Sept. 3, 2004 The Planning and Natural Resources Department rescheduled its planned Aug. 31 meeting with Coral Harbor boaters for Sept. 20. It begins at 6 p.m. at Emmaus Moravian Church fellowship hall.
The meeting was postponed because Hurricane Frances threatened the area.
Lucia Francis, enforcement director, said Friday that representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard have confirmed they will attend the meeting. She is waiting to hear from the V.I. National Park Service. She said she anticipates they will attend because they were scheduled to do so on the original date.
Francis expects the touchy issue of Johnson Bay to come up.
Johnson Bay boaters and Planning are in a tussle over the department's mandate that boaters relocate to other harbors. The inner section of Coral Harbor is the obvious choice, but boaters claim that area is overcrowded already and can't absorb more boaters.
The Johnson Bay boaters have formed an organization, the Coral Bay Association for Marine Planning, to question the legality of Planning's decision to move them out.
Several of Association's members hold mooring permits for Johnson Bay issued by Planning. Francis said at a March public meeting with boaters that the staff was wrong in issuing those permits.
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