The territory's on-the-go governor is gone again.
Gov. Charles Turnbull, who traveled to Dallas a weekend ago for a fraternity reunion and meetings with Beal Aerospace officials and then went on to Washington, D.C., returned Thursday and left the territory again Saturday morning for another week on the mainland, according to a Government House release.
Turnbull is in St. Louis, Mo., attending the summer meeting of the National Governors Conference, and will travel from there to New York to attend a series of meetings with the government's bond counsel, the release stated.
The governor departed St. Thomas on Saturday morning "in order to attend a White House-arranged meeting with President Bill Clinton on Sunday," the release said. "The president addressed the governors' meeting on Sunday afternoon."
It was not clear whether the meeting with Clinton was a private session or if the president's meeting was with other governors as well. James O'Bryan Jr., the governor's spokesman, was gone from his office shortly after the release was faxed out at 6:45 p.m.
Since July 30, Turnbull has been on island for just one full day — last Friday. He is not scheduled to return now until next weekend.
He flew to Dallas on July 30 to attend the fraternity gathering, at which he was an honoree, and to meet with Beal officials at their corporate headquarters. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a Government House schedule released to the media, he was in the nation's capital to discuss the territory's financial crisis with federal officials.
He returned to the territory Thursday. On Friday he announced his support for giving Beal the Great Pond shoreline property on St. Croix it insisted upon for its rocket-assembly operation in return for property the company owns in Estates Whim and Grange Hill.
Saturday morning he flew to St. Louis. He is expected to be in New York through the end of the work week and return to the territory "over the weekend," the release stated.
In Turnbull's absence, by law, Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II is the territory's acting governor.
