Last week we announced our St. Thomas Blog Certified award program (you can read about it here). Basically we are staking our reputation on recommending OUTSTANDING businesses with extremely tough criteria.

We are pleased to announce our first winner….

Messages, Mail and More in Crown Bay (next to the AT & T store)

Here’s why Messages, Mail and More is outstanding:

1. I’ve been using them for over 4 years and have never once had a problem.

2. Every employee is extremely friendly, courteous and caring.

3. I receive an email from them when letters or packages come in eliminating me wasting my time just driving down to Crown Bay only to find out I don’t have mail.

4. Absolutely no lines or long waits.

5. They know everyone by name and mail box number (c’mon man, that’s unreal)

6. Owner Natalie M. Knight is utterly fantastic. She is one that actually cares about her customers and works diligently to make them happy.

7. They’ve never lost a package, ever.

8. Their customer service from the employee’s has always been stellar.

9. They treat every customer like they know them personally. They seem to value building long term relationships.

10. They’ve never made a mistake with my account. Ever.

Okay, so locals know the pain of going to the US Post Office here in St. Thomas. We stand in long lines, watch employees shuffle like old people using walkers with mean angry faces. We wait, and wait and wait only for the USPS worker to come back with that yellow ticket telling us they can’t find our package. And then to add salt to the wounds they’re extremely rude to us on a regular basis. After my first year of living here I ditched them forever and opened up a box with….dare I say it….Rosemary Sauter’s mailhouse. Of course that closed down when Rosemary went on the lamb.

Then someone recommended Messages, Mail and More and it was love at first sight

Anyone that knows me knows I’m pretty tough when it comes to service so if I say Messages, Mail and More is great you can take it to the bank. They were also voted Best Mail Service in the USVI in 2010 by the VI Daily News.

Check out their website here: http://www.mmmvi.com/ or call them at 340-776-4324.

Here is their email service, which is awesome: http://www.mydigitaldoorman.com/MMM. Now I just wait for the email and head down. the email includes whether it’s envelopes or packages so I can decide to wait until I get a package if I like because I know those envelopes are just bills.

Do you want to have awesome service, with no lines? Here are their rates (as of Jan 2012):

$16.67/month when you use their annual special (pay for the entire year upfront)

$18.00/month when paid automatically with credit card

$19.00/month when paid on or before the 1st

$20.00/month when paid on the 2nd or thereafter

Here’s what they think makes them great:

Congratulations to Messages, Mail and More for winning our first ever St. Thomas Certified Award.

Messages, Mail and More is not an advertiser on the St. Thomas Blog

We have some talent coming in from NYC (go Patriots!) tonight that is NOT to be missed.

Her name is Bree Sharp (I met her yesterday and she’s a little hottie), check her out:

Check out her website: http://www.breesharp.com/breesharp.html

Okay get to the Bight early cause it’s gonna be a packed night. They got too many drink specials to list so drinks will be cheap and strong because they got Kevin behind the bar and the drunker you get the more he makes

Nicci and I will see you there!

And you should go like the new Jack’s Bight Facebook page!

Here’s the Bight’s new logo, it rocks.

When I say ‘WAPA’ you say ‘AAAHHHH!’ ‘Cuz we pay ridiculous rates for our power. Solar is a popular retort – everyone would love to go off the grid. We have some solar on our roof (which, unfortunately, is not nice and flat, otherwise we’d have more).

But here’s the thing about going solar – it ain’t cheap. Here’s a breakdown.

(Solar Jeff installing panels on my roof)

My hypothetical situation is based on 12, 240 watt panels producing approximately 325 kWh’s – 425 kWh’s per  month. Check your WAPA bill to see how many kWh’s you use per month. I average 1450 kWh’s/month which would mean I will still be on the hook to WAPA for roughly 1025 kWh’s per month at .45 kWh or $461/month.

I am not a solar expert but know just enough to be dangerous and explain why people just don’t go solar. Here’s why the average Joe doesn’t go solar.

1. It’s expensive. A  3 kW system, using 12 – 240 watt panels (produces roughly 325 kWh – 425 kWh/month, more on this below in the graph) is going to run you between $15,000-$22,000 depending on who you buy it from. Then you’ll need to hire an electrician to put you on the WAPA Net Metering program which is going to run you around $2000 with permits. Let’s make our average cost $18000 for the panels and install and add $2000 for the electric for a total of $20,000. That needs to be paid UPFRONT. So what if you don’t have 20k laying around…can you get a loan for this? Maybe, but getting loans these days ain’t so easy and then you’ll need to add in the total cost of principal and interest to calculate your payback period. You will however receive a 30% tax credit lowering your final investment to $14,000 (again ONLY if you can pay for everything upfront). The final payback excluding loans on this system is roughly 6 years and that’s only if you are maximizing every panel, which you won’t be so I would add at least a year or two.

