To: Jeffrey Kerney Epstei Cc: Gary sithillimGerald Barton From: Stephen Caplinger Sent: Mon 1/18/2010 7:48:17 PM Subject: RE: LSJ The landscape supervisor position has not been filled, but not from lack of trying. As you may recall, I preferred that we use Matt Mahaffey, who seems to be the most experienced but he was let go by Curtis. I have met with him several times and he really does not want to come back. He is doing his own thing and wants to be independent. He had an original proposal to come out 2-3 days/ week for a few hours and wanted a 12 month contract but Brice did not like this idea. Another candidate was Adam Cook from St. John who we tried out on a trial basis on a small landscape project and he was a total disaster. Bad communication and not dependable. I have also had discussions with Carlos Robles who runs the Horticulture Department at UVI but he does not know of anyone and he continues to search for someone. I had another landscape contractor, Piers Johnstone from here in Columbus but he was more interested in hard construction not landscape maintenance, plus he did not have Caribbean experience. We put a Help Wanted ad in the local newspaper but no results. We have also had numerous word-of-mouth conversations with local people in the business with no luck. I know this all sounds like a lot of excuses but we have pushed this hard with no luck. However. concerning Matt Mahaffey. I still run into him most mornings at the coffee shop and we always discuss LSJ. I think we can definitely hire him but on his terms. If you agree. I'll approach him again and confirm his original proposal. He wanted to come out to LSJ for 2-3 days/week: 10-15 hours/week @ $75/hour or approximately $4.500/month. He also wants a 12 month contract. I think he'll do the best job and he has much respect for you and he knows what you like. I recommend that we agree to his terms and hire him. Let me know. The Irrigation Master Plan is somethin