WAPA Business Casualties

6. Church's
7. iHop (supposedly soon)

FWIW, I heard Kicks was looking to sell for quite a while. Not sure if it had anything at all to do with WAPA.

8. Motown
9. Ivy's

what was motowns, i loved ivys

10. Case Place (WAPA brownouts fried some equipment which proved to be insurrmountable)
11. That Crucian Creations restaurant at 5 Corners

Between WAPA & elevated Gross Receipts coupled with catastrophic local revenue losses, I'm surprised more business haven't closed up shop and left the VI.

Beans, Bytes and Websites

Church's chicken

I hate WAPA as much as the next person, but some of these places didn't stand a chance!!

Did you ever go in that Williams Delight Chinese place...We went in way back when WAPA was down around .32 (I know...still high). It was lunch time. We were the ONLY people in the place, and we didn't stay. One of the MOST unappealing places I've been.

As for the place at 5 corners, nicer ambience, but still not "user friendly". I mean really.....ONE menu for the entire place, and you had to stand at the counter to read it. Oh...and it was hard to read. We didn't stay.

Who buys Island Dairies milk? They don't even have cows! That is a sad one, though, and I'm sure WAPA was the main reason for their closing.

Never heard of a couple of those other places.

Adding...I'm sorry about Violet's and Kick's, even though I've only bought one tube of mascara from Violet's and never a thing from Kick's. I'm also very sorry for all the older, established businesses. But Churches and IHOP should have known. People were screaming about WAPA before they ever broke ground.

Blaming WAPA is easy, but in some cases I don't think it's accurate. Restaurants are among the riskiest businesses ANYWHERE. The turnover is astonding. Maybe overhead had something to do with these businesses closing, but I'd bet staffing problems and owner burnout were also contributing factors.

Church's did always seem busy though.

In the paper the governor stated 0.44 per kwh. Not sure where he gets his power from . Our last WAPA bill at the factory worked out at 0.487 per kwh, and at that rate it won't be just restaurants closing!

commercial rate is higher than residential. Always has been.

VIOLETTE'S closed?!?! This makes me sick. I remember shopping there as a 16 yr old back in 1970.... This is sad.

What about Gone Tropical? I heard they were also closing...

Here is a petition to sign - against high WAPA rates - it was posted on Facebook this morning.

Pia

http://signon.org/sign/wapa-destroying-our-economy.fb1?source=s.fb&r_by=1204138

LETS FLIP THE SWITCH! 11/11/2011

If you are tired of high WAPA bills, if you feel the LEAC is obscene, if you want to make a statement to WAPA and to the government.... PLEASE turn off your electric power all day 11/11/11!!! A very dedicated group of people in the VI have been working hard to try to reverse and eventually eliminate the burden of the LEAC and press to eliminate WAPA as we know it! We are only asking for one day... please help us show that a unified effort can make a difference. Let’s "flip the switch"!!

We can be found under events on facebook, Flip the Switch! please help us stand up for our rights in our beloved Territory! If you would like a flyer emailed to you, you can contact me @ alisssa09@hotmail.com!

Together we will make a difference!

Yeah, that stuff doesn't work. If anything, WAPA will probably welcome it. One of their issues is keeping up with energy demand. If the island goes dark for a day, WAPA would be ecstatic.

These "shut down for a day" schemes are crap. They don't work. They don't make any dent. And half the time. they benefit the larger companies controlling said resources.

No, LET'S DOUBLE THE SWITCH! Everybody use twice an much electricity as usual. WAPA will immediately melt down and then we can all sit in the dark with our fingers crossed for the next 10 years, hoping they build something better.

In Oct 7 Avis, there was an article re PR's public and private partnership for a huge solar energy project starting." It will provide energy to 6,500 homes and drop power bills by 40%."
Mr. Hodge stated on channel 8 that "there is nothing that WAPA can do about the high cost of energy" therefore they can't do anything. WAPA has no plan whatsoever re the high LEAC charge. Nada. Zip. How long has this been going on? 15 yrs from now it will be the same.

WAPA wants to glob onto the coattails of another country who is trying to solve the high energy problem (PR). That's their answer and if anyone thinks that by doing so will eliminate LEAC, that just won't happen. LEAC will remain with WAPA as their "cash cow." The elect users here on the VI will have to be charged a delivery fee to bring the elect from PR to the VI, thus LEAC will remain.

Sadly, this is what happens when you have a Gov't rife with nepotism and cronyism.

I agree with Linda J.

Many of the restaurants listed weren't anything to write home about and there can be a myriad of reasons why a business fails.

I also wish folks would stop carping about "WAPA". It is misplaced anger and shows a misunderstanding of the problem.
It's the government which needs to get its house in order.

Several alternative energy initiatives are being pursued, and vocal support of them should be the focus.

Speaking of the government in regards to WAPA.... just read this on the St. John Source this morning about the recent increase for water:

"Jim Madden of Georgetown Consultants, a consulting firm regularly used by the PSC for technical evaluations of its regulated utilities, said the increase was ultimately due as much to unpaid government and hospital WAPA bills as it is to actual fuel prices."

WAPA is owed 15 Million for just the streetlights and Luis Hospital. Kind of sucks that the people who pay their bills are the people who have to suffer.

So in effect the outrageous WAPA bills include a defacto tax to pay for inefficient goverment, along with a subsidy for those with illegal power/water hookups (oh sorry, its called line-loss right?).

Hurricane Hugo, Hugo Hodge Jr. Both big blows to the Virgin Islands economy.

There was a news article a little while ago where Hugo Hodge (I think) said that part of the reason they had to raise WAPA rates was because people were using less power these days. Thank you for conserving, suckers! Unfortunateley, it makes sense. WAPA has fixed overhead, and they have to spread it out over fewer billable kilowatt hours.

Exactly. That is a legitimate way to think of it. A significant portion of your WAPA bill is indeed a tax.

So in effect the outrageous WAPA bills include a defacto tax to pay for inefficient goverment, along with a subsidy for those with illegal power/water hookups (oh sorry, its called line-loss right?).

Hurricane Hugo, Hugo Hodge Jr. Both big blows to the Virgin Islands economy.