2. South Facing Roof Space: You’ll need at least 250-350 square feet of south facing roof space for 12 panels. Otherwise you’ll have to position some panels on the south east or south west side but those panels will not produce at the same capacity as the pure south facing panels. And then they have to be tilted correctly to get the most sun as well. All of this adds up to panels hardly every producing the watts they say they can.

3. Solar Water Heaters: I have one. I was lucky enough to get it through the government program but that’s gone now. An 80 gallon tank is going to run you roughly $4000-$5000 saving you roughly 15%-20% off your WAPA bill. If you use 700 kWh’s/month you’re looking at approximately $47-$63 month. If we use $4500 as an average cost (that needs to be paid UPFRONT) and take our 30% tax credit you’re looking at a cost of $3150 or 5  years payback. But of course you’ll need approximately another 100 square feet of south facing roof space.

Here’s a great website that will help you calculate how much real cost savings you’ll actually get using solar: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/version1/US/Puerto_Rico/San_Juan.html.

This is the best estimate of what I’ll save using 12, 240 watt panels:

So if we go back to our original $14,000 after tax credit the payback on this will roughly be 7.5 years.

As you can see payback periods here in the USVI aren’t bad at all because we pay approximately .45 kWh but in the states the average cost is .10 kWh which would mean you’d have to multiply out the payback periods above by 4.5 times. 34 years to get payback on a $14,000 investment ain’t so great.

Now I’m not talking about the environment here at all. I’m just talking about costs and paybacks.

And this is only if you own your own home. If you’re renting then it’s up to the owner to make these financial decisions and to be frank they probably don’t have an extra $20,000 either. And the tenant is most likely paying for their own power anyway.

So yes, if you can afford solar in the USVI and have enough roof space it’s a FANTASTIC investment.

Have you gone solar? What was your experience like?

P.s. I’ve had great success with Solar Jeff out of St. John. He’s been doing solar for a hundred years now and will really tell you the truth about costs, paybacks and if it’s worth it or not. Check out his website here: http://www.solarstjohn.com/. 

I wrote the following on January 7, 2009 under the title What Else Can Go Wrong. 

Today we’ll take a break from our beach & rum talk and instead show you a list of t’ings that have gone awry in our house during the past year or so. A list that other island home-owners will definitely sympathize with.

- Upper deck is leaky. Not too horrible until you realize it’s leaking into the Tiki Bar. Easy to live with when it only leaks in one area and, let’s face it, it’s only water…

- Screen door falls off track. We bang it back in and move on with our lives.

- Clothes are getting caught in the dryer on the edge and coming out with black marks (last Spring). Fixed! Only lost a few items of clothes.

- Deck paint is peeling away. Hm. What to do, when if we have it painted it will only peel away again once someone slides the deck furniture around? At this point we’re living with it, and touching it up as we go.

- Dryer again (Nov.)! It’s warming up (yay!) but not turning (boo). Fixed!

- Screen door falls off track. We bang it back in and move on with our lives.

- Ice maker not making ice (two years ago). Not good when you consider that’s the ONE JOB IT HAS. Fixed after multiple, frustrating trips from ice-maker-fixer-guy.

- Washing machine croaks. Maybe. Just happened yesterday, it’s not turning – or something. Dude coming today. He rocks. Cross your fingers.

- Hammock falls to the deck (two years ago. Yes, there were people on it (New Yorkers. Of course.) but it was a matter of time as the Stands Up To Any Kind Of Weather hammock material pretty much disintegrated during year one. Oh, and the metal hooks rusted away. Bummer.

- Tiki bar flatscreen TV dead like the roach I saw on the ground yesterday. No lights, no clicks, no love. Nothing. Happened in Nov. Very depressing. TV replaced with a killer surge protector. We think the huge rains of Omar (and other storms) snuck in and took it out. Sneaky rain.

- Screen door falls off track. We bang it back in and move on with our lives.

