Dear Source,
I also was appalled to see Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuels' remarks. [See Source news story, "No Virgin Islanders for RLS Hospital CEO spot".]
Thinking like that is why the Virgin Islands is in so much trouble. I myself had a management position on St Thomas and had turned a company around that hadn't made money since its opening nine years ago because of the attitude of the local workers. When I started, a native V.I. worker came to me and said I would not get her to work because she did not have to; the government would back her up.
We wrote her up four times before having to let her go — and were not even allowed to present our case to the government, or the letters she had received when she was warned of her lack of work ethics and other work failures. Outside of the office, the judge told her lawyer not to worry; she would wrap up the case in her favor so they could go and pick up their children.
We were not allowed to produce any evidence, and her attorney stated that the reason she was terminated was that I was from the States and could not be trusted with the truth.
Norma, you need to look around and see what your attitude has done to your (local) people. The proof is in the pudding!
Now I am gone from that island, as it is too hard to survive the racism. But now the local St. Thomian who owns the buisness will not hire a local because of the situation — and her family goes back generations on St. Thomas.
Shame, Norma, shame!
Dave Belardi
Sarasota, Fla.

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

Oct. 22, 2001 – The Virgin Islands, in tandem with every state and other territory, has a National Guard Family Programs Office that oversees a "Family Readiness Network of Volunteers."
The network comes into play before, during and after the mobilization of National Guard members. Its primary purpose is to provide information and education for families so that both the Guard members and their families feel secure during the call-up time.
The backbone of the network is a group of volunteers who operate through the National Guard units. There are about 20 units in the Virgin Islands. While of necessity geographical, units also are organized by special duties such as headquarters, water supply and medical service. Each unit has a military representative and a civilian representative who are responsible for liaison using the unit database and a "telephone tree" communication system (in which an individual calls a small number of people, each of whom then calls another group, and so on).
Volunteers are trained to instill self-reliance and prepare families for mobilization of their loved ones. They assist families to prepare and keep on file various sorts of documents, including guardianship and power of attorney, that could be of help in certain circumstances. Thus the Guard members can depart for duty knowing the emergency paperwork is in place.
For the territory, Linda Todman on St. Croix is the Family Programs Office staff. Her task at the moment is to gear up the network of volunteers — from the community and from within the Guard ranks — at this time of international crisis. She says her energy and enthusiasm for her work carry her into the community to pull together volunteers for all facets of the network.
Approximately 80 volunteers are in place now — about 60 of them from the civilian community and the rest consisting of Guard members who have assumed this extra workload. "More volunteers are always welcome," Todman says with a smile. "Whatever skills or knowledge they come with can be useful."
The secondary purpose of the network is to work with youth, with the current concentration being on ages 13-18. These sons and daughters of Guard members are being trained as junior counselors, Todman says, and they, in turn, will work with younger children to allay their anxieties when family members are called away to active duty.
Encompassing both informational outreach and youth support is the Family Care Plan for families with children under age 19 and/or dependent elderly members. It is designed to give mobilized National Guard members a secure sense that their families at home are being cared for in their absence.

Oct. 22, 2001 – After spending Sunday night on the rocks east of St. John's Brown Bay, 48 illegal aliens from China were picked up by V.I. National Park staff on Monday.
Police Lt. Rene Garcia said they were transported by four park boats to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service headquarters on St. Thomas for processing.
"We had to use a raft to take them from the rocks to the boats," said Schuler Brown, the park chief of enforcement. He said park personnel borrowed the inflatable raft from a U.S. Coast Guard boat patrolling the area and that a park ranger had to get into the water to assist the aliens in getting into the raft.
A resident reported seeing the crowd of people on the rocks at 3:24 p.m. Sunday. However, Brown said he was alerted to the situation after dark. The area has no access road, which meant the job had to be done by boat. At that point it was unsafe to try pluck the people off the rocks, Brown said, and park personnel could not reach INS officials to receive them. So the 13 women and 35 men were forced to spend the night out in the open. "We figured they were safe," Brown said.
Garcia said the men and women ate whelks and cactus, and Brown said they had some cans of soda. Brown said some had minor foot injuries caused by stepping on spiny sea urchins on their way to shore.
While a hiking trail leads near the area, Brown said, they probably didn't know about it and were too "beat and tired" to use it, anyway. "I don't think they could go much further," he said.
Garcia speculated that they stayed put because "these people do not run away."
The arrival of the 48 follows the arrival on Oct. 20 of 36 illegal aliens, all also from China, at the Coral Bay ball park.
Garcia also said that a powerboat with twin 200-hp engines found on the beach at Leinster Bay on Oct. 20 might be linked to the arrival of the earlier group.
And several weeks ago, Brown said, the park seized a 28-foot wooden boat that brought several illegal aliens to shore.
St. John is the most-used location in the Virgin Islands for dropping off illegal aliens. Coming from various nations, they typically pay thousands of dollars for the trip in hopes of making it from the territory to the U.S. mainland.

