St. John Tradewinds Awaits Clarification from Sen. Wesselhoft

Publisher’s Note: The following e-mail was sent to Senator Wesselhoft on Saturday, May 19 seeking clarification of statements in her letter. Sen. Wesselhoft did not respond by Sunday, May 20.

Dear Sen. Wesselhoft,

Tradewinds is in receipt of your letter and will be publishing it in our letters section on May 21, 2007, with a short response.

We must note that your letter of Friday, May 18, was sent in an email at 4:35:47 p.m., almost five full days after you personally had called Tradewinds on Monday, May 14, to call the letter a “blatant lie”.

To clarify this matter before publication of your letter, we ask that you respond with your official written comment on what involvement, if any, you or any family member or business associate have had at any time any interest in any property in the immediate neighborhood of Sirenusa?

In specific response to your letter of complaint of “falsehoods”:

The letter writer wrote you had “an apparent conflict of interest” and wrote you were “involved in a meeting of property owners in the Valley neighborhood” in late February concerning the “island’s infrastructure” “which included St. John Public Works Director Ira Wade.”

The letter writer wrote “Sen. Wesselhoft should have informed the public of her personal knowledge of infrastructure negotiations involving the project.”

Your letter of complaint acknowledges a meeting concerning Sirenusa’s “surrounding infrastructure” which included neighboring property owners and Ira Wade, but you do not explain what knowledge you had of this meeting and whether you shared information on the meeting or concerns about the “surrounding infrastructure” with your Senate colleagues before the March 26 St. John Senate hearing on Sirenusa or the rezoning variance vote.

When did you know of the neighborhood meeting? What did you know of the infrastructure questions? And did you share this knowledge with Senate colleagues before the March 26 St. John Senate hearing on Sirenusa? Did you share any of your knowledge with your colleagues before their vote on the zone?

Tradewinds look forward to including the correct information in regards to the above questions with your letter, which is hereby published – on page 19, where the original letter appeared.

Tradewinds always seeks to publish the truth and relies on the cooperation of elected and appointed public officials to respond honestly and in a timely manner.

We await your immediate response.

MaLinda Nelson, Publisher
St. John Tradewinds