- Bedroom flatscreen TV dead like the roach I saw on the ground yesterday. Happened within a week of finding out that bar TV was dead. REALLY???? TV replaced *sigh* with a killer surge protector*. The guy at Electronics Unlimited loves us. We never want to see him again 

*note…everything in this house is now protected with killer surge protectors. Down to my electric toothbrush (okay – that’s a lie, like I would use an electric toothbrush with WAPA’s staggering electric rates…)

- POOF! Main TV downstairs goes down with a crack and ‘white smoke seen outside!’ (from a witness). Happened yesterday. I struggle to hold Scott back from jumping over the deck. We try to figure out what happened and start unplugging/replugging things in. Drag a plug over from another socket and the minute we plug it in BZZ! everything on that socket goes down. ‘Everything’ includes a computer, hard drive, fax machine…you get the drift. Scott wanders back to the deck’s edge, but only because that’s the only place we get cellphone reception. Calls a buddy who brings over master electrician Kelly, they come over and figure out that the socket outside took in too much water (over three years) and fizzed out. Socket fixed, nothing lost. WOO!

- Ice maker empty (two weeks ago). Again, I hate to remind it, but making ice is pretty much it’s job. We turn it off. Turned it on again yesterday, today it’s about half full. Promising! Maybe it’s just tired.

- Screen door falls off track. We bang it back in and move on with our lives.

- Closet door falls off track. We applaud the universe for it’s creativity, force it all the way left and leave it there. We’ll fix it ‘later’.

- Bathroom shelf breaks (this week). We fix it. We rock.

- Whole house surge protector installed (this week)

- New water holding tank installed (this week)

- Scott’s now poor!

- Screen door falls off track. We bang it back in and move on with our lives.

*************************************************************************************

The following list contains items that were damaged during March of the past two years. March, coincidentally, also happens to be the time of the year when my family visits.

- Dish is cracked during washing.

- End of curtain rod falls off and lands on glass-topped bedroom side table. Yes, the glass breaks. Someone (cough-dad-cough) begs mom to cover it up and pretend ‘it was like that when we got here’.

- Screen door comes off track. In the screen door’s defense someone (cough-dad-cough) tried to walk through it.

- (I’m leaving this blank as A) there might be something we haven’t found yet and B) they are coming back this year…)

**************************************************************************************

Ouch.

- But let’s see…in the three years since that post we’ve replaced the outside TV at least four more times, the last time as recently as two weeks ago. Yes, it’s an outside tv. Yes, we get a lot of salt spray from the ocean. Yes, we realize that is most likely the problem. No, we’re not building a glass/plastic case for it. Walmart dot com has great prices on TV’s, and the shipping is actually very reasonable (they don’t ship bigger than 32 inch sets). Boom.

- TV in the spare bedroom had a funky picture, and not in the good way. Replaced. Walmart. Boom (again).

- Big screen TV in our great room was replaced last year as well. Some of the TV issues I can attribute to weather…but at this point it’s comical how many televisions we’ve replaced for our little place of paradise living. It should be noted that we pledge no alliance to one manufacturer over another. We just cross our fingers that if a TV is going to croak it does so during a good time of year. Thanksgiving week is a good time for TV death…the deals on Black Friday are pretty spectacular.

- Washer/dryer replaced with high efficiency models. We got a rebate back from the now-dead energy program. Sweetness…both the kick-ass cleaning machines and the rebate.

- Closet door has fallen off it’s track too many times to count. I’ve channeled my tool time and unscrewed the doors to reset them a handful of times. Sort of worked. So does opening/shutting them softly as if they were crafted from eggshells.

- Screen door screens replaced on three panels. One panel was the one my father tried to walk through. He’s more careful now.

- Deck paint still with blemishes as this story goes to press. Yes, there are many solutions for this…some permanent, some temporary. Blasting year-round sun, salt-spray and scrape-y furniture are not best friends of an outdoor deck. Stay tuned.

- Outside bistro table and bar chairs that were showing signs of weathering have been brought back to life with some TLC. If TLC were bottled I would totally buy some serious inventory of it. You can not have enough TLC in your life. I have room in the hallway closet to store some TLC. Of course I’d probably have it shipped in from Walmart as the price for TLC once it’s imported to an island would be quite pricey.

- I broke a wine glass two nights ago. It had nothing to do with salt spray. I’m just clumsy.

