ST. CROIX — As of last week, there was $30 million available to build the long-delayed Paul E. Joseph Stadium, Governor Albert Bryan told The Consortium. He said while Governor Kenneth Mapp had sought additional funding to purchase additional land which the administration said would mitigate potential flooding as well as to facilitate a variety of sports at the stadium, Mr. Bryan said his administration would not wait for the additional funding.
“What we’re going to try to do is build it within the scope of the money we have,” the governor said. “We got the money from the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the expansion of the drainage and everything.”
Mr. Mapp had sought the additional funding from USACE, but the former governor — seeking to build a project that played an integral role in his Frederiksted Revitalization Plan — wanted even more money for the project. In August 2017, Mr. Mapp asked the Legislature to authorize and appropriate an additional $9 million to complete what his administration said was phase 2 of the project. The former governor said at the time that the amount previously approved for the project did not include costs of civil engineering requirements to protect persons and property in Frederiksted from flooding. He said that the original authorization — which the administration said in August 2017 was $18.65 million, down from $20 million — was not enough. The additional funding was to include $6 million from a Limetree Bay Terminals fund originally designated for construction of tanks to store bitumen, which the administration said was not needed by the company at the time.
But Governor Bryan, well aware of how the project’s delay buffeted his predecessor, has been keen on making sure that the stadium is built before his term is up.
“The scope of where it was being proposed by the previous administration, we simply don’t have the money,” Mr. Bryan told this publication. “So what we’re doing is we’re doing as much as we can with the money we have, and then we could always add on as money comes in.”
In June, Coastal Systems USVI, which represented the Mapp administration in the development of the stadium, told The Consortium that if all went as planned, work would be completed by early 2021. While this timeline is six years after the project had its first groundbreaking event in December of 2014, Coastal Systems USVI Director of Operations, Tim Dempsey, assured The Consortium back then that the wait would be worth it.
The timeline of events for the stadium has changed so often that it is difficult to keep track. Below are a few announcements made by the Mapp administration since construction was halted early 2015:
March 5, 2015: Mapp tells Chamber of Commerce audience he has big plans for Paul E. Joseph Stadium.
June 6, 2016: The stadium’s stalled progress is discussed at the Legislature.
June 15, 2016: Mapp says stadium project not delayed, but struggles to give timeline.
February 8, 2017: Gustav James says commencement of work on stadium pushed back to March, 2017.
March 20, 2017: Work on stadium has yet to start.
March 23, 2017: Mapp contradicts himself on reason for delay of Paul E. Joseph Stadium construction.
July 6, 2017: Second Paul E. Joseph Stadium groundbreaking event is held in Frederiksted.
July 20, 2017: Mapp approves bill providing for funding for Paul E. Joseph Stadium.
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