Sept. 30, 2002 – The Public Services Commission is on very shaky financial ground, its chair, Desmond Maynard, said Monday, and Innovative Telephone is responsible.
After more than two hours of testimony from Innovative's president, Samuel Ebbesen, proved fruitless, the commission voted to require Innovative to remit $400,000 of its debt by Friday. Failing that, the board said, it would direct its counsel to take appropriate action to demand the full amount owed the PSC by the phone company.
Neither Maynard nor any of the other commission members wanted to make the move, but all said they had no choice. The PSC is foundering and cannot pay its bills or hire two needed staff members, they said, and Innovative owes a total of $604,400.
Ebbesen maintained he wants to "move ahead," but said he cannot not do so with billings he doesn't understand. "There are unexplained charges we need to go over," he said.
Ebbesen said at Monday's hearing that Innovative has been trying without success to meet with the PSC to discuss the situation. Maynard objected to Ebbesen's phrasing. He said Ebbesen, himself, had canceled one such meeting; another was "aborted" by Ebbesen' and he, Maynard, had had to cancel a third.
Maynard objected to even being involved in the matter at that level. "This is not something the board chair should have to do," he said, adding that Keithley Joseph, PSC executive director, and Claudius F. Moore, PSC account maintenance officer, are the ones who should be dealing with the situation.
Ebbesen wasn't giving an inch, even after Moore pointed out the bills date back to July 2001. When the Innovative executive said there was "statutory language" to be addressed on the limits of assessment, the commission members were perplexed. Maynard said, "These statutes have been around for years. Why didn't you challenge them sooner?"
"We're being held hostage," said Jerris Browne. "If you agree with some amounts, why not pay the uncontested amounts? Why didn't your counsel contact the PSC about these amounts? Meantime, we can't wait. It affects the integrity of this body."
The telephone rate investigation hearing examiner, Frederick Watts, pointed out where both parties stand. "They're out of time," he advised the commission regarding Innovative. A company has 30 days to file a petition for reassessment after an order, he said, and "you don't have to give them an extension."
Ebbesen complained that the recent law mandating a rate investigation every two years is "outrageous." Maynard agreed, but Browne pointed out that this is the first rate investigation Innovative has had in 10 years. "That argument doesn't hold water at this time," he said.
After all the PSC has done for Innovative
Ebbesen continued to express puzzlement over the assessments and said he wasn't sure he had all of them. Moore said he, indeed, did have them all. Maynard expressed surprise that Ebbesen would quibble at the amounts, especially in light of the fact that the PSC had just saved Innovative $33 million. "We're working with you, but you are not working with us," Maynard said.
The PSC agreed at its last meeting to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission certifying that Innovative is a rural company and thus eligible for rural benefits. "We didn't have to issue that letter," Maynard said. "You would have been $33 million short in your operation. I signed the damn letter to ensure that Innovative get the $33 million."
Ebbesen said, "We're not out to embarrass the PSC. We want to work with you, but I need to protect our legal rights."
Maynard said he doesn't like the idea of enforcement and that he considers that the PSC has a "symbiotic" relationship with the phone company — a term referring to a relationship between two entities that is to their mutual benefit. He added that it's the PSC's duty to treat all utilities fairly and to protect both the utility and the customer. But when the PSC is left without the funds to help it operate adequately, he said, it hurts the customers as well as the utility.
"What do you need from me?" Maynard asked Ebbesen, in an effort to resolve the issue. "You have all the bills." Ebbesen said he still had numbers he "couldn't account for."
Moore said the PSC's financial situation was more dire than had already been pointed out. "It gets worse," he said. Moore explained that if Innovative does not put money into the PSC's government account which is set up to cover consulting fees and payroll costs, the commission might not receive its $150,000 fourth-quarter allotment from that account.
Moore said the telephone company currently owes $604,400 in back invoices.
Commission member Alecia Wells suggested that Innovative pay $204,000 of that amount by Friday, but Maynard pointed out that wouldn't "help very much" and that it wouldn't be long before the PSC found itself in the same situation. "We're still overdrawn," he said.
Commission member Luther Renee made the motion to give the company until Friday to make the $400,000 payment. Voting for the measure were Browne, Maynard and Renee. Valencio Jackson and Wells voted against it. Alric Simmonds was absent for the vote. Verne David did not attend the meeting.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – When employees at the Water and Power Authority business off in Cruz Bay found out what the buzz was Monday morning, they closed up shop and called it a day.
It was bees, WAPA spokeswoman Patricia Blake Simmonds said later in the day.
When the workers arrived, they turned on the air conditioner — which was as much of a shock to the bees, who had taken up residence there over the weekend, as it was to the employees.
