Sept. 30, 2002 – Thanks to a $275,575 federal grant distributed through the V.I. Energy Office, the St. Croix campus of the University of the Virgin Islands will get some outdoor solar lighting.
"It's pretty much in keeping with Dr. Ragster's plan to make the university more energy efficient," UVI spokeswoman Patrice Johnson said, referring to UVI President LaVerne Ragster.
Johnson said that UVI put up a 20 percent in-kind match through labor to install the lighting, which will be the security building area.
The project, expected to pay for itself in 3.4 years, was developed by Infra-tech of St. Croix. The grant award check will be presented to the university in a ceremony to be held at 1 a.m. Tuesday campus at the cafetorium.
UVI also will receive the first Vincent George "Light the Way" Award, which recognizes organizations and persons in the community that have been champions of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Plans call for making the award annually.
George, a V.I. Energy Office employee who died of kidney disease several years ago, was instrumental in implementing the agency's lighting and education projects, said spokesman Jamal Nielsen. George was responsible for expanding National Energy Day in the Virgin Islands into V.I. Energy Education Week, observed in March.
Nielsen said the grant to UVI is from the Stripper Well Fund, a federal fund consisting of money paid by oil companies found to have overcharged their customers between 1973 and 1981. The money is used for projects such as lighting.
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