ROTARY CLUB OF ST. JOHN
The Rotary Club of St. John will meet at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5, at Westin hotel's Beach Cafe. The speaker will be Susan Laua Lugo of United Way.
ROTARY CLUB OF ST. JOHN
The Rotary Club of St. John will meet at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5, at Westin Hotel's Beach Cafe. The speaker will be Susan Laura Lugo of United Way.
SAMUEL HEZEKIAH SIMMONS FUNERAL SERVICES
Samuel Hezekiah Simmons, age 63, passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Brandon Regional Hospital. Funeral services will take place at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4, at St. Peter's Anglican Church. Viewing will begin at 12 noon. Interment will take place at Kingshill Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife Marie; sons Daryl, Launchland, Stafford, Aston, Samuel, Jr. and Yancey Simmons; daughters Chearoll Williams, Dotslyn Ford and Jerrilyn Smith; 18 grandchildren; brothers Carol and Noel Simmons; sister Angela; and other relatives and friends too numerous to mention.
Professional arrangements by James Memorial Funeral Home, Inc.
He is survived by his wife Marie; sons Daryl, Launchland, Stafford, Aston, Samuel, Jr. and Yancey Simmons; daughters Chearoll Williams, Dotslyn Ford and Jerrilyn Smith; 18 grandchildren; brothers Carol and Noel Simmons; sister Angela; and other relatives and friends too numerous to mention.
Professional arrangements by James Memorial Funeral Home, Inc.
STX CHAMBER DUMPS SENATE SUIT, EYES REFORM
Oct. 3, 2001 — The St. Croix Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will drop its lawsuit to force the V.I. Legislature to reduce its ranks, but members said they will take a different tack to effect political change.
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
STX CHAMBER DUMPS SENATE SUIT, EYES REFORM
Oct. 3, 2001 — At the same time the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday its plan to abort a legal battle to force the V.I. Legislature to reduce its ranks, members said they are ready to take up a different tact to affect political change.
Chamber president Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the St. Croix business group had decided to drop its June lawsuit seeking to force the Legislature to act in accordance with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to either 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will seek political and election reform by attempting to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. The Legislature in July, however, voted against a bill seeking to make the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would be able to pick who they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit, but said it would have taken years for it to run its course. A more expedient way at reform, he said, is the initiative process.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the proponent, the Chamber in this case, has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? The Chamber must then collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Attorney Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. In order to qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures in each for St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria is met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that received the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the deadwood from the voter rolls – those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections – should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" becaus of inactivity Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, The St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. The Chamber of Commerce in that district has not been asked to join in the effort.
"At this point it's just the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce taking the lead," Rivera said.
He also said the St. Croix Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to insure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
Chamber president Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the St. Croix business group had decided to drop its June lawsuit seeking to force the Legislature to act in accordance with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to either 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will seek political and election reform by attempting to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. The Legislature in July, however, voted against a bill seeking to make the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would be able to pick who they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit, but said it would have taken years for it to run its course. A more expedient way at reform, he said, is the initiative process.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the proponent, the Chamber in this case, has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? The Chamber must then collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Attorney Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. In order to qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures in each for St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria is met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that received the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the deadwood from the voter rolls – those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections – should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" becaus of inactivity Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, The St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. The Chamber of Commerce in that district has not been asked to join in the effort.
"At this point it's just the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce taking the lead," Rivera said.
He also said the St. Croix Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to insure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
CHAMBER DUMPS SENATE SUIT, EYES VOTING REFORM
Oct. 3, 2001 — The St. Croix Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will drop its lawsuit to force the V.I. Legislature to reduce its ranks, but members said they will take a different tack to effect political change.
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
STX CHAMBER DUMPS SENATE SUIT, EYES REFORM
Oct. 3, 2001 — The St. Croix Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will drop its lawsuit to force the V.I. Legislature to reduce its ranks, but members said they will take a different tack to effect political change.
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
Chamber President Carmelo Rivera, along with attorney Douglas Brady and former senator Holland Redfield, a member of the organization’s government affairs committee, said the business group had decided to withdraw its June lawsuit to force the Legislature to comply with a referendum last November on reducing the number of senators from 15 to 11 or nine.
Instead, the Chamber will attempt to implement numbered seating for the Senate via the territory’s initiative ballot process.
"This is the first time in the history of the Virgin Islands an initiative has been undertaken as part of the Revised Organic Act," Brady said.
Redfield said that a mandate was issued last November when out of more than 33,000 voters, some 15,000 expressed the desire for a nine-member Senate. However, the Legislature voted in July against a bill to implement the change.