Simmonds said an exterminator was called and the problem was expected to be solved overnight. "Bees are active during the day," she said. "They're easier to handle at night."
On Monday, the office staff set up shop near the standpipe behind the Cruz Bay firehouse to take checks from customers wanting to pay their bills. But not a lot of people knew that. "Oh, that's why they were closed!" St. John Administrator Julien Harley said with a laugh when he heard about the bees.
When migrating bees take up new living quarters in houses and other buildings, local residents usually call St. John beekeeper Haynes Smalls to lure them away, rather than getting an exterminator to kill them. Smalls' friend Melville Samuel, a onetime at-large senator, said on Monday that he was surprised to hear about the WAPA infestation, since just the other day the two of them had been talking about how rare such things had become.
"Since the hurricane [Marilyn], it hasn't happened much," Samuel said, but the bees seem to be making a comeback now.
The St. John WAPA office is on the upper floor of the commercial two-story building across the street from Nazareth Lutheran Church. Those in the know say bees tend to form their hives in higher reaches.
Samuel said when a beehive becomes too crowded, a portion of the hive population will sometimes break away and seek a new home, perhaps in the holes of trees or the cracks of buildings. An air-conditioning vent could be a handy alternative. "They'd like that; that's ideal," he said, as long as the unit was turned off.
Simmonds said the office was expected to reopen for business as usual on Tuesday morning.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – The Public Services Commission is on very shaky financial ground, its chair, Desmond Maynard, said Monday, and Innovative Telephone is responsible.
After more than two hours of testimony from Innovative's president, Samuel Ebbesen, proved fruitless, the commission voted to require Innovative to remit $400,000 of its debt by Friday. Failing that, the board said, it would direct its counsel to take appropriate action to demand the full amount owed the PSC by the phone company.
Neither Maynard nor any of the other commission members wanted to make the move, but all said they had no choice. The PSC is foundering and cannot pay its bills or hire two needed staff members, they said, and Innovative owes a total of $604,400.
Ebbesen maintained he wants to "move ahead," but said he cannot not do so with billings he doesn't understand. "There are unexplained charges we need to go over," he said.
Ebbesen said at Monday's hearing that Innovative has been trying without success to meet with the PSC to discuss the situation. Maynard objected to Ebbesen's phrasing. He said Ebbesen, himself, had canceled one such meeting; another was "aborted" by Ebbesen' and he, Maynard, had had to cancel a third.
Maynard objected to even being involved in the matter at that level. "This is not something the board chair should have to do," he said, adding that Keithley Joseph, PSC executive director, and Claudius F. Moore, PSC account maintenance officer, are the ones who should be dealing with the situation.
Ebbesen wasn't giving an inch, even after Moore pointed out the bills date back to July 2001. When the Innovative executive said there was "statutory language" to be addressed on the limits of assessment, the commission members were perplexed. Maynard said, "These statutes have been around for years. Why didn't you challenge them sooner?"
"We're being held hostage," said Jerris Browne. "If you agree with some amounts, why not pay the uncontested amounts? Why didn't your counsel contact the PSC about these amounts? Meantime, we can't wait. It affects the integrity of this body."
The telephone rate investigation hearing examiner, Frederick Watts, pointed out where both parties stand. "They're out of time," he advised the commission regarding Innovative. A company has 30 days to file a petition for reassessment after an order, he said, and "you don't have to give them an extension."
Ebbesen complained that the recent law mandating a rate investigation every two years is "outrageous." Maynard agreed, but Browne pointed out that this is the first rate investigation Innovative has had in 10 years. "That argument doesn't hold water at this time," he said.
After all the PSC has done for Innovative
Ebbesen continued to express puzzlement over the assessments and said he wasn't sure he had all of them. Moore said he, indeed, did have them all. Maynard expressed surprise that Ebbesen would quibble at the amounts, especially in light of the fact that the PSC had just saved Innovative $33 million. "We're working with you, but you are not working with us," Maynard said.
The PSC agreed at its last meeting to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission certifying that Innovative is a rural company and thus eligible for rural benefits. "We didn't have to issue that letter," Maynard said. "You would have been $33 million short in your operation. I signed the damn letter to ensure that Innovative get the $33 million."
Ebbesen said, "We're not out to embarrass the PSC. We want to work with you, but I need to protect our legal rights."
Maynard said he doesn't like the idea of enforcement and that he considers that the PSC has a "symbiotic" relationship with the phone company — a term referring to a relationship between two entities that is to their mutual benefit. He added that it's the PSC's duty to treat all utilities fairly and to protect both the utility and the customer. But when the PSC is left without the funds to help it operate adequately, he said, it hurts the customers as well as the utility.
