Another deadline has come and gone, and still the vendors at Drake's Seat are out hawking their T-shirts and tourist fare. But a major portion of the parcel of land that has been the source of controversy since March, when its owners first gave vendors their notice, may soon be changing hands.
Bill Jowers, the general manager of Magens Bay Authority, said the Nature Conservancy is trying to find the money to buy a big chunk of the land between Drake's Seat and Magens Bay. The nearly 300-acre parcel is owned by the estate of the late Homer Wheaton, who inherited the land from his uncle, Arthur S. Fairchild.
Fairchild also left 58 acres to what is now the Magens Bay Authority.
Jowers said he is primarily concerned about the 700 feet of beach and the land behind it at the northwestern end of Magens.
"The last time I saw (V.I. Nature Conservancy director) Carol Mayes, we were just tromping around on the land," Jowers said, referring to the bowl of land that overlooks Magens.
"It's the hillside we're concerned about, where sewage and silt could run down into the bay" if the land were to be developed, he said.
Mayes was unavailable for comment. How such a sale would affect the controversy over the vendors at Drake's Seat was unclear, but Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Monday that he and Andrew Rutnik, commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, were trying to set up a meeting with all the parties involved: the Wheaton estate, Government House and vendors' representatives.
The easement the Wheaton estate granted to the government years ago explicitly forbids commercial activity at the lookout. Last week, attorneys for the estate, fed up with government delays, terminated the easement and declared the lookout off-limits to everyone effective Saturday, Sept. 9.
The vendors set up shop anyway. On Monday, with two cruise ships in St. Thomas Harbor, they were there again.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull had granted a series of extensions to the vendors as Rutnik and others scrambled to find another suitable location. Last month, Rutnik suggested that the Mobile Food Vendors Association as well as Drake's Seat and Skyline Drive vendors might be able to move to the Long Bay landfill along the waterfront near Yacht Haven or to the area under the new Skyline Drive lookout. But none of those plans has materialized.
"We're trying to help in any way we can," Rutnik said Monday. "The heirs have notified my department and the governor that they've revoked the easement. At this point, we're in a situation where the owners have reclaimed the property, and the next move is up to them.
"The governor wants vendors to take advantage of some of our offers. We have to meet and put the options on the table, and we will be doing that very soon."
