The Corporation of St George’s told residents this week that plans to build two new hotels in the area are moving forward.At a public meeting held on Thursday night at Penno’s Wharf, Alderman Steven Hollis said that the Corporation and the developers are working with the Planning Department to ensure that the plans for a marina and a 60-room boutique hotel intended to be built around Ordnance Island will be acceptable. “We are working to make sure the hotel will fit in to St George’s and the town’s skyline,” he said. “The developers are excited. We are excited.”And former Mayor E Michael Jones said that Carl Bazarian, the developer for the proposed Park Hyatt hotel project, will be on the Island next week to help move the project forward. “We expect that this year we will be digging holes and moving forward on the hill,” Mr Jones said.The new hotel developments are hoped to help revitalise the areas economy, both by bringing visitors to the town and by bringing workers into the area during construction.Over the past few years St George’s has suffered from a weak economy, attributed in large part to a reduction in the number of visiting cruise ships.Last summer only one ship, the Holland America Line Veendam was scheduled to make regular visits to the Island, but the ship was too large to pass through Town Cut. Mr Hollis said that a study looking at the possibility of straightening or dredging the channel is underway, with results expected by the end of May.Once the Corporation has the results of the study, he said they would speak with the St George’s community to decide the best option going forward.Councillor George Sutherland told the audience that meetings with Governor Richard Gozney about the possibility of re-establishing a 24-hour Police Station in the town were “very positive.”“There were a few misconceptions to do with what the people of St George’s wanted,” he said. “We informed him that we didn’t want the entire Southside station to be moved back to York Street. We’re asking for a manned police station so there would be a police presence 24/7.”Mayor Kenneth Bascome added: “He said he was under the impression that Police were there 24/7. I told him, yeah. The cockroaches take over five after ten.”Councillor Alfonso Harris said that the town is considering rethinking the Tuesday Night Markets to attract more visitors.“This year, we are going to try to have a market in the day time,” he said. “Visitors seem to come in the day time so we’re trying to build something to take advantage of that.”He said that while St George’s will receive around the same number of cruise ships as last year, he was optimistic that the town could still draw more visitors.“One of the differences is that the cruise ships coming to Dockyard are staying longer so they are more likely to come here,” he said. “They’re less afraid of the cruise ship leaving them.“We’re hoping that it will encourage people to slow down. It will give them a chance to look at all of St Georges. We would like to keep more people here.”Councillor Renee Ming meanwhile said that the town’s popular Sunday Old Towne Market would return for nine weeks starting February 13, and that a number of other events including a Family Fun Day are on the schedule.