Oct. 12, 2001 – The 2001 V.I. Economic Development Summit held in July "served as a forum for dialogue on alternatives to rebuilding the V.I. economy," in the words of a V. I. Legislature release. Attended by businesspersons, government officials, students and residents, the July 24th session was on St. Thomas; the 25th took place on St. Croix.
The July 24th session, "A Recovery Plan for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Part 1," will be aired at 2 p.m. Sunday. On Innovative St. Thomas/ St. John Cable TV it will be on Channels 71 and 57; on Innovative St. Croix Cable TV it will be on Channel 59.
The convention, sponsored by Sen. Adelbert "Bert" Bryan, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, was the "first step towards addressing the financial crisis now facing the Virgin Islands," according to the release. That was before the recent terrorist attacks which have resulted in further concerns about the U.S. and V.I. economies.
This is a second chance to view the first session. The summit was first aired on Oct. 8, but due to technical difficulties St. Croix was not able to see the entire conference.

OCT 12, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.
The meeting will convene with regular session agenda items beginning with President Orville Kean's report, which will cover major accomplishments since the previous Board meeting of June 2 on St. Croix.
The Board will hear committee reports, including an update on the FY2002 appropriation from the V.I. government, and a report on the status of the phased renovation of Etelman House, which houses the university observatory.
Items on the agenda, according to a UVI release, also include consideration of a new science associate degree and of a resolution for the rezoning of the UVI-owned Sugden property on St. Croix to support the proposed UVI Research and Technology Park.
Then the Board will move into executive session.
Dr. Auguste Rimpel is chairman of the Board of Trustees.

OCT 12, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.
The meeting will convene with regular session agenda items beginning with President Orville Kean's report, which will cover major accomplishments since the previous Board meeting of June 2 on St. Croix.
The Board will hear committee reports, including an update on the FY2002 appropriation from the V.I. government, and a report on the status of the phased renovation of Etelman House, which houses the university observatory.
Items on the agenda, according to a UVI release, also include consideration of a new associate science degree and of a resolution for the rezoning of the UVI-owned Sugden property on St. Croix to support the proposed UVI Research and Technology Park.
Then the Board will move into executive session.
Dr. Auguste Rimpel is chairman of the Board of Trustees.

OCT 12, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands Board of Trustees will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center.
The meeting will convene with regular session agenda items, beginning with President Orville Kean's report, which will cover major accomplishments since the previous Board meeting of June 2 on St. Croix.
The Board will hear committee reports, including an update on the FY2002 appropriation from the V.I. government, and a report on the status of the phased renovation of Etelman House, the university observatory.
Items on the agenda, according to a UVI release, also include consideration of a new associate science degree and of a resolution for the rezoning of the UVI-owned Sugden property on St. Croix to support the proposed UVI Research and Technology Park.
Then the Board will move into executive session.
Dr. Auguste Rimpel is chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Oct. 12, 2001 — Regardless of whether gasification or another technology is the method the V.I. government ultimately uses to dispose the territory’s garbage, it will have to do something in the short term on St. Croix because of the need to close the Anguilla Landfill by the end of Dec. 2002.
At a workshop hosted Thursday by the Public Works Department on St. Croix, Sonya Nelthropp, technical assistant to the department’s commissioner on waste management, said that an interim plan will include building a 18,000-square foot modular building on the grounds of the landfill to sort and handle solid waste in order to eliminate scavenging birds. Birds and smoke from landfill fires pose a threat to aircraft using the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
Because of that proximity, the Federal Aviation Administration wants the dump, which sits on V.I. Port Authority property, closed by the end of 2002. If the landfill is not closed by then or a plan to deal with its closure not in place soon, the FAA has threatened to decertify the airport and turn grants to the Port Authority for airport renovations into loans.
Public Works is also under several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency orders aimed at bringing the landfill into compliance with federal law.
"St. Croix is the thrust of our efforts right now," Nelthropp said. "It’s under the gun."
Even if the Turnbull administration does see its favored and ultimate solid waste handling facility approved – a $180 million gasification plant, obtaining the required permits and constructing the plant will take at least 30 months. That is well past the FAA closure deadline.