"What do you need from me?" Maynard asked Ebbesen, in an effort to resolve the issue. "You have all the bills." Ebbesen said he still had numbers he "couldn't account for."
Moore said the PSC's financial situation was more dire than had already been pointed out. "It gets worse," he said. Moore explained that if Innovative does not put money into the PSC's government account which is set up to cover consulting fees and payroll costs, the commission might not receive its $150,000 fourth-quarter allotment from that account.
Moore said the telephone company currently owes $604,400 in back invoices.
Commission member Alecia Wells suggested that Innovative pay $204,000 of that amount by Friday, but Maynard pointed out that wouldn't "help very much" and that it wouldn't be long before the PSC found itself in the same situation. "We're still overdrawn," he said.
Commission member Luther Renee made the motion to give the company until Friday to make the $400,000 payment. Voting for the measure were Browne, Maynard and Renee. Valencio Jackson and Wells voted against it. Alric Simmonds was absent for the vote. Verne David did not attend the meeting.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – After more than nine months of unremitting efforts, the Water and Power Authority finally received a funding source on Monday for the territory's street lighting, albeit only for the next 90 days.
WAPA petitioned the Public Services Commission in July for a surcharge of about $1.50 a month on residential customers' bills to fund the lighting program. The PSC granted the surcharge Monday. And starting on Tuesday, residential customers will be billed approximately that amount to fund the lighting program.
If the PSC were to fail to act by Oct. 1, hearing examiner Fred Watts said at a Sept. 9 hearing, the surcharge would automatically go into effect under a law giving the commission 30 days to act on a utility's request or see it take effect.
Since responsibility for the territory's street lighting was transferred from the Public Works Department to WAPA last December, funding for the work has been a thorn in the utility's hide.
When WAPA's executive director at the time, Joseph Thomas, proposed a surcharge to the Legislature early this year to fund the lighting program, the senators wouldn't hear of the idea of raising residents' electric bills, but they did appropriate $2.8 million to fund the program. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull then vetoed the appropriation, but the Senate overrode the veto. WAPA, however, says it has yet to see a dime of that money.
Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said at a Senate Finance Committee meeting recently that, the Senate's appropriation notwithstanding, there is no money available for street lighting.
The surcharge issue was not easily resolved Monday, and it did not come without strings. As the hearing progressed, discussion became more and more complex, sometimes dwindling down to a matter of semantics, as in what "rural," "urban" and "residential" mean as regards street lighting.
Flap over federal funding
A bone of contention is the question of who is responsible for lighting Veterans Drive on St. Thomas and Melvin Evans Highway on St. Croix. PSC members decried the St. Croix highway as "the darkest in the territory." Veterans Drive has had a number of pedestrian accidents, including fatalities.
Glenn Rothgeb, WAPA acting executive director, reiterated what he had said at earlier: Lighting for both roadways is federally funded, and WAPA doesn't receive those funds; the Public Works Department does, and responsibility for the federally funded lights falls to Public Works.
Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood vehemently disagreed on Monday. He didn't attend the July meeting, but had told Maynard on the telephone that Public Works wasn't responsible for the highway lights.
Callwood, who was absent at the previous hearing, said on Monday that Public Works does receive federal highway funding for the highway lighting, but it's only for installation of the lights, not for their maintenance. He said WAPA is responsible for providing the energy for the highway lighting, and that the authority has always billed PWD for that lighting.
He passed to the commission members a sheaf of WAPA bills which he said do not differentiate which lights are being billed for. He again said Public Works receives a federal grant for installation of the lights, but not for maintenance. He added that Public Works has a stockpile of parts for the highway lights, which it uses freely.
No limit now to liability
Another crucial issue with WAPA is its lack of liability coverage for maintaining the federal lighting. "We can't take on that responsibility," WAPA legal counsel Kathy Smith said, and WAPA board chair Carol Burke backed her. "PWD had limited liability on maintaining the lights," Burke said. "WAPA doesn't. WAPA will be bankrupt. We cannot proceed without limited liability."
Just when it appeared a resolution might be on the horizon, Crucian board member Luther Renee raised a point on everybody's mind. "I would be hard pressed to pay $1.50 and still drive in total darkness," he said, in reference to the Melvin Evans Highway.
After much discussion in and out of the meeting room, a compromise was reached. The board voted unanimously to grant the WAPA surcharge for 90 days, conditional on Public Works repairing and maintaining the highway lights and WAPA reimbursing Public Works for expenses during the period, including the electricity bills.
Still to be resolved is the legality of who pays for the highway lighting. Maynard suggested the matter could wind up in the Legislature, and that it is something the commission and its new WAPA hearing examiner, George S. Eltman, would have to study. Maynard said, "We will probably have to go to the Senate for light and clarity."
