On June 7, The BVI Beacon turned 40. To celebrate, it is re-publishing some of the biggest stories from its archives over the past four decades. Written by Rick Bruner, the article below originally ran June 25, 1987.
The popular tourist attraction, The Baths, on Virgin Gorda is likely to become a national park today as the Legislative Council votes to compulsorily acquire it.
Its private owner has refused to sell for more than 10 years, waiting for government to make what he considers an acceptable offer.
The southern Virgin Gorda beach, still largely undeveloped and noted for the many enormous granite boulders scattered on its shore, attracts visitors annually by the thousands.
Although government has long wanted to administer the approximately 12-acre property as a national park, like its neighbours Spring Bay and Devils Bay, the Baths’ owner Eric O’Neal, M.D., has never heard the right price.
Now, apparently tired of the negotiations, which sources say have lasted from 10 to 15 years, this government administration has decided arbitrarily to take the property under the acquisition law. Dr. O’Neal, contacted by The BVI Beacon at his St. Thomas residence, was not pleased with the new situation. The 80-year-old retired general practitioner said, “I feel they just want to take it away. … I’m willing to give them a good hard fight.”
Dr. O’Neal said he was not contacted in any way about government’s plans to acquire the land in LEGCO. He said, “This is very unfair to us because we’ve been very cooperative.”
Neither Omar Hodge, Minister of Natural Resources, who is presenting the motion today, nor anyone from his ministry was available for comment by press time about the acquisition.
Government will be required to pay for the land, but the amount will have to be determined, at a fair market value, in the High Court at a later date with both parties represented. In the meantime, however, government may begin occupying the land as its own as soon as it publicly announces the compulsory acquisition.
One source said in the early 1980s, government gave Dr. O’Neal a down payment for the land of $110,000 (that figure could not be confirmed by press time). Dr. O’Neal would not identify the amount he received, though he called it “a pittance compared to what it is worth.”
According to the 1987 budget estimates, more than $1 million is earmarked for the purchase of the Baths, plus another piece of property.
The last major case in which government compulsorily acquired land, government paid more than a quarter million dollars to members of the Penn family in East End for 11 acres of land to extend the Beef Island Airport.
Said Ralph O’Neal, representative of Virgin Gorda, “I have always favoured [the Baths] being turned into a national park. It is a thing of natural beauty and uniqueness, and this is the only way it can be preserved.”
The negotiations have lasted “too long,” he added.
The legislator said he felt most people of Virgin Gorda favour government’s acquisition of the land. He also noted that he is a cousin of the present landowner.
J.R. O’Neal, chairperson of the National Parks Trust and another cousin of Dr. O’Neal, declined to comment on the matter, saying his family relationship puts him in an awkward position.
Director of the Trust Nicholas Clarke said once government acquired the Baths, improvements to the area would be an immediate priority, including providing toilets and more garbage facilities, and making the 200-yard trail from the road easier to walk.