Lest there be any doubt, Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Wednesday that vendors still selling at Drake's Seat are there illegally.
District Court Judge Thomas K. Moore on Friday suspended a 1985 preliminary injunction by the court that barred the V.I. government from evicting vendors from Drake's Seat. Moore suggested that the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department has had no legal authority to issue location permits to vendors; that function still belongs to the Police Department.
In order for vendors to acquire a valid business permit, they must first have a valid location permit, according to Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik.
Rutnik said Friday that spaces at Vendors Plaza downtown would be ready Saturday for those who had been selling at Drake's Seat. He said he hoped that, after conferring with their attorneys, the vendors would not try to set up at the overlook.
But some vendors have defied the government, selling T-shirts and other items at the overlook every day this week.
Stridiron said at a Wednesday press conference that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has been trying to find another spot for the vendors, including a house next to the Valdemar Hill Overlook on Skyline Drive. Vendors have rejected proposed sites at the Long Bay landfill and at Vendors Plaza.