The PSC recently brought in a new consultant on the current WAPA rate investigation. It hired Georgetown Consulting while another firm, AUS Consultants, was still working on the investigation.
By law, the regulated utilities must pay for their PSC rate investigation costs. WAPA officials vehemently objected to the change in consultants. Rothgeb said WAPA has already spent more than $400,000 on the investigation AUS has been conducting for the last 14 months. And he said Monday that he has discovered another $100,000 that WAPA is being billed for.
Burke, Smith and Rothgeb complained strongly about the extra costs they said WAPA will now incur with the new consultants. Maynard said he didn't think there would be repetition, but Smith said Georgetown would have to go over AUS's interrogatories and other documents, which WAPA would have to pay for by the hour. Burke and Rothgeb said the process would have to involve repetition. Maynard said the commission would study the issue.
Commission member Alric Simmonds, Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's deputy chief of staff, shed light on a mystery which arose recently, when he said on Monday, "I thought we voted at the last meeting to put a temporary surcharge in place."
Turnbull had said in his letter to Liburd concerning the Fiscal Year 2003 budget legislation that he had approved a $500,000 Omnibus appropriation to WAPA for the lighting. He wrote: "Taken with the surcharge recently approved by the Public Services Commission, this subsidy will help ensure that WAPA has sufficient funds and that more of our neighborhoods will be lighted in the near future."
Attending the meeting were commission members Jerris Browne, Valencio Jackson, Maynard, Renee, Simmonds and Alecia Wells. Commission member Verne David was absent.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – Residential property taxpayers now have until Nov. 30 to pay their 2001 tax bills, Gov. Charles W. Turnbull said in a press release Monday. The actual due date is Oct. 30, but residential property taxpayers automatically get a month's grace.
Appeals are due by Dec. 15.
A Government House source said the date change was necessary because some tax bills went out late. By law, they are due out in June, but by August, there were still some to be issued.
Tax Assessor Roy Martin said the tax bills were originally due June 30, with Aug. 31 the last day to pay without incurring a penalty. The appeal date was Sept. 15.
Turnbull changed the due date by executive order.
The date change applies only to residential property taxes. Martin said all commercial property must be reappraised because of a ruling in August by District Judge Thomas K. Moore in a suit filed by some 25 commercial property owners who claimed their properties were overvalued. (See "Commercial property taxes on hold for a few".)
Martin said his office is currently working on the reappraisals, which will apply to 2002 taxes. As for the 2001 commercial property taxes, he said "it hasn't been decided" what commercial property owners will pay, or when.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – The Public Services Commission is on very shaky financial ground, its chair, Desmond Maynard, said Monday, and Innovative Telephone is responsible.
After more than two hours of testimony from Innovative's president, Samuel Ebbesen, proved fruitless, the commission voted to require Innovative to remit $400,000 of its debt by Friday. Failing that, the board said, it would direct its counsel to take appropriate action to demand the full amount owed the PSC by the phone company.
Neither Maynard nor any of the other commission members wanted to make the move, but all said they had no choice. The PSC is foundering and cannot pay its bills or hire two needed staff members, they said, and Innovative owes a total of $604,400.
Ebbesen maintained he wants to "move ahead," but said he cannot not do so with billings he doesn't understand. "There are unexplained charges we need to go over," he said.
Ebbesen said at Monday's hearing that Innovative has been trying without success to meet with the PSC to discuss the situation. Maynard objected to Ebbesen's phrasing. He said Ebbesen, himself, had canceled one such meeting; another was "aborted" by Ebbesen' and he, Maynard, had had to cancel a third.
Maynard objected to even being involved in the matter at that level. "This is not something the board chair should have to do," he said, adding that Keithley Joseph, PSC executive director, and Claudius F. Moore, PSC account maintenance officer, are the ones who should be dealing with the situation.
Ebbesen wasn't giving an inch, even after Moore pointed out the bills date back to July 2001. When the Innovative executive said there was "statutory language" to be addressed on the limits of assessment, the commission members were perplexed. Maynard said, "These statutes have been around for years. Why didn't you challenge them sooner?"
"We're being held hostage," said Jerris Browne. "If you agree with some amounts, why not pay the uncontested amounts? Why didn't your counsel contact the PSC about these amounts? Meantime, we can't wait. It affects the integrity of this body."
The telephone rate investigation hearing examiner, Frederick Watts, pointed out where both parties stand. "They're out of time," he advised the commission regarding Innovative. A company has 30 days to file a petition for reassessment after an order, he said, and "you don't have to give them an extension."