Because of that, Nelthropp said progress on an interim plan must begin to placate the FAA. A request for proposals for the construction and operation of the waste processing building will be issued by Public Works this week. The bid will also entail a landfill closure plan.
Nelthropp said she hopes work will proceed sometime in April.
"The building could be in place in eight or nine months," she said.
The scenario using the interim plan would see trash haulers dumping their loads at the new building. In a subsequent interview, Nelthropp said what is done with the waste will be up to the operator.
Because the aim of the plan is to stop the flow of garbage into the Anguilla Landfill, the operator will have to come up with ways to handle the waste until a permanent, integrated solid waste plan is put in place, be it gasification or some other method.
"It’s up to the contractor. They need to come to us with a plan," Nelthropp said. "There are a number of ways to deal with it. They may bail it. They may ship it out. They may store it.
"We have to leave it open because there are a lot of things that can be done," she said.
Because of the time involved to permit and construct a permanent waste handling facility, the interim plan is the "only thing we can do" to show the FAA progress is being made, Nelthropp said.
"This is a program that is accepted and will move us down the road," she said.

Oct. 12, 2001– Funding from Congress to cancel the $45 million Virgin Islands Hurricane Hugo Community Disaster Loan may come as soon as next week.
In June, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $2 million to cover the cost of canceling the outstanding balance on the disaster loan that the U.S. government provided after the devastating storm in 1989. On Thursday, Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said the FY 2002 Department of Interior appropriations conference bill was filed, paving the way for passage of the measure sometime next week.
The delegate said the action is unprecedented in Congress and is significant to the V.I. government's fiscal health, since it will save $9 million in annual loan payments.
"In light of the exacerbation of our economic difficulties since the terrorist attack, this spells good news for the territory's treasury," she said.
Christensen testified before the Appropriations Committee in early May, asking it to include funds to cancel the territory's Hugo Community Disaster Loan in the 2002 funding bill. Last year, Congress appropriated an initial $500,000 to make it possible for the loan to be cancelled this year.
The funding for the cancellation costs will cover the re-estimated loan balance and interest. The new balance on the load debt will be just over $1 million.
The re-estimate of the Hugo loan was done under the Federal Credit Reform Act at the behest of the V.I. government.
"I want to thank Governor Turnbull and his Washington counsel for their support in making this possible," Christensen said. "I also want to thank the chairman and ranking Democrat of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee for their support of my request to cancel the Hugo loan."
Meanwhile, the Turnbull administration in May asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have $160 million in principal and interest owed on the Hurricane Marilyn disaster loan forgiven. Hurricane Marilyn struck the territory in 1995.

Oct. 11, 2001 – While much attention has focused on heightened security for air travelers in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, similar measures have been instituted without much fanfare for those who travel by sea.
Passengers boarding cruise ships in U.S. ports now are subject to security checks comparable to those at airports and may be issued digitally coded photo identity cards. The U.S. Coast Guard has new responsibilities for monitoring the movements of people and cargo in and out of the nation's ports, including those in the Virgin Islands.
The Coast Guard published a Marine Safety Information Bulletin on Oct. 4 announcing a temporary rule changing the notification requirements for vessels bound for or departing from all U.S. ports. The rule is to remain in effect until June 15, 2002.
Coast Guard "Notice of Arrivals" and "Notice of Departures" information formerly had to be provided 24 hours in advance of a ship's arrival in a port. Now it must be received 96 hours — four days — ahead of time. Further, the information required has been expanded to include a general description of the vessel's cargo, the date of departure from each port listed, and a listing of all persons on board. The lists must contain the name, date of birth and nationality of each person — plus, for crew members, position or duties on board ship.
"Previously, we didn't require those lists until the ship's arrival at the dock," Lt. John Reinert, Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment supervisor on St. Thomas, said.
National Public Radio's Tampa, Fla., affiliate WUSF-FM, reported Thursday morning that Coast Guard escorts are being provided for all vessels moving into and out of harbors and that Coast Guard officers now board every passenger and cargo ship carrying hazardous materials into ports.
"Security around the nation's ports has come into the forefront in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks," WUSF reporter Steve Newborn said, and in Washington, Sen. Bob Graham (D., Fla.) has introduced legislation "that would send millions of dollars to enhance security at the nation's ports."