Numbered seating would include seven seats each in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts and one at-large seat to be filled by a St. John resident. Incumbents would be assigned a numbered seat and challengers would decide which one they would run against. The proposed system, Redfield said, would instill debate and accountability to a political process that now more resembles a popularity contest.
"There isn’t any agenda in this," Redfield said. "The only agenda is accountability. I think the electorate in the Virgin Islands is exasperated."
Brady said he was confident the Chamber would have prevailed in the Senate reduction lawsuit but it would have taken years to run its course. The initiative process is a more expedient way at reform, he said.
"The suit wouldn’t have changed the process. It was simply a change in the number of senators. They still would have been elected at-large," he said, adding that would have concentrated power in "the hands of a few senators" and would have only "exacerbated issues."
The initiative process
Before the Chamber can get the numbered seating proposal on the ballot, it must go through a series of petitions, verifications and approvals, which are all spelled out in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.
First, the Chamber has to come up with a simple yes-or-no question for the ballot: Shall senators be elected to numbered seats? Then the group must collect the signatures of at least 1 percent of the registered voters in each district in order to have the V.I. supervisor of elections qualify the question for the ballot.
Each district, Brady said, has about 27,000 registered voters. So the Chamber must have some 275 signatures before it can go to John Abramson Jr., the supervisor of elections, who has 10 days to verify the signatures.
If everything checks out, Abramson passes the preliminary petition on to an initiative titling board, made up of himself, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the Senate’s legislative counsel, Constance Krigger. Within 30 days, the board will hold a public hearing, prepare the official ballot title, the submission question and a summary of the initiative proposal.
At that point, the Chamber will have 180 days to circulate the initiative petition to the voting public. To qualify for the ballot, the petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of the voters in each district. That would be about 2,700 signatures for St. Croix and 2,700 for St. Thomas-St. John.
If that threshold is reached within the time frame, Abramson has 15 days to verify the signatures. If the criteria are met, Abramson then passes the petition on to the Legislature.
Senators must accept or reject the measure within 30 days. If approved, the petition becomes law. If rejected, the question goes to the voters in November 2002.
The Legislature can, however, submit a counter-initiative to the voters. If both are approved, the question that receives the most votes prevails.
For an initiative to pass, at least 50 percent plus one of the voters registered must turn out to vote. If so, then a simple majority will decide the question.
On a mission
One of the major hurdles in the initiative and recall process, as well as past questions regarding the territory’s status, has been meeting the 50 percent-plus-one threshold. But recent efforts by the supervisor of elections to trim the dead wood from the voter rolls — those people who haven’t voted in the last two general elections — should make it easier to meet the percentage requirements.
"There have been thousands of people who have been taken off the rolls" because of inactivity, Redfield said. "I believe now there are people who truly will be voting. I think it is attainable."
Rivera, the St. Croix Chamber president, said the effort to qualify the initiative will begin immediately. The organization will ask for volunteers to circulate petitions on both St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John. He also said the Chamber will hold public forums about the initiative process and urged voters of all parties and persuasions to join in the effort to "implement meaningful election reform to ensure accountability of elected officials.
"We believe we must continue to develop our government," Rivera said. "Good government is good for all the people as well as business."
BELOVED EDUCATOR ELENA CHRISTIAN DIES AT 105
BELOVED EDUCATOR ELENA CHRISTIAN DIES AT 105
Oct. 2, 2001 — Elena Christian, one of the Virgin Islands’ educational icons, died Tuesday on St. Croix at the age of 105.
As the matriarch of the Christian clan, her life spanned more than five generations that included son Almeric Christian, former chief judge of the U.S. District Court, who died two years ago at age 80, and granddaughter Donna Christian Christensen, the territory’s delegate to Congress.
As an educator, Christian has a career that covered more than five decades, from 1913, when she began teaching elementary school in what was then the Danish West Indies, until 1967, when she retired. During that time she was also a high school teacher, an assistant principal and finally principal of the then Christiansted High School.
She was honored twice by the Legislature, in 1967 at her retirement and 1971, when the junior high school in Christiansted was named in her honor.
"She helped shape the lives of many Virgin Islands school children, many of whom grew up to be community leaders," Christensen said. "Our entire family is, of course, greatly saddened by the death of our beloved matriarch, but it was not unexpected, as we have been blessed to have her with us for 105 years, and over five generations."
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull noted that Christian’s own education didn’t end with her retirement. "Because she was of strong character and considered learning a never-ending process, she earned a master's degree in 1967 from Hampton Institute in Virginia," he said, describing her as "one of the most beloved educators that the Virgin Islands has produced."
