group, St. Croix Alive, was formed. The group has formulated its own plan aimed at securing visits by cruise ships to the island. (See the St. Croix Source story "A tale of two marketing plans … to be continued".)
Hansen had not invited Richards to testify at the Friday committee hearing. According to the Senate calendar for the week, the invitation list consisted of Police Commissioner Franz Christian, Housing Parks and Recreation Commissioner Ira Hobson, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik, Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood and Agriculture Commissioner Henry Schuster.
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