Before passengers board ships to embark on cruises now, they are subject to search for weapons, Newborn said, and their bags are X-rayed. In the case of Carnival Cruise Lines, once cleared to board, each person is issued a photo identity card which must be presented in order to reboard the ship in ports of call.
Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz told Newborn that the way the photo I.D. works is that "Whenever you go on or off the ship, you're swiping your card. We're able to track you. We know when you're on the ship, we know when you're off the ship. We know how many times you've come on and off the ship — same for employees. And when you come back on the ship, we are able to visually match your face to that which is popping up on a security screen."
According to de la Cruz, the Carnival line is currently operating at about three-quarters capacity. "In the immediate aftermath, of course, we had a lot of cancellations, and reservations went 'way downhill," she said. "Since that first week, things have gradually escalated and improved."
She stressed that the cruise line already had security plans in place to deal with any potential terrorist strike. "Those are updated and audited and reviewed annually by the U.S. Coast Guard, so it's not that we had to whip together a plan at the last minute," she said. "Those plans were already well established. We simply needed to enact them at the highest levels."
Besides greater surveillance of passengers and crew, de la Cruz said, "The people who are entering the port on the vendor and the supplier side is very, very tightly restricted."
The Marine Safety Detachment on St. Thomas is tasked with port security in the busiest cruise ship harbor in America. Petty Officer 2nd Class Scott Howell said the new rule is aimed at vessels over 300 gross tons, which includes all the "cruise and container ships" visiting the territory. Also affected are all vessels carrying bulk hazardous materials, "including barges and gasoline tankers," he said.
"The Coast Guard is particularly interested in each ship's crew list," Howell said.
He made the point that "Everyone in the shipping industry has accepted these additional administrative burdens well." With the terrorist attacks in mind, he said, "Everybody on the ships has been fully cooperative. I haven't had any problems with them at all."
Howell noted that most of the ships that visit the Virgin Islands are foreign flagged. "They understand what we are doing and have been helping me out a lot," he said.
He said the public ferries and daytrip boats routinely operating between the U.S. and British Virgin Islands are not affected by the new rule.
Effective Oct. 15, the arrival and departure notices are to be submitted to a central national clearinghouse, the National Vessel Movement Center in Kearneysville, W.Va. Reinert said all of the required information "is still going to be coming to us, too, but, this will take some of the recently increased local burden off us."
The Tampa Tribune, meanwhile, reported that two men from the Middle East had been arrested after they were observed videotaping facilities at the Tampa seaport, the largest in Florida. On Sept. 16, federal investigators detained two individuals for questioning after security guards at The West Indian Co. dock reported that they had been taking pictures in a restricted area there; according to reports, the two were not U.S. nationals. No further information has been forthcoming.
The only documented terrorist attack on a cruise ship occurred in 1985, in the Mediterranean. Palestinian terrorists took some 400 passengers and crew members hostage aboard the Italian liner Achille Lauro and demanded the release of prisoners being held in Israel. The hostages eventually were released, but not before an elderly American in a wheelchair was killed.

Oct. 12, 2001 – Nadir Esso will be history once work begins on ramps to connect the "Bridge to Nowhere" to somewhere — the Nadir and Bovoni Roads, to be specific.
Currently the bridge sits in the middle of a field near where the two roads meet. Turpentine Run flows underneath it. But a year from now, work could begin on connecting it to the roads it was designed to serve.
Rod Platzke, a construction manager for the Federal Highway Administration, said Thursday that the agency is in the midst of acquiring rights-of-way along both roads. The Esso station is right at the intersection.
Hans Oriol, who owns Nadir Esso, said he has been in limbo for 10 years waiting for the project to happen. He said he hasn't been able to make needed upgrades to the gas station because no bank will lend him money due to the facility's uncertain future.
According to Oriol, the lack of improvements has caused him to operate his business inefficiently, which has cut the station's income by about 50 percent over the past three years. "I'm in a decline," he said.
Oriol said — and Platzke confirmed — that no offer for the property has been made. Platzke estimated it would take the next six months to wrap up right-of-way procedures and another six months to secure a major Coastal Zone Management permit for the project.
"Then we're ready to go out for bid," he said.
