Message from Lorine… St. Croix Yacht Club Hosts “CROOD Regatta”

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www.lorinewilliams.com
lorine@lorinewilliams.com
Cell 340.690.9628
Gallows Bay Marketplace
340.778.7000 ext. 102
LAND-de WILDE REALTY
St.Croix
Real Estate
reviews
Featuring Real Estate Market Updates
and Local News of St. Croix, USVI
JULY 2012
St. Croix Yacht
Club Hosts
“CROOD
Regatta”
N
ot all regattas feature fancy
racing vessels. Nary a long,
sleek yacht registered for
the 10th annual Crucian Open One
Design Regatta in late May. Rather,
dinghies challenged dinghies of a
similar make. Forty sailors from
across the territory and the BVI
competed in a series of fifteen races
in Teague Bay on the island’s east
end. Winds ranging between 15 and
25 knots heightened the drama.
Chris Schreiber founded the
CROOD Regatta back in 2002. “We
didn’t have a dinghy regatta here,
and the Yacht Club has a huge fleet
of sailboats,” he said. Schreiber
organized the regatta and invited
sailors from all over St. Croix and
the neighboring Virgins.
Four classes of boats
participated: Optimist, Sunfish,
Lasers and 420s. “Optimist is the
family class with kids aged between
eight and 14,” said Schreiber. “The
Optimist is a trainer—a starter boat
that kids can learn to sail.”
Sailors as young as eight and up
to sixty-plus took on the fierce
winds that weekend.
“We have an active racing
program, and this provides
opportunity to compete with sailors
from other islands,” he said. Along
with the springtime CROOD
Regatta, the St. Croix Yacht Club
also hosts the St. Croix International
Regatta in November. “These
events allow us to show off our
beautiful island to sailors from
other venues,” Schreiber said.
Message from
Lorine…
Dear Friends,
ummer in St. Croix is quite pleasant
with highs in the low 90s and a nice
cool breeze most days. Although the
Sahara Dust can be a nuisance, the experts
report that the dust does help keep the
hurricanes at bay. Now that is a tradeoff I
Lorine showing off Pt. Udall to
can live with! Recent light early morning
Karen Stewart of Chicagoland.
showers hopefully are keeping our vegetable
gardens, fruit trees and vibrant Caribbean flowers flourishing.
In tax news, real estate taxes for 2010 are now due. Please note for
your planning purposes, year 2011 taxes will be due in January of
2013. The early payment discount was such a success that I predict it
will be repeated.
S
Status of the Boardwalk
The downtown Christiansted
Boardwalk has been in poor
condition since Hurricane
Omar. Local businesses and
community members are
frustrated with the long delays,
even though plans are
underway to make necessary
repairs and improvements.
Currently, although there is a
federal grant for repairs,
additional funding is needed
before any request for
proposals (RFP) can be released.
Darryl Smalls, VI Commissioner
of Public Works, stated that
both environmental and historic district requirements and permits will
also have to be received.
An additional concern is the lack of lighting. Previously installed
lights are not working, and although many local businesses have
installed their own lighting, in some instances the lights have been
removed by vandals or thieves. Commissioner Smalls does have a plan
for the installation of 50 new solar lights. This project is funded by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment act via the VI Energy Office and
should be underway by September.
In encouraging news, Jeff and Renee Barstow have purchased the
waterfront space formerly occupied by the Stxx Restaurant and Bar at
the foot of the Pan Am Pavilion. The smell of fresh lumber and the buzz
of power tools are a welcome delight to the senses as work is underway
to create “John Eddy’s Low Life Bar & Grill.” With a name like that, it’s
gotta be fun!
Enjoy your summer!
Warm regards,
Lorine
Spotlight on…Frankie Colangelo
T
hey called him “Frankie Peep.” Just don’t ask about the “Peep.” It was his mystique
back in the seventies and remains so today. Frankie Colangelo, a first generation
Disco DJ, mixed the sounds that kept people on the dance floor. Together with a
handful of other disc jockeys in the 1970 New York club scene, he pioneered the sound
that became a craze a few years later—Disco.
“We geared ourselves to the dance floor, mixing one recording into another,” Colangelo
said. “You could never miss a beat, and your hand had to be light as a feather.” His smooth transition
between songs caught dancers unaware, and they discovered themselves under the strobes for yet another
number. As Frankie Peep, he segued from one tune to the next with a mix of gradually overlapping beats. “We
evolved to mixing records by beats per minute,” said Colangelo. “I’m rusty, but I can still tell you if a song has
a beat anywhere between 100 and 130 b.p.m.” he said.
