After a week of protest, residents of Estate Yellow Cedar, plagued by construction-driven dust, will have their homes cleaned by the V.I. Port Authority.
Residents protested outside Henry E. Rohlsen Airport earlier this week over conditions in their neighborhood, which is adjacent to where Port Authority contractors are working to extend the airport runway. The residents claimed that the Port Authority had violated an agreement that was to have work completed earlier in October.
Residents, said Louisa Williams on Tuesday, are "eating dust for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Williams, president of the Yellow Cedar Action Committee, said residents are preparing to take the Port Authority to court over the matter.
On Wednesday, however, Gordon Finch, Port Authority executive director, informed the agency’s board of directors that the major earthwork for the runway extension was completed on Tuesday.
A Port Authority release on Wednesday said that "as promised . . . the contractor will begin cleaning the roofs, cisterns and spouts of the affected homes in the community. The work will begin on Friday, Oct. 20."
The runway extension project was halted for three months earlier this year because of the dust problem.
As part of the project, the Port Authority is to purchase 31 parcels of land adjacent to the airport, 25 of them with dwellings that house 65 families. The first phase of this effort, to obtain two appraisals for each property, has been completed, Port Authority officials said, and they are now in the process of negotiating with the property owners with the objective of relocating them permanently.
The $18 million project, which will extend the runway to 10,000 feet from the present 7,600, is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2002.
