Dear Source:
While I was surprised to read about the transfer of the St. John Postal employees, it is not unusual for a large government agency or business to make this type of change. Following are two examples. When I was employed by a state-wide university system, with employees in each county in the state, I knew one woman, less than five years from retirement, who was transferred to another part of the state. Her husband owned a business in her home county, and her children were in high school there. Her family was not free to just pick up and move. This employee, nor her family, could afford to give up a good paying job, with excellent benefits, so she went to work in the new location, and went home each week-end, etc. In the second example, an employee of a government agency, whose children were grown, owned a home in a location, where his wife also worked. They were settled, with their children ready for college. He, too, was transferred to another part of the state. They bought a new home there, and re-located. Were these employees inconvenienced? A thousand times, yes! Did they value the job security, salary increases, vacation time, sick leave, and retirement packages they had worked hard for all those years, yes! They chose not to give those things up, even though in one case the individual could have retired early, with a reduced retirement package.
Another thing I want to mention here, which is definitely not specific to USPS workers, is the fact that USVI government employees on both St. Thomas and St. John are seemingly sanctioned to use regular work hours for personal travel /transportation time between islands, if they reside on one island and work on another. Before living in the islands, I had never heard of being allowed to use time during regular work hours as travel time to or from a regularly assigned work site by public employees; especially when it means a government office or specific government service will not be available to citizens during all required, regular hours of operation of a government agency. If an employee lives on the east end on St. Thomas and works in town, the travel time is usually about the same. Do they have the same option? I am the first to say that I have no idea about how this came about or why.
When Bellevue Housing was being constructed on St. John, and they are indeed, lovely single family homes, I read that teachers and police officers would be given first consideration to move in to the brand new community. While there are income limits, USVI Police officers just starting out (unfortunately!) do not have to worry about being paid too much to qualify to live there. Not only that, but after a certain number of years as a renter, the homes can be purchased by residents, with desirable financing available. Yet, each day a significant number of the St. John police force comes from St. Thomas on the ferry and leaves on the ferry each day. There are real advantages for a police officer to live in the same community where he or she works.
I hope I have not offended any one by sharing these observations.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Susan Mann
St. John
Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
