Well, the rotary luncheon at which he spoke was boring. He spoke for around 10 minutes and said the same things he’s said over and over again, and the people asked the same questions we’ve heard before, but for only about 15 minutes, rather than the hours and hours we’ve experienced at public hearings and such.

I didn’t notice how bedraggled he looked, but someone else commented on it, and come to think of it he had more of a weary-weasel look than his usual wary-weasel look. It might be because he was served with papers from an attorney announcing that he was being sued by a farmer who has been using the property he wants to build on, for more than 20 years, and therefore owns it by “adverse possession”.

Another legal hurdle in addition to the umpteen he already needs to overcome in his uphill battle to rape and deface part of the south shore of St. Croix! And he still had the nerve to say he will begin construction within 60 days. Last time he said, “….in the spring…”. It will be summer next week.

I was only able to make the luncheon part, so Michael would attend the afternoon session without me. This was another “tour of the property” which was purportedly, open to “all Rotarians, guests and the media”, as we see in the press release in my previous post.

However, when the time arrived for the tour, Golden and his buddies prevented Michael from climbing into the nearly empty safari van! Again!!

We had spoken to our friend, who will soon become president of the Harborside Rotary, the previous evening and asked him if we needed to have sponsorship from a Rotarian to go on the tour. He said that it shouldn’t be necessary, but we could use his name and say that we were his guests if need be. Well, we needed to, and Michael said he was a guest of our friend, but it meant nothing to Golden, who told Michael that he (should I capitalize that, too?) could choose whom he would let onto the bus since he was paying for it.

It’s his party and he doesn’t want us coming to it! Shucks!!

Michael did, however, get to ask a few questions in the parking lot, which Paul and Co. danced around. Too bad the newspapers weren’t there again. They were at the luncheon, and probably bored by the same old same old.

Oh well, the letters to the editors will be written and sent today. Let’s see who prints what.

I’m calling it discrimination. If everyone’s invited except Michael, and that wasn’t previously explained, I believe that is clearly discrimination.

He will speak before the rotary clubs of St. Croix on Thursday, June 12 at noon at Gertrude’s.

Then…..he will give tours of the property to the public. People wanting to go and ask the tough questions should contact us or SEA. We have copies of the questionnaire we distributed to the media last time he gave a tour to them, that no one paid attention to.

We just took our walk out there this morning, and with the heat, the pond is smelling particularly rank. And the cows are still to the west, so he can try again to blame it on “manure”, but they are far away from the pond and the smell increases as we get farther from them and closer to the pond.

Sounds like it’ll be a blast! Here’s the press release:

Guest Speaker: Paul Golden, Developer and Economic Development on St. Croix and what is new!

When: Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 12:00 noon
Where: Gertrude’s Restaurant, Hess Road

Paul Golden, developer of the luxury 400-room Wyndham® St. Croix Golf Resort and Casino, will be the guest speaker at the Thursday, June 12, 2008 Rotary luncheon at Gertrude’s Restaurant beginning 12:00 noon.

Mr. Golden will present an overview of the planned development at the luncheon. He also invites all Rotarian, guests and the media to join him later in the day for a tour of the proposed building site. The tour, which will be led by Mr. Golden, will begin at 5 p.m. Those interested in taking the tour should meet at the market across from the property on South Shore Road at 4:30.

The planned resort will be the keystone of a $250 million complex that includes a new 43,000-square foot conference center on the South Shore of St. Croix. It will feature a 25,000 square-foot casino, 18-hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, 17,000 square-foot world-class spa and fitness center, four restaurants; lounges, retail stores, and kid’s club. All Rotarians from the various Rotary Clubs, guests and the media are invited to attend.

Open to the public. All Rotarians, guests and the media are welcome.

Lunch available at a cost of $15.00. For additional information and reservations – Please Contact Jim Oliver 777-7700/277-1126 or Liz Goggins 712-5003/771-4420.

We’d gone to bed pretty early Saturday night, considering the activities we’d participated in (all that caffeine and sugar…), so were up before 8 on Sunday morning. The question was: Since we got a lot of stuff done on Saturday, what would we do for fun today?

We walked/ran the road down to the Great Pond, which we do as often as possible now that we know Paul Golden is hoping to break ground on his “resort” in March. We need to work-out, so this trip kills two birds (but not Yellow Birds…) with one stone. We’ll be the ones to blow the whistle on that illegal project if he tries anything. We go with cell phone and camera so we can call the newspaper, property owner and attorney, and Planning and Natural Resources Department if anything is amiss. Michael took pictures and we talked about kayaking and snorkeling out in Great Pond Bay since it was, once again, really windy and we needed to get out on the water.

We got home after our walk, had breakfast, Michael did a little “rover-tweaking”, we loaded the kayak onto the “Great Pumpkin”, and headed down the road one more time.

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again!

The Great Pond Bay is pretty sheltered by the hills of the surrounding landscape and the large barrier reef to the south. It’s nice and shallow and the most incredibly clear turquoise blue (no Wreg, not tidy bowl blue!) with scattered patch reef and sea grass covered areas between the white sand bottom. We pedaled out in the kayak and found a bunch of East End Marine Park mooring buoys that we could tie up to. Great! We chose one in the vicinity of a couple of larger patch reefs and jumped in. It felt great to be in the water again. We went for a swim last week with the local swimming group, but the water at Ha’penny was cloudy, murky and churned up. We couldn’t see the bottom at all. But here….oh, yes, THIS is paradise!