Sen. Vargrave Richards, a former teacher, said that while he was saddened by Christian’s death, he would celebrate the contributions she made to the community. "Mrs. Christian will be remembered with great respect and love by all whom she taught, worked with, served and fought for," he said. "We salute this beloved matriarch and thank her for the enormous strength and courage she displayed in service to the territory."
Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd, also a former teacher, said extended his condolences to the Christian family on behalf of the 24th Legislature. He called Christian a lady of immense spiritual faith who dedicated much of her energy to the St. John Anglican Church in Christiansted.
He said Christian "will always be remembered for her pioneering work in education and a pillar of strength and immense wisdom in our community."
Christensen said the family was still in the process of notifying family members and friends and will begin making preparations for a service celebrating Elena Christian’s life shortly.
Oct. 2, 2001 — Elena Christian, one of the Virgin Islands’ educational icons, died Tuesday on St. Croix at the age of 105.
As the matriarch of the Christian clan, her life spanned more than five generations that included son Almeric Christian, former chief judge of the U.S. District Court, who died two years ago at age 80, and granddaughter Donna Christian Christensen, the territory’s delegate to Congress.
As an educator, Christian has a career that covered more than five decades, from 1913, when she began teaching elementary school in what was then the Danish West Indies, until 1967, when she retired. During that time she was also a high school teacher, an assistant principal and finally principal of the then Christiansted High School.
She was honored twice by the Legislature, in 1967 at her retirement and 1971, when the junior high school in Christiansted was named in her honor.
"She helped shape the lives of many Virgin Islands school children, many of whom grew up to be community leaders," Christensen said. "Our entire family is, of course, greatly saddened by the death of our beloved matriarch, but it was not unexpected, as we have been blessed to have her with us for 105 years, and over five generations."
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull noted that Christian’s own education didn’t end with her retirement. "Because she was of strong character and considered learning a never-ending process, she earned a master's degree in 1967 from Hampton Institute in Virginia," he said, describing her as "one of the most beloved educators that the Virgin Islands has produced."
Sen. Vargrave Richards, a former teacher, said that while he was saddened by Christian’s death, he would celebrate the contributions she made to the community. "Mrs. Christian will be remembered with great respect and love by all whom she taught, worked with, served and fought for," he said. "We salute this beloved matriarch and thank her for the enormous strength and courage she displayed in service to the territory."
Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd, also a former teacher, said extended his condolences to the Christian family on behalf of the 24th Legislature. He called Christian a lady of immense spiritual faith who dedicated much of her energy to the St. John Anglican Church in Christiansted.
He said Christian "will always be remembered for her pioneering work in education and a pillar of strength and immense wisdom in our community."
Christensen said the family was still in the process of notifying family members and friends and will begin making preparations for a service celebrating Elena Christian’s life shortly.
ANIMATED FILM FEST WON'T BE HELD IN DECEMBER
Oct. 3, 2001 – A St. Thomas couple who had worked for nearly two years to produce an international animated film festival planned for December in the Virgin Islands announced Monday that because of after-effects of the terrorist attacks on the mainland, they have decided to delay the event for a year.
"Due to the events on Sept. 11 in New York and Washington, D.C., and the rash of cancellations for travel worldwide," Ann and Rob West said, the festival, which had been scheduled for Dec. 3-8, "has been postponed until December 2002." Specific dates have yet to be determined, "pending consultation with festival sponsors" and local hoteliers.
The festival was to have been headquartered at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort. Events were scheduled for Pistarkle Theater in Tillett Gardens, the Westin Resort on St. John and an unspecified venue on St. Croix.
Monday's decision reversed one the Wests had announced on Sept. 21 — that the festival would "go on as planned despite tourism woes and projected cancellations by U.S. and European travelers." In announcing that decision, the couple had said that "even if cancellation of travel plans by judges and guests alters the original format of the festival … an abbreviated version of the original plan will definitely take place."
On Sept. 21, the Wests said they were "determined to do their part in defying the terrorists' desire to deprive Americans of their freedoms."
At that time, they noted that while there were 30 programs scheduled for the festival — from locales including Canada, England, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland and the United States — only five were competition films. "Without an international panel of judges, the ASIFA guidelines for competition cannot be met," they said. "In this case, a postponement of the competition may be in order." ASIFA is the French acronym for the International Animators Association.
In Monday's announcement, the Wests said they were reluctant to postpone the event because of their belief in "the need for Americans to get back to normal," but "major sponsorship withdrawal and the reluctance of most Americans to get back in the air" prompted the decision. They added that, having "put too much time and effort into the project to let it die," they would be "heading stateside to rally the big sponsors for next year's event."
