Gov. Charles Turnbull has shot down recent rumors in the press that he was preparing to step down because of failing health.
According to a release from his office, Turnbull told his Cabinet members during a meeting on St. Croix Thursday that he has no plans to resign. The statement discounts a recent article in The Avis newspaper about rumors of the governor’s imminent resignation.
"I just want you to know for the record that my health poses no problems to me continuing to fulfill my duties as governor and any talk about me resigning in the near future is without foundation," Turnbull told his Cabinet, according to the Government House release.
The Cabinet meeting on Thursday, the second in the restored St. Croix Government House, focused on the territory’s capital improvement projects. Cabinet members were briefed on problems government departments are having in beginning and finishing already funded projects.
Keith Richards, the governor’s assistant for capital projects, said the lack of trained and experienced capital project coordinators and a shortage of support staff in Public Works, Property and Procurement and the Department of Justice has "hampered a sustained campaign to expand the government’s capital improvement program," said the release.
Turnbull, meanwhile, said a new approach will be adopted because of the role capital projects play in the overall economic recovery strategy of his administration.
"Capital projects means jobs and an aggressive program means the revitalization of the private sector, which is the train that must pull the economic engine," said Turnbull.