We swam over to the closest reef and it was a little churned up, but we saw tons of juvenile fish. There were french grunts and damsels and a spanish hogfish, blue tang, etc. We swam some more and came to a tiny patch with a lobster beneath it. A few yards away was another small reef with 3 or 4 of them, and then to the east was another bug. There was also the biggest conch I have ever seen, and an octopus! We could have eaten for a week with all the goodies there. Well, Michael could have. I’m not a fan of octopus. We turned around to look toward the kayak and there were three large barracudas and one larger one! Yikes! They were not, however interested in us, so they slowly swam off. We continued exploring and as I came around the west side of a reef,I spotted a small sea turtle. As soon as he saw me he took off like a flash. I swam fast and he swam faster. He just flew! He was small and pretty far away, so I could not tell whether he was a green or a hawksbill. But he was cute!

After close to an hour in the water, I started getting cold, so we went back to the kayak and pedaled to shore. The pumpkin was still there and I got to drive her part of the way home. It felt more familiar driving on the right side of the car this time. Soon I think I’ll be ready to take her for a real spin.

(Also sent to the Source, the Avis and The Daily News)

As a person who fell in love with St. Croix the first time I landed at the Alexander Hamilton Airport in 1987, has lived here, raised my daughter here, worked myriad jobs (menial, professional and managerial), has done countless hours of volunteer work, and continues to try to promote the beauty and uniqueness of our island home, I must speak, yet again, about the potential damage that Paul Golden’s casino, convention center, golf course and “resort” will do to this amazing place.

There are a group of swimmers who get together every Saturday morning to swim from one point to another at various beaches around St. Croix. I have swum with them for over 10 years. One of the swims takes the participants from Robin Bay (east of Mt. Fancy) to the Boy Scout Camp. It can be a fabulous swim. The patch reefs in the Great Pond Bay, as well as the barrier reef, harbor innumerable species of colorful sea life. The waters are fresh and clear, until you get to the beach where Paul Golden wants to build this abomination. The beach may look nice from land, but it is murky and full of smelly seaweed once you get to the spot where this “resort” is proposed. The current takes a lot of yucky stuff to that particular beach.

During certain times of the year, the place smells like septic. The aroma of decaying vegetation in the area as part of the natural processes of a wetland/saltpond, aka swamp is prevalent. My belief is that Paul Golden was sold the proverbial, “Prime swampland in St. Croix that my buddies and I have been holding onto for just someone like you…” And that may be why we see former Senator David Jones’ face at every Golden hearing trying to dissuade naysayers like me, who actually know what the area is like and have had many years of contact with stateside tourists.

My business depends largely on tourism and I know the typical “golf resort/casino tourist” will definitely not enjoy their stay at this resort. But Golden does not want to look like an idiot who’s been sold a bill of goods, which is why he perseveres.

I can only imagine the pampered American tourist holding her nose walking from the beach to the golf course (or more likely being chauffeured in a fancy golf cart) to complain to her husband about the “awful smell of St. Croix” and wanting to go to Aruba or St. Martin.

St. Croix is a breathtakingly unspoiled gem with so much more potential than to be just another overdeveloped Caribbean island who has sold out to some (or a few) scam artist(s).
Let’s take better care of her and not let this happen.

Terry told me before that my posts were too political, so I’ve cut back, but I had to share this.

I just had an enlightening conversation with former senator David Jones. We were at the press conference where Paul Golden finally announced his partnership with Wyndham Worldwide to manage and operate the Wyndham St. Croix Golf Resort and Casino (formerly called Golden Gaming/Golden Resorts, LLC). Oddly, no one from Wyndham bothered to show up, or they kept quiet, they certainly weren’t introduced. How’s that for a resounding endorsement?

Anyway, I was discussing with Mr. Jones the fact that Mr. Golden’s checkered past includes episodes that would prevent him from employment in a casino, let alone running one, according to the Virgin Islands Casino Control Act. “We’re not here to judge anyone”, Mr. Jones said. He went on to say Paul Golden hasn’t murdered or raped anyone, as far as we know, so we should move forward. Right in our community, he told me, we have people who have raped and murdered and they’re flourishing, so why shouldn’t Mr. Golden. He seemed to be saying that, since we haven’t been able to enforce all our laws against more heinous crimes, we shouldn’t bother to enforce lowly laws like the Casino Control Act. It struck me as particularly odd, since our police commissioner was on a radio talk show this morning saying he and the force are committed to enforcing all the laws, from seat belt requirements, window tinting, cell phone use, noise ordinances and traffic rules on up. Yet here was a former senator, who used to be charged with making the laws, saying we should just ignore some of them, since we can’t enforce all of them.

I really wish someone from Wyndham had shown up at the press conference. I’ve heard all of Paul’s answers before, but I had a question for them. I’m wondering, given Mr. Golden’s history, in previous ventures, of ignoring municipal rules and regulations that he’s been unable to have changed to suit his purpose, how much consideration Wyndham has given to their liability should this practice continue on this resort project? I’d also like to know why they jumped the gun on his announcement by a few hours, sending a press release out to Marketwire, but failed to note it on their own Wyndham Worldwide website? (as of 4:00 pm AST 2/27/08)

Note: This editorial comment was also submitted to the St. Croix Source, The St. Croix Avis, and the VI Daily News