Rob West, festival director, said, "After allowing for a time of healing, we believe people will embrace this event with even more enthusiasm. The Virgin Islands is a perfect venue for a promotion such as this, and we are optimistic for next year's success."
The final format of the festival was still being worked out as of the Sept. 21 announcement, with a list of events to have been released "in early November." Promised were "fabulous films from 1900 to the most current creations by filmmakers from near and far, young and old, experienced and novice."
Earlier publicity said the festival competition would be of short subject animation (under 30 minutes) with prize money of $50,000 to be awarded by a jury of internationally recognized animated film experts. Other features included retrospectives of great animated films and showings from a local children's workshop as well as from one held in France.
As of early Wednesday, the USVI International Animated Film Festival web site had not been updated to reflect the postponement.
Rob West has been a producer of the New York Animated Film Festival, now in its 30th year, and has served on the New York board of ASIFA. In 1987 he founded Animators of the World, a company that markets animation artwork. Annie West, his wife, a graphic artist, is the festival administrator.
The Wests said they conceived and developed the festival as a format "about opening the eyes of the world to the Virgin Islands as a cultural destination and opening the eyes of the Islanders to a new art form."
Student workshops were held as scheduled
The week before the terrorist attacks, the first of two sets of long-planned children's animated film workshops were taking place at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School on St. Thomas. The week of the attacks — which occurred on a Tuesday — the second set of workshops got under way.
Workshop presenter David Ehrlich had come to the territory from Dartmouth College, where he is a visiting professor of film studies, and in the days immediately following Sept. 11, there was no way to fly back to the mainland. So the workshops proceeded as planned.
According to BCB art teacher Phebe Schwartz, who was instrumental in organizing the school project, what happened on Sept. 11 "didn't really affect what was going on in the workshops." While "it affected the adults' emotional level," she added, "those of us who are teachers could set that aside and be there for the students during class time."
Ehrlich, who for 23 years has taught animation workshops to thousands of children, was brought to St. Thomas by the Wests to work with local youngsters to produce animated films that would be shown as a special part of the December festival.
His credentials as a filmmaker include having created the first animated hologram ever shown at world-renowned festivals in Annecy, France, and Zagreb, Yugoslavia. His award-winning abstract films are held in the collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art, the International Animation Library in Tokyo and the ASIFA Archive in Berlin. One of his animation collaborations won a special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. He has served on the ASIFA executive board since 1988, for six years as vice president.
Schwartz said she and the Wests had begun discussing the workshop idea "about a year ago, and I was really interested in getting my kids involved." Initial plans were to include students from various schools, but the logistics proved too complex, so they settled on BCB as the target audience as well as the venue and secured the necessary administrative approval.
Ehrlich held two sessions a day for a week, each about an hour and a half to two hours in length, with about 20 students in each, then repeated the process with different students the following week.
"I worked with the other art teacher and a sixth grade teacher and set it up," Schwartz said. "The first week, we had a combined class of my basic art and advanced art, then the second group was the sixth grade class. The second week, we used the two basic art classes from the other teacher. It meant some rearranging of student schedules, but Mr. Farrow [BCB Principal Carver Farrow] and I had told the whole faculty about it at the first meeting of the year, so everyone knew this would be happening."
Flipbooks tell stories, teach serial thinking
The students created "flipbooks" — 3" by 5" or 5" by 8" pads of white paper. They drew in black pen and filled in small parts with colored pencil, producing enough pictures to create a video 5 to 10 seconds in length. There are 24 frames per second, so it would take a book of 120 pages to make a 5-second video.
"We'll end up with about 80 short animation films, which will be grouped by class," Schwartz said. "Each group started with something — like maybe a circle — which evolved and morphed into something else, like a face, an animal, whatever. Then it changed and morphed some more."
As background sound for the video that Ehrlich will produce from the flipbooks, "We're going to have student-produced music," Schwartz said, "like the BCB choir or band or steelband playing 'The Virgin Islands March.'"
Each year, ASIFA produces a children's animation video to be shown at its annual conference. Ehrlich hand-picked a group of promising BCB students from the workshop sessions and worked with them separately, above and beyond their own flipbooks, to create a "Moon Project" video for ASIFA. "It's a legend about a mermaid who appears only at the full moon, and how to capture her," Schwartz said. "One incredibly talented student was selected as director, another is art director." She said Ehrlich "got them set up, they check in with me daily, and they're going mostly on their own to complete this. We'll send it all to David, and he's doing the actual filming."