Ebbesen complained that the recent law mandating a rate investigation every two years is "outrageous." Maynard agreed, but Browne pointed out that this is the first rate investigation Innovative has had in 10 years. "That argument doesn't hold water at this time," he said.
After all the PSC has done for Innovative
Ebbesen continued to express puzzlement over the assessments and said he wasn't sure he had all of them. Moore said he, indeed, did have them all. Maynard expressed surprise that Ebbesen would quibble at the amounts, especially in light of the fact that the PSC had just saved Innovative $33 million. "We're working with you, but you are not working with us," Maynard said.
The PSC agreed at its last meeting to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission certifying that Innovative is a rural company and thus eligible for rural benefits. "We didn't have to issue that letter," Maynard said. "You would have been $33 million short in your operation. I signed the damn letter to ensure that Innovative get the $33 million."
Ebbesen said, "We're not out to embarrass the PSC. We want to work with you, but I need to protect our legal rights."
Maynard said he doesn't like the idea of enforcement and that he considers that the PSC has a "symbiotic" relationship with the phone company — a term referring to a relationship between two entities that is to their mutual benefit. He added that it's the PSC's duty to treat all utilities fairly and to protect both the utility and the customer. But when the PSC is left without the funds to help it operate adequately, he said, it hurts the customers as well as the utility.
"What do you need from me?" Maynard asked Ebbesen, in an effort to resolve the issue. "You have all the bills." Ebbesen said he still had numbers he "couldn't account for."
Moore said the PSC's financial situation was more dire than had already been pointed out. "It gets worse," he said. Moore explained that if Innovative does not put money into the PSC's government account which is set up to cover consulting fees and payroll costs, the commission might not receive its $150,000 fourth-quarter allotment from that account.
Moore said the telephone company currently owes $604,400 in back invoices.
Commission member Alecia Wells suggested that Innovative pay $204,000 of that amount by Friday, but Maynard pointed out that wouldn't "help very much" and that it wouldn't be long before the PSC found itself in the same situation. "We're still overdrawn," he said.
Commission member Luther Renee made the motion to give the company until Friday to make the $400,000 payment. Voting for the measure were Browne, Maynard and Renee. Valencio Jackson and Wells voted against it. Alric Simmonds was absent for the vote. Verne David did not attend the meeting.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – After more than nine months of unremitting efforts, the Water and Power Authority finally received a funding source on Monday for the territory's street lighting, albeit only for the next 90 days.
WAPA petitioned the Public Services Commission in July for a surcharge of about $1.50 a month on residential customers' bills to fund the lighting program. The PSC granted the surcharge Monday. And starting on Tuesday, residential customers will be billed approximately that amount to fund the lighting program.
If the PSC were to fail to act by Oct. 1, hearing examiner Fred Watts said at a Sept. 9 hearing, the surcharge would automatically go into effect under a law giving the commission 30 days to act on a utility's request or see it take effect.
Since responsibility for the territory's street lighting was transferred from the Public Works Department to WAPA last December, funding for the work has been a thorn in the utility's hide.
When WAPA's executive director at the time, Joseph Thomas, proposed a surcharge to the Legislature early this year to fund the lighting program, the senators wouldn't hear of the idea of raising residents' electric bills, but they did appropriate $2.8 million to fund the program. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull then vetoed the appropriation, but the Senate overrode the veto. WAPA, however, says it has yet to see a dime of that money.
Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said at a Senate Finance Committee meeting recently that, the Senate's appropriation notwithstanding, there is no money available for street lighting.
The surcharge issue was not easily resolved Monday, and it did not come without strings. As the hearing progressed, discussion became more and more complex, sometimes dwindling down to a matter of semantics, as in what "rural," "urban" and "residential" mean as regards street lighting.
Flap over federal funding
A bone of contention is the question of who is responsible for lighting Veterans Drive on St. Thomas and Melvin Evans Highway on St. Croix. PSC members decried the St. Croix highway as "the darkest in the territory." Veterans Drive has had a number of pedestrian accidents, including fatalities.
Glenn Rothgeb, WAPA acting executive director, reiterated what he had said at earlier: Lighting for both roadways is federally funded, and WAPA doesn't receive those funds; the Public Works Department does, and responsibility for the federally funded lights falls to Public Works.
Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood vehemently disagreed on Monday. He didn't attend the July meeting, but had told Maynard on the telephone that Public Works wasn't responsible for the highway lights.
Callwood, who was absent at the previous hearing, said on Monday that Public Works does receive federal highway funding for the highway lighting, but it's only for installation of the lights, not for their maintenance. He said WAPA is responsible for providing the energy for the highway lighting, and that the authority has always billed PWD for that lighting.