- The beautiful brown, glossy teak deck furniture we shipped down almost six years ago has now weathered to a smooth light grey. In the beginning we did oil it knowing that it needed oil as bad as WAPA needs a new plan. However we soon abandoned the oiling as it was messy, took too long, and was a battle we were quickly losing. So we just let left it be. The good news about teak is that it is amazingly durable and will last forever. (WAPA? Not so much)

- Cistern pump started to wheeze and whimper last year. We MacGyver’d it until it was clear it’s time was done. It’s been replaced.

The good news is the screen doors are behaving and staying in their tracks. The ice maker continues to make ice. The surge protectors continue to protect against surges. We have a new hammock outside that is still securely fastened.

I’ll revisit this post in another three years. Or after we replace another three tvs. Whichever comes first.

May the force be with you.

Have you seen the new face of Island Empire? Well, they aren’t just Teak & Mahogany anymore. With over 6000 square feet of immediate gratification it’s a furniture and accessory buyers dream! When I stopped by to discuss designing their new website I was shocked at all the great furniture they have.

Major brands instantly available from Bassett, Stanley, Lexington, Tommy Bahama, Lee, Rowe, Palm Springs Rattan and many others. It’s the only place on St Thomas that you will find Palm Springs Rattan, La-Z-Boy and Tempur-Pedic as they are the authorized dealers in the US and British Virgin Islands.

Stop in to try out all of the amazing Tempur-Pedics (I did and they were amazing). Pressure relieving comfort with wonderful support and a 20 year guarantee. So long backaches and restless nights.  They’re dust mite, mold and allergen resistance make Tempur-Pedics a must have for anyone living in the islands.

What won’t you find at Island Empire? Poor quality. Owner Liz Hall says “if I won’t put it in my own home, I won’t sell it to you, for yours”. This is a store that stands behind every product that they sell.

New containers are arriving every week filled with furniture made to withstand this island’s tough climate. Beautiful patio, garden and pool side furnishings in every style and color imaginable. Chairs that swivel, rock and seat you high enough to actually enjoy that view over your railing.  Relax back and enjoy!

Island Empire is one stop shopping for anything that you need to furnish your home or vacation rental property. Check them out soon, they’re located behind the hospital, across from Fortress Storage and are open 7 days a week.

Visit Island Empire’s website here: http://www.islandempire.com 

Did you know XO Bistro has a Prime Rib special every Monday and Thursday?

For just $25 you get an awesome slab of prime rib, potatoes, veggies and Au Jus sauce. That’s an awesome deal for St. Thomas prices

When a business offers outstanding products or services on a CONSISTENT basis they are awarded our “St. Thomas Blog Certified” seal of approval.

What’s it mean to tourists and locals? It means that they’re great, not good, 99% of the time. It means I put my reputation on it. It means you can read all the fake reviews you want on TripAdvisor and Yelp but you know you’re gonna get the real God’s honest truth from me.

How does a business become St. Thomas Blog Certified? Not by being an advertiser, although I won’t bring on any advertiser that stinks anyway. Sorry, the requirements for being St. Thomas Blog Certified goes deeper than just being consistently good, they have to be consistently great!

What does “consistently” mean (just in case we have those who want me to define “is”). It means I’ve been in to your place of business and the service, product, cleanliness etc. were great. If, for instance, you’re a restaurant and I’ve had to send meals back because they weren’t cooked correctly on several occasions you will not be St. Thomas Blog Certified. If it takes 35 minutes to get a hamburger medium you will not be St. Thomas Blog Certified. If I go on a boat trip with your boat company and the Captain has no personality or does something stupid like have too many cocktails whilst he is captaining you won’t be St. Thomas Blog Certified. You get the drift.

*****Being St. Thomas Blog Certified will be our highest honor*****

Few will receive the St. Thomas Blog Certified seal of approval.

I will start to post articles and award the businesses as they come in. They will be honored with the award and be featured on the St. Thomas Blog in a special category.

Now if for any reason a St. Thomas Blog Certified business suddenly takes a turn for the worse and they become less than stellar we will give them a chance to become great again. If for any reason that does not happen they will be removed from the list.

Each St. Thomas Blog Certified business will be able to use the seal in their place of business as well as on any and all marketing materials they choose.

…under well done.

For a couple of years now I’ve been ordering a burger at Tickles, requesting medium temperature and boom:  they come out well done. Every time.

I’m a familiar face at Tickles because A) Nicci worked there for a stint and B) I’m often in there cause it’s right next to my mail box. So I grab a bite to eat maybe 6 times a month.

I always send food back when it comes out wrong with the exception of a hamburger…usually my hunger takes over and I chow it down.

