From P.R., D.C., New York And Back: Mapp To Host Press Conference On Monday (UPDATE)

UPDATE: The Mapp administration issued a new press release on Sunday evening announcing that the date of the press conference had been changed to Tuesday, June 30 instead of the original announcement of Monday, June 29.

ORIGINAL STORY: ST. THOMAS — Governor Kenneth Mapp will host a press conference in Government House here following his whirlwind trip to Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C. and New York,  according to a press release Kimberly Jones, the governor’s communications director issued on Saturday.

According to the release, Mapp will discuss details resulting from his various stops, including meetings with Puerto Rico’s Governor Alejandro García Padilla; Esther P. Kia’aina, assistant secretary for Insular Areas for the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.; the New York Police Department’s commissioner in New York; and the EPA’s regional director also in New York.

Mapp ventured to Washington to lobby lawmakers for the reconstruction of the territory’s roads.

“Rebuilding the Territory’s highway and road infrastructure is key to rebuilding and diversifying our economy” the governor said recently. “It is important to the very fabric of our quality of life and a necessary part of our future as we grow our economy and host more visitors to the territory.”

The chief executive also met with Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett while in Washington, a meeting the congresswoman described as “impromptu.”

“Governor Mapp and I were able to get together today during his visit on Capitol Hill in between my previously scheduled engagements. The Governor came by our office and informed us of his meeting with the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, as well as his endeavor to increase federal highway funding to the territory,” Plaskett said last Tuesday.

The meeting with the NYPD’s commissioner was to start discussions in regards to a VIPD/NYPD collaborative effort. In May, Mapp said he planned on meeting with the commissioner and present a plan with the expectation that “we will be able to send some of our officers into New York City for several months at a time to work and to learn, and have officers from the NYPD come into the Virgin Islands to mentor and to lead.”

The press conference begins at 10:00 a.m. VI Consortium will be present with all the latest details.

Feature Image: Governors Kenneth Mapp and Alejandro García Padilla shake hands during Mapp’s recent trip to Puerto Rico.

Image Credit: Government  House.