June 12, 2002 – Scenic greenery, better lighting and cobblestone walkways are part of Cruz Bay Park renovations that are soon to be undertaken by a public-private partnership with funding approved by the 24th Legislature.
Government officials and a group of St. John volunteers developed the Cruz Bay Park Revitalization Plan. They say they want to make the park — the first thing people see coming off the ferry dock, as well as a popular local gathering place — more inviting. "The whole idea behind this park is to make it people friendly," volunteer Chris Angel said.
The project could get under way as early as July, according to St. John Administrator Julien Harley. The Legislature appropriated $170,000 for the first phase of work in May. "We want to get started after the Fourth of July," Harley said. "The project should take four months."
In the first phase, the "Freedom" statue placed in the park to mark the 150th anniversary of V.I. emancipation will be relocated, the wooden kiosk that orients visitors to the V.I. National Park will be removed, and the brickwork borders that define the park's walkways will be taken up. Cobblestone walkways will replace concrete, and galvanized aluminum benches will replace the wooden ones now in place. New lighting atop antique-style lampposts is expected to eliminate shadows that overtake the park at night.
Angel and other local contractors have pledged free labor to carry out Phase 1. Harley said he's confident that with the planning committee's help much of the work can be finished by December, the traditional start of the winter tourist season. "We don't want the government to do it. We want to get it done fast," he said.
Meanwhile, volunteers are needed for fund raising to carry out various aspects of the park revitalization. A colorful brochure outlining the new park design also solicits financial support.
To raise public awareness as well as money, the committee is selling paving bricks. Donors can have their name or a brief message engraved on a brick that will become part of the park walkways. An example of what they look like can seen in front of the Emancipation Garden Post Office in downtown Charlotte Amalie, where bricks sold by the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce years ago to raise funds for town beautification are in place.
Members of the Cruz Bay park committee say they hope the project will add significantly to the $15,000 they already have raised for the different phases of the renovation plan.
Angel said the idea originated with a longtime St. John visitor who fell in love with the island while on his honeymoon nearly 50 years ago. "Myron Blumenfeld has been coming down here for a number of years, and he has been instrumentally involved on St. John since the 1950s," Angel said. "He got a landscape architect to fly in from New York, and he did some initial design work on the park, which Myron paid for out of his own pocket."
Cruz Bay Park is popular with taxi drivers and other locals taking time to relax or catch up on conversations while waiting for a boat, and for those just off the ferry needing a ride to work or home. It's a favorite venue for food sales, arts and crafts fairs and the occasional concert. The stonework gazebo that is the park's centerpiece was created in the mid-1990s through earlier public-private partnerships.
The goal of the revitalization committee is to help make the park popular by day and night, more easily accessible to the handicapped, and more comfortable for folks to sit and enjoy concerts and other public events held there.
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