It's Senate Hearing Day! 
Please act now and contact your Senators this morning and let them know you want them to support BR 22-1146 - Repeal Section 2 of Act No. 8569!
It's not too late. Here's a list of the Senators' emails to copy and paste or message their FB pages or use this list to call their offices. 

SenatorBlyden@gmail.com, senatorbolques@legvi.org, senatorcarrion@legvi.org, ddegraff@legvi.org
nfrancis@legvi.org, almafrancisheyliger@gmail.com, senatorfrett-gregory@legvi.org, senatorgittens@legvi.org, senatorjjames@legvi.org, fjohnson@legvi.org, senatorjoseph@legvi.org, mpotter@legvi.org, jsarauw@legvi.org, senatorvialet@legvi.org, senatorwhitaker@legvi.org

Here's a message to copy/paste and send to the Senators (please feel free to customize):

Good night. We support Senator Whitaker’s bill: BR 22-1146 and encourage you to vote yes!

BR 22-1146 is a simple bill that revokes the previously passed non-germane amendment - Section 2 of Act No 8569. This previous non-germane amendment was added to a larger bill without public notice or input. The previous amendment's sponsor, Senator Vialet has acknowledged that his amendment should have been written differently and presented to the public first. The bill before you on August 30, 2022 rectifies that by revoking the amendment.

This previous amendment attracted a lot of attention. The amendment changed the zoning laws to allow industrial use (rum distilleries) on any piece of property zoned for agriculture. This amendment led a group of concerned community members to visit Senator Vialet at his campaign office. The message was clear, revoke the amendment. Senator Vialet then called a town hall meeting about this issue. A standing room only, overflow crowd of approximately 350 people came to the town hall meeting at Rotary West. And the overwhelming majority of those attending the town hall meeting carried a unified message - revoke the rum distillery permit issued to Raising Cane, LLLP and repeal the amendment which is Section 2 of Act No. 8569.

614 people have signed the online petition to "Revoke the Permits for the Rum Distillery & Repeal the Non-Germane Amendment to Act 8569b” plus another 300 signatures were collected via paper.

The next step is in front of you today. We ask that you repeal Act No. 8569 by voting yes on BR 22-1146.

I’d like to note that this bill before you today puts the legislative process back on track.

You may be, as I am, a strong proponent of economic sustainability.

You may, like I do, want good opportunities for the people of the Virgin Islands.

You may, like I do, want to support our farmers and strengthen our agricultural resilience and food security.

Thank you! 

Thank you for your time and thank you for your service to the people of the Virgin Islands.