He estimated that connecting the "Bridge to Nowhere" would cost $2 million to $3 million — on top of the $2.3 million the FHA already spent to build the bridge.
The job calls for raising the road in front of Nadir Esso by about 10 feet to bring it level with the bridge roadbed. When finished, Nadir Road will have three lanes in that area, one of them a turning lane onto Bovoni Road.
On the Bovoni Road end, the road will run straight from the middle of the sharp turn near the Clinton E. Phipps Racetrack to the bridge. Work was finished three years ago on the bridge itself, which has become the butt of jokes as well as angered residents who consider it a waste of money on a project that has sat so long unfinished.
"There was a sign on it last April Fool's Day that said For Sale," St. Thomas resident Lisa Walker recalled.
Platzke said the preliminary work for the ramp project has been complicated. In addition to securing the rights-of-way, which is usually done before projects start, the agency had to test for pollutants at the gas station.
Replacing the low bridge now in place over Turpentine Run will help to control the flooding that occurs in the Nadir area, but it is not the final solution, Platzke said. "But the bridge is the single most critical area," he added.
Currently, when there is heavy rain, water backs up at the road-level bridge, causing flooding along Turpentine Run gut.
Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett said that building homes in the area, a flood plain, was folly. But when the homes were built decades ago, few people considered such factors, he noted. Even if it occurs infrequently, flooding can cause immense damage when it happens. "They need to look at what happened over the last 100 years," he said.
To further reduce flooding, Platzke said, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to widen Turpentine Run, a concrete-lined waterway that runs adjacent to Nadir Road. The widening will take in the area of a neighborhood basketball court. "The basketball court will be relocated," he said.
Plaskett said he thinks the "Bridge to Nowhere" is too big. "It's overkill," he said.
St. Thomas resident Punky Sharp, who sees that help is needed to solve the area's flooding problems, nevertheless agreed with Plaskett that the bridge is oversized. Perhaps, she suggested, a Stateside engineer accustomed to building on a grand scale designed it.
Sharp serves on the board of the Humane Society of St. Thomas, which operates at a site adjacent to the bridge. The society expects to lose the back half of its property to the project, she said.

Oct. 11, 2001 – For the first time in more than a decade, St. Thomas has an arts and crafts emporium — a place to play, to create and to learn. And, of course, to purchase the supplies to do so.
"We will have all sorts of classes," Sharon Hughes, owner of the Nisky Arts, Crafts and Ceramics Store, says. "Everything you could want to learn, or if you just want to play with stuff, learn how to use it."
Gesturing around while embarking on a tour of the 3,000-square-foot space at Nisky Center that formerly housed Island Finance, she adds, "We're using every square inch"
The last crafts shop on St. Thomas was Jane Hoffman's Craft Coop on Back Street, which closed about 11 years ago.
"Now the front here is our gallery, where we'll show local artists," Hughes says, pointing out the hanging pastel-hued calabash planters of Mary Louise Lauffer. Across from them is a display of cards and prints by Corinne Van Rensselaer, Doreen Walsh and Greg Miller.
Loping around her new store, anxious to show everything at once, she remarks, "Wow! I can't believe how fast these last three months have gone." Hughes and her husband, Rick, own Nisky Mailboxes. Her plan was to move the mailbox business to the larger location and open a little side business where she would make mosaic trays on wooden frames.
"Then Lisa got into it — it's all her fault," Hughes says. Her old pal Lisa Berger was helping to set up the shop when she wondered aloud why Hughes was stopping at just the mosaics. "It got me to thinking, " Hughes says. "We don't have anyplace on the island to get craft materials. None. So, here we are."
The shelves, the tables, even the floors are covered with all manner of paints and inks, camel-hair brushes, candles, crayons, charcoals pencils, calligraphy sets, sketch pads, posterboard and paper of all descriptions, stained-glass kits, mosaics of every hue and design, beads and more beads of all colors and sizes, fabrics, baskets and plastic flowers.
One section is nothing but mosaics, glass, stained-glass and glass cutters. Hughes quickly illustrates how you can take an ordinary round slab of cement, put some mosaic tiles or glass beads on it, and, "Voila! You've got a garden stone."
