Vandalism continues to be a problem for many public facilities maintained by Sports Parks and Recreation, Commissioner St. Claire Williams said while presenting his agency’s proposed $7.9 million budget to the Senate Finance Committee Thursday.
Residents have complained that the restrooms and showers at Frederiksted Beach are closed after dark, Williams said. But the department was forced to take some sort of measure, because they kept being vandalized over and over again.
"They knock out the piping from underneath the sink and so forth," Williams said. "We thought about putting up signs saying ‘closed after dark due to vandalism,’" he said.
Of the total budget of $7.9 million, $5.7 million is to come from the V.I. government’s General Fund – a $326,000 reduction from last year. From the General Fund monies, $3.2 million is for wages and salaries; $1.47 million for Social Security and Medicare taxes and fringe benefits for employees and $849,000 for operating expenses.
Operating expenses includes $97,000 for supplies; $208,000 for other services and charges; and $544,000 for utilities.
Sports, Parks and Recreation also expects $1.69 million in a miscellaneous appropriation, of which $671,000 is for the department’s many programs.
It also anticipates another $481,000 in other local funds and $50,000 in federal funding.
V.I. National Guard Adjutant General Renaldo Rivera presented the Office of the Adjutant General’s FY 2015 operating budget of $6.66 million.
That local funding includes a General Fund appropriation of $1.33 million, a small reduction from the year before. Of that, $385,000 is for wages and salaries; $158,000 is for Social Security and Medicare taxes and fringe benefits; utilities are $460,000; other services and charges is $242,000, with repair and maintenance accounting for most of that. Capital outlays are $56,000; and $34,000 is for supplies.
Most of that funding pays the salaries of civilian employees and renovations and upkeep of OTAG buildings and vehicles, while the overwhelming bulk of VING funding comes from federal sources, according to Sylma Sablon, director of administration and business management for the Adjutant General’s Office.
The V.I. National Guard as a whole expects about $44.8 million in federal funding for the upcoming year, Deputy U.S. Property and Fiscal Officer Lieutenant Col. Terrence Smith told the committee.
No votes were taken at the information gathering budget hearing.