Public input is being sought by the Office of the Governor and by the Gateway Community Planning Council on a vendors plaza and parking facility to be constructed on government property across from the car ferry dock in Cruz Bay, St. John. To be constructed in Spring 2002, this 35,000 square-foot facility is intended to serve two purposes: (1) to showcase local products, and (2) to provide additional public parking in the downtown core.
Before contracting for design of the facility, community input is being sought on issues such as the types of uses to be housed in the facility, how space should be allocated, key design issues such as height, and how rental rates should be determined.
Interested persons are asked to submit the questionnaire below by October 31, 2001 to:
Office of the Administrator
P.O. Box 488, Cruz Bay
St. John, Virgin Islands 00830
Fax: 340/776-6992
or copy and paste the questionnaire to a word processing document, answer the questions and copy and paste them back into an e-mail to Jim Owens at npplanning@islands.vi.
1. What uses should be accommodated within the facility?
2. The four businesses currently operating on the site will automatically be rented space within the new facility. How should the remaining vendors space be allocated among interested businesses, e.g. by lottery?
3. How should the rental rate for vendor space be determined?
4. How can the facility be designed to best fit into the community and not look like a parking structure?
5. How tall should the facility be, e.g. two or three stories?
6. Who should manage the facility and parking?
7. An advisory committee will be established to provide ongoing input on design and management of the facility? Who should be included on this committee?
8. Other comments?
Name:
Address:
Telephone:
Email:
Thank you! Please return by October 31 to the Office of the Administrator for St. John or via fax to 340/776-6992.
For information contact: 776-6484 or 776-6201×247 or e-mail npplanning@islands.vi.

The V.I. Port Authority Governing Board will hold its monthly meeting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Conference Room of the Administration Building on St. Thomas.
Agendas are available to the public for a fee of $15.

Th Rotary Club of St. Thomas II will meet at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort with Beverly Chongasing, Chair of the St. Thomas Hospital Facilities Board, as guest speaker. The topic will be the New Cancer Center at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital.

The V.I. Port Authority Governing Board will hold its monthly meeting in the Conference Room of the Administration Building on St. Thomas.
Agendas are available to the public for a fee of $15.

The Rotary Club II of St. Thomas II will meet at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort. The guest speaker will be Beverly Chongasing, Chair of the St. Thomas Hospital Facilities Board. The topic will be the New Cancer Center at the Roy L.Schneider Hospital.
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Oct. 22, 2001 – U.S. Navy Chief Petty Office Nielsa G. Jackson of the Virgin Islands will be assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, according to a U.S. Navy release.
She graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1984, and enlisted in the Navy in 1985.
Among her titles are Aviation Maintenance Administrator (AZC) and Aviation Warfare Specialist (AW). She is currently on duty at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Md., where she re-enlisted in August. She will report in late November to her new assignment in the Aviation Maintenance Intermediate Division aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Jackson has been an Aviation Maintenance Administrator in the U.S. Navy since 1986. The onetime slogan "Join the Navy and see the world" certainly applies to her: Between 1989 and 1998, she has served at Naval stations in San Diego, Cal.; Guam; Atsugi, Japan; and Whidbey Island, Wash.
Her personal decorations include Navy Achievement Medals, a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal, Desert Storm Medal, Overseas Service Ribbons, Navy Unit Commendation Medal, and the Navy Battle "E" Ribbon.
At her recent reenlistment, Jackson said, "I love what I'm doing." She thanked her fellow chief officers, colleagues, family and friends.
Jackson is the daughter of Winifred Sullivan and the late Niels "Sonny" Parson. She has a twelve-year-old son, Duane Jackson.

Oct. 16, 2001 – The local World AIDS Day Committee invites the V. I. public to attend a planning meeting for the Dec. 1 World AIDS Day, being held in tandem with events all over the world.
This year the theme is "I care. Do you? Youth and HIV for the 21st Century." The committee invites agencies and organizations, most especially groups that work with youth, to be part of the culminating Dec. 1 event. The next planning meeting is Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the old Police Records Room, second floor of Nisky Center.
Jason Henry of the American Red Cross wants lots of ideas for the Day – invited celebrities, interfaith sessions, health testing, more. He says, "Now is the time for groups to get together and plan." For more information contact Henry at 774-0375.
World AIDS Day was first held in 1988, with the purpose of opening channels of communication, strengthening information, and forging a spirit of social tolerance, according to the official Internet site at http://www.avert.org.
Since then the Day has received the support of the World Health Assembly, the United Nations system, and governments, communities and individuals worldwide. It is the only international day of coordinated action against AIDS.