In the rear of the store, two new sewing machines sit atop large tables. The wall behind them is covered with rolls of fabric, from silk moire to outdoor canvas, from bright prints to soft pastels. "We are going to have sewing classes for kids and adults," Hughes says. "You can upholster your couch, make pillow covers, redo the chaise lounge, make drapes or, actually, just make a dress."
Teaching is a big part of her plans for the store. "What I really care about is teaching kids," she says. "I love to give them something to do."
She started painting when she was 8 years old and later volunteered in a convalescent home, helping to teach painting. At 16, she was painting murals, and eventually she earned a master's degree in interior design from the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Art Institute.
Some years later, on St. Thomas, her interior decorating skills were put to work house painting. "This was not what I'd had in mind," she recalls. But what she has created now clearly is.
She plans to offer classes for young people after school in the afternoon and for adults in the evening. Her 12-year-old assistant, Rachel Brown, comes over to show a painting she has just done with blow paints. Rachel shows how it's done. The blow paints are like fat felt-tip markers. "You just blow around a stencil and it comes out looking sort of like airbrushing," she explains.
The piéce de résistance is the clay department. Pounds and pounds of clay are stacked on shelves and on the floor, along with ceramic molds. The shelves are bounded by two state-of-the-art pottery wheels. At the back of the shop sit two gleaming 9-cubic foot kilns to fire the clay creations. By the wheels is an odd-looking machine called a slat roller. Hughes explains, "This is so you can roll out the clay, just like dough, any width or height you want."
That process is for handmade objects that don't go on the wheel, she adds.
Classes taught by potter Katie Goldberg started this week with 14 students, including Hughes and her friends Berger and Barbara Baker, who helped set up and stock the shop. "We started off making finger bowls," Hughes says.
Classes in progress or soon to start cover stained glass (taught by Lorrie Abbot), macrame, garden stones, sewing, flower arranging and fabric painting (taught by Bonnie Kemp, who has her wearable art cotton dresses and tote bags on display). Hughes says she welcomes other ideas — and teachers — for classes.
Kathy Powell, a high school teacher, will help teach the afternoon classes for kids. She also assists Ralph Evert, who has a computer office in one corner of the shop and offers help in web-page design and other computer skills.
"Grow as we go" is her motto, Hughes says with a slight pause. "Now, if I can only find a quilting teacher …"
The store's grand opening is Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. There'll be complimentary food and drink, music by the Sax Cymbals from 2 to 5, and a raffle of prizes including paint sets, pottery classes and gift certificates. The store is open now, and any purchase made before Saturday automatically enters you in the raffle.

Oct. 11, 2001 – Thanks to restaurant patrons and hotel guests feeding them — a violation of V.I. law, although most undoubtedly don't know it — iguanas are becoming pests, according to a local naturalist.
Donna Griffin, an environmental specialist at the Fish and Wildlife Division of the Planning and Natural Resources Department, said handouts attract even more iguanas to an area that already cannot support the number that originally lived there. "They then become aggressive and territorial," she said.
She urged residents and visitors not to feed the creatures, so that "It will then be survival of the fittest." She also urged restaurant and hotel operators to post "Do not feed the iguanas" signs.
An iguana bit a customer not long ago at Molly Molone's, a dockside restaurant in Red Hook on St. Thomas's East End, but did not cause serious damage. "She was sitting here having breakfast, and an iguana jumped up and bit her on the arm, restaurant owner Frank Brittingham said. "I'm not sure if she was feeding it."
He said that the iguanas seem to be particularly aggressive during the warmer months of August, September and October, which he said is when they are breeding.
Brittingham said he asks his customers not to feed them
Although no studies exist to show their numbers, the iguana population has definitely increased in recent years, Griffin said, in part because the territory has had no substantial hurricanes in the last six years to destroy their habitat. That, coupled with restaurant meals, put them in good shape for breeding, she said, and "We have a healthy population."
She said it is against the law to feed iguanas, just as it is against the law to eat them, although some residents who hail from other islands do appear to like their taste. "We have to tell them they can't do that here," she said.
Griffin said that Fish and Wildlife has relocated some of the iguanas to its compound on Red Hook Road and to an offshore cay.
For more information on iguanas, call the Fish and Wildlife Division at 775-6762 on St. Thomas or 773-3540 on St. Croix.