He passed to the commission members a sheaf of WAPA bills which he said do not differentiate which lights are being billed for. He again said Public Works receives a federal grant for installation of the lights, but not for maintenance. He added that Public Works has a stockpile of parts for the highway lights, which it uses freely.
No limit now to liability
Another crucial issue with WAPA is its lack of liability coverage for maintaining the federal lighting. "We can't take on that responsibility," WAPA legal counsel Kathy Smith said, and WAPA board chair Carol Burke backed her. "PWD had limited liability on maintaining the lights," Burke said. "WAPA doesn't. WAPA will be bankrupt. We cannot proceed without limited liability."
Just when it appeared a resolution might be on the horizon, Crucian board member Luther Renee raised a point on everybody's mind. "I would be hard pressed to pay $1.50 and still drive in total darkness," he said, in reference to the Melvin Evans Highway.
After much discussion in and out of the meeting room, a compromise was reached. The board voted unanimously to grant the WAPA surcharge for 90 days, conditional on Public Works repairing and maintaining the highway lights and WAPA reimbursing Public Works for expenses during the period, including the electricity bills.
Still to be resolved is the legality of who pays for the highway lighting. Maynard suggested the matter could wind up in the Legislature, and that it is something the commission and its new WAPA hearing examiner, George S. Eltman, would have to study. Maynard said, "We will probably have to go to the Senate for light and clarity."
The PSC recently brought in a new consultant on the current WAPA rate investigation. It hired Georgetown Consulting while another firm, AUS Consultants, was still working on the investigation.
By law, the regulated utilities must pay for their PSC rate investigation costs. WAPA officials vehemently objected to the change in consultants. Rothgeb said WAPA has already spent more than $400,000 on the investigation AUS has been conducting for the last 14 months. And he said Monday that he has discovered another $100,000 that WAPA is being billed for.
Burke, Smith and Rothgeb complained strongly about the extra costs they said WAPA will now incur with the new consultants. Maynard said he didn't think there would be repetition, but Smith said Georgetown would have to go over AUS's interrogatories and other documents, which WAPA would have to pay for by the hour. Burke and Rothgeb said the process would have to involve repetition. Maynard said the commission would study the issue.
Commission member Alric Simmonds, Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's deputy chief of staff, shed light on a mystery which arose recently, when he said on Monday, "I thought we voted at the last meeting to put a temporary surcharge in place."
Turnbull had said in his letter to Liburd concerning the Fiscal Year 2003 budget legislation that he had approved a $500,000 Omnibus appropriation to WAPA for the lighting. He wrote: "Taken with the surcharge recently approved by the Public Services Commission, this subsidy will help ensure that WAPA has sufficient funds and that more of our neighborhoods will be lighted in the near future."
Attending the meeting were commission members Jerris Browne, Valencio Jackson, Maynard, Renee, Simmonds and Alecia Wells. Commission member Verne David was absent.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – St. Croix residents can look forward to new life at the Good Hope intersection later this month when three CARE Grant recipients begin transforming the busy intersection. Residents soon will see a cactus garden and ground covers.
Sylvia Thomas, CARE Grant Program administrator, said three grant recipients -– Steve Adams and the Music in Motion Parents Association, Helga Emde, and the Good Hope School Girl Scouts Troop -– have each adopted a corner of the intersection. Their plans for improvements include installing a cactus garden at the former dump site on the northwest corner and planting extensive groundcover on the northeast corner.
The CARE Grant Program was launched last year as a partnership between the Anti-Litter and Beautification Commission and the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development. Since then, it has enabled more than 30 individuals and organizations on St. Croix to embark on environmental education and beautification projects that benefit the entire community. And while its cycle is over, it has proven successful in providing money for small, environmentally focused grassroots grant initiatives.
"With the different initiatives we're seeing going on right now, St. Croix is the benefactor of long-term beautification efforts," Thomas said. "We hope to continue with similar projects so we can be proud of the added beauty of Ay Ay."
Anne Golden, Anti-Litter executive director, said the CARE Grant Program is one more success in the goal to "Keep St. Croix Clean."
"Our partnership with the St. Croix Foundation allows us to provide funding to community groups, government agencies, schools and nonprofit organizations to foster creative beautification projects," she said.
Golden said that, in spite of a decreased Fiscal Year 2003 budget and the governor's recent approval of the transfer of money from the commission to the Public Works Department, the commission intends to continue providing the resources for programs like CARE. "We're saddened by the shift away from the promotion of community responsibility to the bureaucracy," she said.
In addition to the work at the Good Hope intersection, several other CARE Grant projects got under way in September. Lumumba Coriette, founder of Ay Ay Eco Hike & Tours, conducted several mangrove ecology tours of Salt River with students from the Educational Complex, Central High School, Claude O. Markoe School and Good Hope School.
