Countdown
So the bottom half of the Joes Hill road is paved now, right? A Beaconite hopes so, but he has a strong hunch that the work carried out over the past week won’t last long. Tipped off by a friend, the Beaconite paid special attention to the “tack” coating that is applied to the base or sub-base surface of a roadway before asphalt is laid. Typically, the tack coat is meant to be sprayed in an even layer across the road surface. On Joes Hill, a man armed with what resembled a pesticide sprayer appeared to be carrying out this important task. Of course, it doesn’t matter how much glue the pavers use if government’s idea of suitable drainage is funnelling rainwater down the middle of the road. Indeed, it doesn’t take a civil engineer to predict that Joes Hill’s new asphalt job won’t survive the next few heavy rains. But, then, seeing large slabs of asphalt wash away in the area will be nothing new: It has been happening for decades. The Beaconite wonders if officials simply don’t understand water’s power.
Uncharted territory
With United States President Donald Trump threatening to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal Zone and even Canada whether the local inhabitants like it or not, a Beaconite wonders if the neighbouring United States Virgin Islands has been trying a much more subtle approach to possible expansion. USVI Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach was as smooth as Mr. Trump is snarling on Tuesday when he was all carrot and no stick in his praise for the VI. With a deliciously delivered dig at the United Kingdom, he said the VI must to learn to be self-sufficient in order to survive. “The British experience with colonialism has not been one where they send you lots of money,” he said during a press conference. “The kind of relief that we get through something like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, etcetera — they don’t have that. When they have a hurricane, they have to build back their place themselves.” The speech was a far cry from Governor Albert Bryan Jr.’s petulant threat to slap tariffs and transit charges on the VI for daring to raise charter fees for the first time since before the internet caught on. If only all US leaders were as silver-tongued as the light-touch lieutenant.
Many Moke
While a Beaconite was out in Road Town with some friends recently, she saw a group of people pile into a Moke. The sight caught her eye because the number of passengers was noticeably greater than the number of seats the vehicle had to offer. As she watched two men perch on the back next to the spare tyre, she shook her head and hoped that the group was planning only a short ride. With one hand, each man held onto the car’s frame; with the other, each grasped a drink. It was all smiles among the group, but the reporter would be curious to know how long the smiles lasted after the Moke hit its first bump on the road. As every Virgin Islands resident surely knows, it is practically impossible to avoid every pothole on Tortola. For this reason, it is all the more important for drivers to be safe. And the rules of the road include not stuffing a vehicle with more passengers than seats.