It all started on the street corner when young Frankie sang a cappella doo-wop songs with Dion and Carlos
from the Belmonts. Later, he cocked an ear toward Motown. “Motown was the precursor to Disco. Groups with
danceable beats like the OJs, the Temptations and even early James Brown were the forerunners,” he said.
By 1977, Frankie Peep opened his own club—Januaries. Saturday Night Fever hit the movie houses, and
Disco exploded. Meanwhile, Colangelo worked as an engineer for Grumman Aerospace by day, the Disco by
night, produced records on the side and consulted for other record producers. But, when he and his fiancee,
Norma Jean Brent, visited St. Croix for the first time in 1985, life changed. “We were here just one day, and
we bought a condo!” said Colangelo.
Disco still runs in Colangelo’s veins. Every Tuesday night, old fans play his Disco Trivia on Facebook. Last
month, they reunited on St. Croix and danced once again under the mirror ball to the mixes of Frankie Peep.
JAMMIN’
FOR THE REEF
H
AMBASSADORS, ALL ARE WE
Virgin Islands Department of Tourism has issued a
call to ambassadorship: Tourism is up to all of us.
TTohe
that end and in conjunction with National Tourism
Week (May 5th-13th), Tourism hosted territory-wide
professional development seminars entitled Become
Better Tourism Ambassadors. The workshops attracted a
broad spectrum of islanders, including tour operators,
hoteliers, rental agents, taxi drivers, members of the
culinary field and students of the hospitality industry.
Charlene Springer, the motivational speaker who hosts
“Beyond Empowerment” on local radio, launched the St.
Croix sessions. In her seminar Customer Service
Excellence, Springer emphasized the importance of being
able to speak knowledgeably about the island.
The afternoon sessions, Our History & Culture and Our
Natural Environment, grew increasingly interactive. Dr.
George Franklin, who collaborated with Frandelle Gerard
on St. Croix’s history and culture, broke out his drum and
had the audience singing of old folkloric cariso and
quelbe songs. Veronica Gordon, a.k.a. “Bush Lady,”
discussed flora and fauna, local herbs and medicinal
plants. Then, Dr. William Coles of DPNR’s Fish and
Wildlife Division conducted a show-and-tell of shark and
whale skeletons and then guided attendees on a slide
show tour of St. Croix’s natural wonders, such as
Caledonia Springs, Sandy Point, Butler Bay, and turtle
nesting areas.
“We all need to become ambassadors of our home,”
said Tourism’s Trina Soto-Clarke.
undreds showed up at
Rhythms at Rainbow Beach
on May 27th for the 5th
annual Reef Jam, the largest
celebration of coral reef and the
marine environment in the Territory.
While cars lined the west end beach
road for nearly a mile, folks with a
common love of the ocean and its
sea life partied all afternoon and into
the night.
Festivities offered something for
everyone: music and dancing,
snorkel clinics, a sand sculpture
contest, squid, and tilapia
dissections, paddle boarding, raffles,
informational booths, and the Reef
Rap—a competition in which
students perform original songs
about the coral reef. St. Croix
Environmental Association, banding
with Reef Jam, organized the family
fun.
This year the Department of
Planning and Natural Resources
added a Lionfish Derby, with prizes
for the largest, the smallest and the
most lionfish caught. Afterwards, Dr.
William Coles cooked a “Cuisine
Sampler” on the beach with healthy
lionfish from the derby.
Founded in 2008 by Kurt and
Janelle Schindler, Reef Jam strives to
“encourage marine conservation and
stewardship through community
education and outreach.” Proceeds
support marine education and
conservation efforts on the island.
St. Croix Real Estate Reviews, page 2
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ST. CROIX REAL ESTATE MARKET WATCH
CLOSED SALES COMPARISON : 6/30/10
49– 6/30/11 VERSUS 6/30/11 – 6/30/12
Home Sales
Condo Sales
Land under $39,900
Land over $40,000
Commercial
2010-2011
SOLD
AVERAGE DAYS
ON MARKET
MEDIAN
SOLD PRICE
2011-2012
SOLD
AVERAGE DAYS
ON MARKET
MEDIAN
SOLD PRICE
101
58
32
54
11
270
274
290
330
302
$350,000
$140,500
$29,450
$65,000
$215,000
92
42
24
37
11
301
316
346
339
430
$307,500
$142,500
$29,500
$64,900
$200,000
Information from the St. Croix Multiple Listing Service
* The average sales price and the average days on market
could be skewed greatly by only one sale or because of the
small number of annual sales.
St. Croix Real Estate Reviews, page 3