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Annual Water Island Music Festival

Posted January 27, 2012    Check out the new site for the Music Festival!

Come On Out and Celebrate Mary Coe!

There is a Sign-Up sheet at the ferry dock to indicate that you will attend and what you are bringing. OR, you can submit that information below!

Contact Mercy Blosser at 340-690-5591 for any additional information needed.

From the 2012 Annual WICA Meeting

Posted January 21, 2012     The following letter was read by Tom McCoy for consideration by the Members of the Water Island Civic Association. More news to follow.....

Water Island Recycling Source Separation Pilot Program - Proposed

The VI Recycling Partnership (VIRP) is interested in working with the residents of Water Island, through the Water Island Civic Association, to begin a pilot source separation program for recycling throughout Water Island. The VIRP views Water Island as an excellent well-defined area and community for demonstrating source separation practices.

The proposed pilot source separation program would be carried out in tandem and cooperation with the University of Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus, where recycling and composting operational activities would be carried out in a suitable location. Discussions with UVI are still underway, to explore those details and logistics.

We learned just yesterday of a Mini-Grants Program (sponsored by the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, or CFVI) through which a small amount of funding (up to $1000 per applicant) could be applied for to purchase bins of a suitable type for Water Island residences. UVI would apply separately for a grant to purchase bins of a suitable type for those facilities. UVI staff we’re coordinating with have an established working relationship with Rubbermaid, so they would get quotes and help with negotiating pricing with Rubbermaid for purchase of both the residential bins for Water Island and commercial bins for UVI.

The proposed pilot program would, to the maximum extent possible, function around existing schedules and logistics (Water Island roll-off bin transport to / from St. Thomas). The only functional difference would be that three bins, including one closed bin for organics, would be distributed to Water Island residents. Public education / information would be prepared by the VIRP project coordinators (Mark Lichtenstein and Susan Parten, P.E.) for distribution to the community.

Functionally, this is no different than what is occurring with recycling program in communities throughout the U.S. Ms. Parten and Mr. Lichtenstein will coordinate with WICA members and key members within the community (those managing significant numbers of rental properties and those involved with logistics of waste handling and transport activities) to work out the details, including selection of appropriate bin types and sizes, and transport of source-separated materials to their appropriate destination.

The value of a pilot program like this is to flesh out the challenges and problems before expanding these activities to the whole territory. We expect things to come up that we’ll need to relate to, and “tweak” logistics. The VIRP coordinators will be involved throughout in making sure those things are addressed as they come up. Having source separation occurring first, for both Water Island and UVI, will be important for determining quantities and characteristics of materials, to better inform start-up of the demonstration recycling operations proposed for UVI.

The most important thing at this time is to hear back from WICA on the community’s interest in going forward with this, so the application can be made for the grant to purchase the bins prior to that deadline. We’ll assist with preparing the application.

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