Feb. 26, 2003 – The Port Authority board voted to cancel its lease with Atlantic Tele-Network for 2,000 square feet of property at Signal Hill atop Hassel Island where the company planned to erect a communications tower at least 80 feet high, according to information obtained from sources within VIPA late Wednesday.
The board met during the day, waiting until late in the afternoon to address Hassel Island issues. It deferred most of the discussion concerning the island to executive session.
As has been evident to anyone viewing the island from the St. Thomas waterfront in recent weeks, a swath has been bulldozed up the hill through the vegetation to make a road. The center of controversy is not only the road but the proposed construction of a communications tower 80 to 90 feet high atop Signal Hill at the end of the newly cleared access road. The property is zoned W-1, or Waterfront-pleasure, which does not allow for a radio tower.
Edward "Harmon" Killebrew and Cornelius Prior, ATN president, have leases for that property. Killebrew, doing business as Island Treasures Co., has a lease for 14,828 square feet, and Prior has the balance of the area, some 2,000 square feet.
The VIPA source said the board vote does not affect Killebrew's lease.
It was the hope of the two parties at Wednesday's meeting to get board approval of a zoning variance to allow construction of the tower. A variance would have to go to public hearings and be approved by the Legislature, a move Killebrew has said he wants to see so that "everything will be made public."
Killebrew is anxious to develop the Signal Hill area as a place to educate V.I. students about Hassel Island's history so they can later serve as interpreters of the site for visitors. He is quick to counter criticism that has been leveled at Prior, who he said is financing his project in exchange for being able to construct the communications tower.
Killebrew explained that he needed financing to pay for his lease and the equipment required for his project. He said he came up with the idea of a communications tower on the hill and approached Prior. He said Prior thought the student training project worthwhile and agreed to fund it. (See "Road leads to debate over Hassel Island tower".)
Pamela Richards, VIPA board chair, intended to take all of the Hassel Island discussion into executive session. However, Attorney General Iver Stridiron, a board member, intervened, saying that because of the recent furor over the matter, the public had a right to hear it discussed in open session.
"Everyone knows about the road, and everyone has concerns," Stridiron said. "If there are questions of a legal nature, then we can take them to executive session."
Darlan Brin, VIPA executive director, said there were flaws in the lease contract, which he said was signed by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull on Dec. 9.
Brin said that both the governor and the Port Authority learned after the lease was executed that the island's W-1 zoning doesn't allow for construction of a tower. Further, he said, both also learned after the fact that no property can be constructed on government-leased land of less than 10,000 feet. Brin recommended that the ATN lease be canceled.
Killebrew attended the VIPA board meeting. Richard A. Hanscom Sr., ATN vice president for engineering and technology, represented Prior at the meeting.
All board members were present: Kent Bernier, assistant to the governor for economic affairs, Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood, Leslie Milliner, Robert O'Connor Jr., Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett, Richards and Stridiron.
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