The St. Croix Women's Coalition began beautifying its East Street backyard, which co-director Mary Mingus said will be used for picnics and meetings. "There are some beautiful trees out there we want to take advantage of, but our normal budget would never have allowed us to do that," she said, "so, we're really grateful to Anti-Litter and the St. Croix Foundation."
At Elena Christian Junior High School, Joan Claxton, assistant principal, said students are cultivating flower gardens in front of the school and keeping the grounds litter free with new garbage bins and will be starting box gardens to grow peppers and plants for bush tea.
Delta Harris, La Vallee Development Association president, is spearheading efforts to revitalize the La Vallee Park. So far, with the help of friends and the Housing Parks and Recreation Department, the group has cleared and graded the softball field, repaired the basketball courts and begun fencing the area to keep sheep and goats from eating the landscaping. "It was basically a forgotten park," Harris said. "But eventually I want it to serve as a recreational sports facility, an after-school tutorial center and a senior center."
Residents can see the results of other projects, including:
– Improvements to Altona Lagoon by Lions Club East.
– New trees and lighting in front of the Whim Plantation Museum by the St. Croix Landmarks Society.
– Improvements to La Reine Fish Market by the Channel 12 teen talk show "Graffiti Street."
– Beautification projects at several schools by the Blue Marlins swim team and the St. Croix Swimming Association.
In Frederiksted, Our Town Frederiksted has landscaped the Children's Park, while the Clan Social Club and the Frederiksted Economic Development Association have painted and repaired benches and planted along the waterfront. Many of the groups will be putting up signs letting the public know they've adopted those areas, Thomas said.
A shining example of the success of the CARE Grant Program is the transformation of Girl Scout Camp Edith Consuelo in Estate Hope. Jacqueline Dennis, V.I. Girl Scouts Council president, said the CARE Grant Program has demonstrated the community's commitment to scouting. "The response from Girl Scout troops, adult volunteers, civic groups and the private sector was more than we could imagine," she said. "While we still have a challenging road ahead to transform Camp Edith Consuelo into a community camp, we know that we will get there, because the St. Croix community has shown it really cares about its children."
Dennis said the next cleanup at the camp is scheduled for Oct. 5.
To learn more about the dates and times of upcoming CARE Grant projects call:
– Ay Ay Eco Hike & Tours' Coriette at 772-4079.
– Women's Coalition co-directors Mingus and Clema Lewis at 773-9272.
– Elena Christian's Claxton, 773-4445
– La Vallee's Harris at 779-3767.
– The Girl Scouts' Dennis at 719-4759 or 774-3994.
– The St. Croix Foundation's Thomas, grants administrator, at 773-9898.
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Sept. 30, 2002 – If you haven't decided which candidate to support in the Nov. 5 governor's race, the St. John Community Foundation gubernatorial debate on Oct. 9 might help you make up your mind. The public event is set for 7 p.m. in the Westin Resort ballroom.
All eight candidates for governor have been invited to participate.
The Community Foundation's executive director, Carole DeSenne, said that as of Monday, Michael Bornn, Cora Christian, John de Jongh and Gov. Charles W. Turnbull had confirmed they will attend. Yet to be heard from were Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II, Hernando "Ike" Williams and Lloyd Williams.
To be scheduled to take part, the candidates "must respond in writing," DeSenne said.
Each candidate will be allowed an opening statement and afforded the opportunity to debate seven to 10 questions to be formulated by the Community Foundation with input from the community. The questions will focus on issues relevant to St. John.
The Community Foundation is looking for questions that cover the areas of education, health, taxes, crime, public corruption, infrastructure, insurance, tourism, housing, the environment, recycling, recreation and government services. Each question is to begin with the phrase, "If you are elected governor, how would you use your office to …"
Following closing statements by the candidates, additional questions will be taken from the audience.
Members of the public may submit as many questions in advance to the Community Foundation for consideration as they like. Questions must be received by Oct. 5. Those submitting queries will get a chance in a drawing for a 24-inch color television set to be held at the debate. To win, you must be present.
The foundation will not hold a senatorial debate. Member Rob Crane said there are too many legislative candidates — 23 for the St. Thomas-St. John district, three for the at-large seat — to fit them all into one night. He said the organizers feared that attendance would drop off if there were two nights of senatorial debates plus the night for the gubernatorial debate.
Questions may be submitted to the Community Foundation by faxing to 693-9410 or by mailing to PO Box 1020, St. John VI 00831. Include your name, address and telephone number. For more information, call the Community Foundation at 693-9410.

