I am taking this matter to the media since I’ve had no meaningful response from the authorities whom I thought were responsible.

Which ministry, department or agency is responsible for prioritising road works and getting them done in the Virgin Islands? There has been a deep rugged gulley at the bottom of Jennings Hill on the Ridge Road for many years.

I have been making formal and informal complaints to representatives of the Eighth District for at least 15 years. The last response I received was that the matter “is up to the minister of works; I can’t do anything.”

On Dec. 6, 2021, I wrote to the minister of transportation, works and utilities — who is now the minister of communications and works — and copied it to the district representative, bringing attention to the fact that the crown of the same road — Jennings Hill — is being undermined by “foundation- cutting” beneath it. I do not recall that I received a response, but about a week later, I saw two yellow cones on the weakened area!

 

Bridge collapse

I noted that it took the collapse of the ParhamTown/Red Bay Bridge on the Blackburne Road to initiate some action there.

Will it take a car or two to go over the brink at Jennings Hill? Will it take serious internal injuries to drivers and passengers when the vehicle descends into that “gulley from hell” that is at the bottom of the hill?

Not to mention the extent of damage to the many vehicles that constantly traverse the hill? And we will not even mention the sewerage problem that has plagued the East End/Long Look community for more than two decades.

 

District neglect?

I often wonder why the Eighth District gets treated in that negligent fashion. Is it because the inhabitants there seem to be the easy-going, uncomplaining, will-take-it, don’t-want-to-upset-the-status-quo, don’t-want-to-offend-the-cousin’s-family sort of inhabitants?

Let me remind everyone that there are people living in the Eighth District: human beings who are citizens of the VI.

We are human beings like the rest of the VI inhabitants! And we deserve better than has been meted out to us over the years.

I implore the communications and works minister, or whoever is responsible, to initiate the appropriate action on that section of the Ridge Road called Jennings Hill before a disaster happens.