Not today. Today I was craving a juicy medium burger. I mentioned to the bartender that they always overcook my burgers prior to ordering. I asked her to stress that it come out medium. She did. She’s (Becca) a sweetheart!

The burger came out and was darker than a hockey puck. Becca took one look at it and they agreed to cook me a new one so I sent it back.

Hockey puck #2 came out. So the manager (Debbie) came over and I asked her what she would say the temperature the burger was cooked to. She said ‘well’. I agreed. I asked for burger #3. Debbie walked over and ordered it herself.

Burger #3 came back….drum roll please….medium well to well. Not even close to medium.

Here’s what a medium burger should look like:

I don’t know what it is but I just can’t get a juicy medium burger at Tickles…so I’ll save those cravings for Jack’s or Shipwreck Tavern.

Tickles will remain a constant for me as I do enjoy a number of their menu selections, and their breakfast has always been consistently good.

I would like to add that they did not charge me (I never asked not to pay) for any of the 3 hamburgers. But I would have preferred to pay the first time

I’ve been waiting for Sunset Grille (an advertiser with us) to get a month or so behind them to work out all the little things brand new restaurants need to work out before I did an actual honest review. Last Tuesday night was the night.

Nicci, her mom/dad/aunt/uncle all joined in as restaurant critics for the night.

We arrived at 8:05 and were promptly escorted to our table for 6 over-looking the beach. You really can’t beat the atmosphere Sunset Grille has to offer. Our waitress Sara (pictured below) was quick to the table, very pleasant and nice and got us going on our cocktails (here she is delivering the wine to Nicci’s family – her uncle is very happy to see said wine):

Sara soon reappeared and took our order for soups, appetizers and our main course – all the while answering any questions we had and steering us to different selections based on what we were asking. She knew the menu through and through – signs of a great server.

Bread soon arrived at our table, two flavors, with a delicious vinegar/oil mix and butter.

We were happily surprised when an absolutely delicious “Amuse-Bouche” was presented to us next. The little bite was a sweet potato curry samosa topped with cucumber Greek yogurt Tzatziki:

Scrumptious.

Our carefully timed meal continued with the arrival of our appetizers…I had the Maryland Style Crab Cake ($16) with coconut slaw and rooster sauce (pictured below). I love spicy food and this was by far the spiciest Maryland Crab cake I’ve ever had. But the coconut slaw is a great equalizer to the dish as it compliments the spice. I loved it but be forewarned, it’s spicy.

Uncle Gordon had the crispy Lobster Roll Martini ($15) with cucumber curls and sweet Thai chili sauce, he liked the lightness of the mixture and the shell was very crispy:

And then several others had the shrimp and sausage jambalaya soup ($7) which was utterly fantastic. We were told Chef Charles won an award in New Orleans for his jambalaya – we could tell. Get it if they have it, yummy

Whew, you’d think we’d be stuffed by now but bam, they bring out a melon sangria intermezzo:

A nice cleanse of the pallet for the dinner.

Also a good time to lay out some major compliments to our server, Sara! At one point every person at our table complimented her on her service. And I’m not so easy all the time. She was fantastic but above all she literally never stopped smiling. Next time you go out and get service here in St. Thomas count how many times the server smiles. You may only need one hand.

Okay so back to dinner. Uncle Gordon and Nicci’s mom Margaret both had the local Red Snapper ($35) with lemongrass rice, baby spinach and pineapple sauce. I was surprised at how large the portion size was on this dish:

This was a big hit as both Margaret and Gordon are from England where they eat Fish and Chips daily So they really enjoyed the Red Snapper. Very moist with a crisp skin and cooked to perfection were the exact words they used.

Nicci also enjoyed a fish dish but this was flown in that morning from Italy; a fish called a Mediterranean Branzino ($36). It came with lemon scented gnocchi, artichoke hearts, oven dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and pesto cream. The is supposed to be served whole – tail to head with all the bones, but Sara mentioned the kitchen could fillet it so she went that route. Nicci pretty much chowed the whole dish, nothing left to take home, which is a pretty impressive feat for her.

Nicci’s dad Tony went with the Pork Tenderloin ($29) with sweet potato puree, braised cabbage and whole grain mustard demi. He never shut that Italian pie-hole about how great the sauce was. “Scott, this is the best sauce ever”. Yes Tony, we know you liked the sauce

Aunt Irene ordered the Butter Poached Caribbean Lobster Tail with pumpkin truffle risotto and champagne nage ($45). She loved it but she has a small appetite. If I had ordered this I may have felt it was on the smaller side. You’ll have to decide on this one but she was very happy and it tasted superb.

