Source readers Sven and Luz Moore wrote in to ask the V.I. Answer Desk when the abandoned and junked boats in Krum Bay will be cleaned up.
Austin Callwood, director of enforcement for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, said this week that DPNR is planning to remove them soon and will subsequently be applying for a grant that would allow for the removal of sunken, derelict and abandoned boats throughout the territory.
The process of removing the boats begins with the department searching for the owners.
"Our first attempt is to find the owners and notify them that the vessel is a problem," Callwood said. "Then we put a 30-day notice in the papers saying that we’re going to declare the boat abandoned."
If the boat is not claimed after 30 days and DPNR decides to salvage it, the owners are given seven final days to claim it before it goes up for auction or is destroyed, he said.