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Sept. 30, 2002 – A quiet man who seems to get excited by only one topic has lived in our midst for many years. Eighty-year-old Arthur Watres has been a resident since 1971, and for most of those years he has lived on Water Island.
But just mention any aspect of the environment, and Watres comes alive. He has experience and knowledge of — and opinions about — almost every aspect of the Virgin Islands environment. He engages the discussion with a multitude of historical facts and ideas and body language reactions.
"He has a very good mind and uses it to analyze legislation," said Edith Bornn, recalling how he has long been in the forefront of difficult battles taken on by the League of Women Voters.
Watres in a telephone conversation recalled trips in the early days of his arrival in the Virgin Islands on the vessel Fishin' Fool with Capt. Jimmy Loveland for "fun trips to inaccessible places." Loveland, whom he characterized as a "cultural activist," whet Watres' appetite for joining the effort in the Virgin Islands to preserve open spaces for the public.
Long Bay? He was there when the Save Long Bay Coalition formed and worked tirelessly and thanklessly to see that the area was put under Virgin Islands protection.
V.I. Conservation Society? An early president for several years in the 1980s, he has worked with its projects and interests as the group segued into EAST — the Environmental Association of St. Thomas-St. John, and SEA — the St. Croix Environmental Association.
Cas Cay? He was there with the first clean-up when the Vialet family made the island a preserve.
Magens Bay? He was there when the Magens Bay Coalition succeeded in getting the government and the community to acknowledge a commitment to protecting some of the most environmentally sensitive and important portions of the V.I. landscape.
Water Island? A civic activist, he's been there every step of the way, always mindful of protecting the environment.
A national award for environmental activism
But Watres has another life, too: He spends his summers back where he grew up in Pennsylvania, at the Lake Lacawac Sanctuary. And he has worked tirelessly there, too, preserving the environment to his ideal. His activities have enhanced the environment, turned family property into a sanctuary which is a registered National Natural Landmark and in the National Register of Historic Places, and formed a not-for-profit corporation to provide research and student use of the area.
And for those efforts, he has received the William T. Hornaday Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Natural Resource Conservation. The medal is bestowed by the Boy Scouts of America, and sparingly so; only two have been awarded nationally in the last 18 months.
At one time the summer estate of a Scranton coal baron, a parcel of land known as Wallenpaupack Manor was purchased by Watres' grandfather in 1909. The elder Watres organized the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey Power Co. to build a major dam and power plant which was eventually purchased by Pennsylvania Power and Light.
Although his grandfather had not been deeply interested in preserving an undisturbed setting, Watres and his mother in 1966 created a not-for-profit corporation to manage the Lake Lacawac area of the tract and stipulated that it was to be used for educational and scientific purposes.
"A lot of the people I work with now in conservation I knew when they were Boy Scouts," Watres told an audience of Eagle Scouts as reported in an article in the Scranton Times Tribune. "Conservation is central to the Scouting movement."
Lake Lacawac is one of the least-disturbed glacial lakes in the United States. Because the land trust corporation's holdings include essential control of the lake's watershed, it offers a baseline lake and bog system for studying the dynamics of aquatic systems. The stipulated purposes have been carried out since the 1950s by a number of scientific and educational institutions, including Lehigh University and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
Residential and laboratory facilities are available to scientists and naturalists, with housing provided April through November in a restored 1903 lodge.
The Sanctuary conducts a full range of community education programs, according to the Lacawac Sanctuary Web site, ranging from evening forums and nature walks through weeklong Elderhostel programs and university class field trips.
Land for the public and beliefs about its use
Watres has been involved in the Nature Conservancy since before its inception. On a visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, he made the acquaintance of Richard Poe, who was to become the conservancy's first president. The Watres family's Lacawac land trust was affiliated with the conservancy from 1974. But the group began accumulating land in the 1960s and 1970s without also accumulating funds for appropriate land management, Watres said, and so he disengaged from it in 1985.
The concept of land in trust for the preservation of open spaces for the public was alien to affluent Pennsylvania newcomers who were settling there — and still are — to escape the metropolis. They felt free to develop the large tracts they acquired as their personal estates. Watres fought to establish the idea of land for the public and embodied the beliefs about its use established for his family's holdings by affiliating with local public groups such as school systems.
The ideas of land trust and stewardship of the resource are now well supported in Watres' family home, the Lacawac Sanctuary.
He is not so optimistic about the continuing battles in the Virgin Islands. He mentions the Legislature's hearing on a location for a horse racetrack, and the battle to keep the National Guard from building in the mangrove lagoon at Long Point — only later to find an industrial plant on that very site.
Quoting an unnamed person from an encounter somewhere in his environmental battlefields, he said: "The dollar bill is the basic planner."

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