Dear Source:
Is the Tourism Web site plated with gold? Do they have Bill Gates himself writing the html code for it? If not, then the costs for the Department of Tourism's new Web site are TOTALLY out of line. Please, Ms. Hodge, Acting Tourism Commissioner, break down those numbers for me:
Startup costs, total: $700,000
$200,000 Equipment
Are you buying completely new equipment? Are you buying it for the entire staff? Because unless you are, this is outrageous. Even if you bought a huge server and 3 PCs that's less than $20,000. Where is the rest going?
$140,000 Installation of equipment
At what hourly rate? What type of supercomputer did Tourism felt they needed that needed this level of installation?
$350,000 Web site development
At what hourly rate? How many hours? A possible scenario: If two Web developers charged $100 an hour each,and worked 40 hours per week, they would earn $175,000 EACH in 44 weeks, almost a year. That's FULL TIME work for a year at an annual salary of $175,000 times 2!!!!!
I have a good idea of the costs to develop, set up and maintain a Web site, even a huge one, and those numbers are unreasonable; criminal in fact. Someone is making WAY too much money from this. Worse, it sounds as if the equipment money is for buying all new equipment, which isn't needed. Why buy new equipment which will require upkeep, maintenance and staffing when all of these Web site maintenance tasks are offered by on-island Web hosting companies? The economy of the U.S. Virgin Islands is at a critical point. The government agencies need to hire these private companies wherever possible to feed money into the economy and to alleviate duplication of costs. And $100,000 per year to maintain it? That is also unbelievable. Please, Ms. Hodge, may we see a more detailed breakdown of these numbers? I want to understand.
Linda Robinson Barr