On the recommendation of Sara  I went with the Flat Iron Steak. For the record I never order flat iron. If I’m getting steak it’s usually a filet. But Sara said the choco bacon sauce was to die for so I said bring it on.

The choco bacon sauce WAS to die for. It was something I’ve really never tasted before. It came with smashed new potatoes and melted leeks. I asked my steak be cooked to medium and as you can see it was a perfect medium.

We were all leaning back in our chairs once our dinner plates were cleared – to say we were full would be an understatement…but somehow dessert menus found their way into our hands and we continued on like eating champs.

They made us a special desert from pastry chef Trish which was an Espresso Bread Pudding…Kahlua soaked topped with caramel creme anglaise and bourbon chocolate. The bread was light with a silky chocolate sauce.

Nicci and her mom loved, loved, loved the daily cheese selection which included Nancy Hudson’s Valley Camembert, Purple Moon Cabernet soaked cheddar and Tomme de Savoie.

I had the Chocolate Decadence ($10), molten chocolate cake topped with vanilla bean ice cream. Good and to be honest I was so stuffed it was hard to eat, but I managed.

Entire meal with a bottle of wine, three cocktails, soups, appetizers and main course came to $375 plus gratuity for 6 of us. More than fair at this level of restaurant on the beach.

My total take on Sunset Grille St. Thomas, it’s a top 5 restaurant with stunning ocean views, waves splashing below your feet and the occasional cruise ship passing in the distance…

This is a new top restaurant in St. Thomas and we give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to Server Sara, Chef Charles, pastry Chef Trish, Manager Andrea and all the staff at Sunset Grille for making our meal and evening fantastic!

Hey Crew!

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Jack’s Bight at Point Pleasant Resort will be opening this THURSDAY EVENING AT 6PM!

We are kicking it off with the return of Tripp’n Thursday featuring live entertainment with Sex Machine Gun.

Come by car, dinghy, safari or on foot. Parking available at the entrance of the resort and inside the resort at designated parking spaces. If you’re coming by foot or safari we will have a shuttle at the security gate to bring you to Jack’s. And if you’re coming by dinghy, you can tie up to the other dinghies in the wahtah.

Here are some photos of the new place:

We shall all wait and pray that our government can buy fuel at somewhere near the costs we were obtaining from Hovensa. If however our costs increase it will most certainly increase our costs at the pump and more importantly our already astronomical LEAC charge will be raised…again. Consumers are already paying almost .45 a Kilowatt Hour now.

Now we wait and rely on our government, God help us.

And nothing, no clues, no police working on it, no nothing, as usual.

Here was Tim having fun at work at the Big Kahuna Restaurant/Bar

Rest in peace Tim, God bless.

Comment in if you knew Tim and let everyone know what made him special.

UPDATE: Gov. John de Jongh described the loss of the territory’s largest private employer as “a complete body blow” for the U.S. territory of about 108,000 people.

He said Hovensa generated a minimum of $60 million a year in revenue for the government, which recently laid of hundreds of public workers due to a budget crisis.

“Given what we’re going through right now, this is the last bit of news that I wanted to hear,” he said in a teleconference with reporters.

Hovensa announced early Wednesday morning  that it will immediately commence shutdown of its refinery on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Following the shutdown, the complex will operate as an oil storage terminal.

“We deeply regret the closure of the Hovensa refinery and the impact on our dedicated people,” Hovensa President Brian Lever said in the statement. “We explored all available options to avoid this outcome, but severe financial losses left us with no other choice. We will provide significantly enhanced benefits for those union and salaried employees who are impacted and will work closely with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands to ease the transition for the rest of the community.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Holy crap! That will result in the layoffs of many Crucians to begin with. Also many villas are rented and paid for by Hovensa. All these families will be leaving island unless they can find work elsewhere, in this economy. You’re talking about killing the local economy of St. Croix potentially. Then it could impact the remainder of the USVI by losing millions upon millions in tax revenues by Hovensa. We’re already broke.

And what if anything will that do to the price of gas and our WAPA Leac charges? If we don’t get our fuel from Hovensa where will we get it from? Gas prices could go up dramatically? Which would mean LEAC could go up dramatically? And WAPA’s credit rating was just downgraded again which could mean higher costs for fuel and payment upfront?

Anyone know how this closing could or will impact us? If so please comment in.