Sen. Craig Barshinger announced around 4 p.m. that Friday’s meeting of the Legislature’s Energy and Environmental Protection Committee was in recess for 1.5 hours; by 4:30 p.m. Barshinger was the only senator left in the St. John Legislature building. He then canceled the evening portion of an all-day meeting. The evening topic was the potential impact of the two marinas proposed for Coral Bay.
Barshinger said his staff called those scheduled to testify to let them know, but the public and the media didn’t get the word.
“It shows they’re not really interested if they can’t come over,” Coral Bay resident Jerry Hills said of the absent senators, pulling over along the Creek to find out from a reporter what had happened to the meeting.
He said that except for a few senators, the members of the Legislature ignore St. John issues.
Hills and his wife Martha Hills agreed that St. John needs more than an at-large senator to represent their interests.
“We need a voice,” Martha Hills said.
Martha Hills said it costs the couple about $6 in gas money to make the trip back and forth to Coral Bay.
The Hills and at least three other people showed up for the meeting.
Coral Bay Community Council President Sharon Coldren was one of the people scheduled to testify. She said she spent six hours writing her testimony plus about two days gathering information so she would be prepared for the senators’ questions.
“I was very hopeful that a number of senators would come over because they realized it was a big issue for St. John,” she said, referring to the proposed marinas.
She said they missed an opportunity to meet with St. John voters.
Barshinger said he was disappointed too. He said he was only able to muster a quorum between 1 and 2 p.m., when the senators passed an energy bill. He said as the day wound down, only Sen. Clarence Payne was left. Barshinger said he departed before the discussion concluded on a bill to ban plastic grocery bags so he was not there for the evening part of the meeting.
When the energy bill vote was taken earlier in the day, in addition to Barshinger and Payne, Sen. Clifford Graham was present. Barshinger said Sen. Sammuel Sanes voted via Skype. Non-committee members Sen. Kenneth Gittens and Sen. Myron Jackson were there during the day but didn’t stick around for the evening part of the meeting.
Other members of the committee are Sen. Alicia “Chucky” Hansen, Sen. Donald “Ducks” Cole and Sen. Diane Capehart. They didn’t show up for any portion of the meeting.
The company Summers End on Oct. 1 got a Coastal Zone Management permit to build a 145-slip marina in Coral Bay despite the objections of the majority of the people who testified during an Aug. 20 meeting. The St. John CZM Committee had only two members able to vote on the permit — Edmond Roberts and Andrew Penn — and they voted yes. The third member of the committee, Brion Morrisette, was there to make a quorum but couldn’t vote because as an attorney he has legal involvement with Summers End.
Sirius Development, in conjunction with the Moravian Church Conference, held a meeting Oct. 18 to discuss its plans for a hotel that it hopes to build along with a marina in Coral Bay. It does not yet have any permits.
