There is about $6 million in the government's St. John Capital Improvement Fund, according to Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd, and he wants to see $700,000 of it allocated for the operation of Vitran services on the island.
In a letter Thursday to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, Liburd called on the chief executive to reprogram the funds. The lack of reliable public transit service territorywide has "created additional hardships for residents," the St. John senator said, according to a release from his office.
When public transit was instituted on the island three years ago, Liburd said, "The people of St. John breathed a collective sigh of relief, because they now had a tangible example of how their tax dollars were being spent. However, the current state of affairs has left many residents stranded or underserved."
Before the Public Works Department laid off half the Vitran work force territorywide on May 11, there were four Vitran buses designated for service on St. John. Since the cuts, two have been scheduled to operate, but only one, or none, has been on the road some days, because drivers and/or mechanics have been unavailable.
All St. John drivers lost their jobs because they were at the bottom of the heap in union job security, and St. Thomas drivers were assigned to take their places. Those assigned to the morning shift must spend the preceding night on St. John in order to report for work, as the first buses are scheduled to roll at 5 a.m. In instances where St. Thomas drivers have not reported for duty, some laid-off St. John drivers have been called back into service temporarily. With no mechanic on St. John now, stranded buses have had to wait for personnel on St. Thomas to be sent over to make repairs.
Liburd wants the administration to allocate $400,000 for payroll and benefits, $90,000 for fuel, $110,000 for bus parts and tires, and $60,000 for building maintenance, office supplies and miscelaneous expenses. It was not clear what the remaining $40,000 would be for.
The release from Liburd's office said that he urged Turnbull to utilize the 30-day extension granted for submitting the administration's fiscal year 2001 budget "to discuss the proposal with his cabinet members for implementation." If that doesn't happen, Liburd said, he plans to seek his colleagues' support for reprograming the funds during the coming budget deliberations.