The non-art teacher involved, Brian McLernan, said that at the start of their workshop, many students in his sixth grade integrated-studies class "believed they couldn't do animation. Four days later, they all believe they can do it, because they have done it. When you empower kids, great things happen."
The degree of engagement "kind of depended on the kids," Schwartz said, "with the advanced art class being about a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10." In her opinion, "It was a great workshop, and everyone — including and especially me — got a lot out of it. It's also ongoing in my advanced class. Plus some kids have made flipbooks on their own at home, and bring them in to me."
Schwartz said she hopes to travel to St. Croix to train some teachers there in how to do animation "so the project can expand a lot beyond our small group at school." She said Ehrlich also did a session with the School of Visual Arts and Careers enrichment program at the Fort Christian Museum, where she is the director, "and of course, those kids just took off with it and are completing marathons of flipbooks."
Academically speaking, she said, Ehrlich "teaches 'serial cognition,' which is just a fancy way of saying thinking of series and sequences and what comes next, but is a very important cognitive skill. We don't usually look at art as a way of teaching cognitive skills, but it's a very effective medium for doing so."
Video to be produced, program set for BCB
The children's workshops, Annie West said afterward, were "about sharing the dream of success — in our case through animation — with our youth. Although many of the children are talented artists, the children's workshop was not about drawing. It was about opening the minds of those kids at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School to recognize their abilities. To achieve a goal by putting their creativity to work, attacking the task, and seeing with pride the positive result of their labor empowered them.
"The next time they attempt a task with which they are unfamiliar and whose outcome appears tentative, they are likely to remember the simple flipbook they created and their success. Planting that seed of self-confidence is ample reward for the year and a half we have devoted to this project."
Sponsors were solicited to adopt the projects of the individual students for $100. Those on board were Bolongo Bay Beach Club and Villas, Caribbean Auto Mart, Best Western Resorts, Diamonds International, El Dorado, Hard Rock Café, S&R Telecommunications, Touch of Gold, Joan Fricke, Dr. and Mrs. Larry Goldman and Dr. Donald Pomeranz.
Annie West said she and her husband will sponsor participants who are not spoken for by others in the community. Anyone interested in sponsoring a child's project can contact her at 714-3319 for more information.
In Monday's announcement, the Wests said a children's workshop video is being produced as planned, and that they intend to make it available along with some other children's animation programs to BCB for a special, free program at the school, since the festival won't be held this year.
"Due to the events on Sept. 11 in New York and Washington, D.C., and the rash of cancellations for travel worldwide," Ann and Rob West said, the festival, which had been scheduled for Dec. 3-8, "has been postponed until December 2002." Specific dates have yet to be determined, "pending consultation with festival sponsors" and local hoteliers.
The festival was to have been headquartered at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort. Events were scheduled for Pistarkle Theater in Tillett Gardens, the Westin Resort on St. John and an unspecified venue on St. Croix.
Monday's decision reversed one the Wests had announced on Sept. 21 — that the festival would "go on as planned despite tourism woes and projected cancellations by U.S. and European travelers." In announcing that decision, the couple had said that "even if cancellation of travel plans by judges and guests alters the original format of the festival … an abbreviated version of the original plan will definitely take place."
On Sept. 21, the Wests said they were "determined to do their part in defying the terrorists' desire to deprive Americans of their freedoms."
At that time, they noted that while there were 30 programs scheduled for the festival — from locales including Canada, England, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland and the United States — only five were competition films. "Without an international panel of judges, the ASIFA guidelines for competition cannot be met," they said. "In this case, a postponement of the competition may be in order." ASIFA is the French acronym for the International Animators Association.
In Monday's announcement, the Wests said they were reluctant to postpone the event because of their belief in "the need for Americans to get back to normal," but "major sponsorship withdrawal and the reluctance of most Americans to get back in the air" prompted the decision. They added that, having "put too much time and effort into the project to let it die," they would be "heading stateside to rally the big sponsors for next year's event."
Rob West, festival director, said, "After allowing for a time of healing, we believe people will embrace this event with even more enthusiasm. The Virgin Islands is a perfect venue for a promotion such as this, and we are optimistic for next year's success."
The final format of the festival was still being worked out as of the Sept. 21 announcement, with a list of events to have been released "in early November." Promised were "fabulous films from 1900 to the most current creations by filmmakers from near and far, young and old, experienced and novice."
Earlier publicity said the festival competition would be of short subject animation (under 30 minutes) with prize money of $50,000 to be awarded by a jury of internationally recognized animated film experts. Other features included retrospectives of great animated films and showings from a local children's workshop as well as from one held in France.
As of early Wednesday, the USVI International Animated Film Festival web site had not been updated to reflect the postponement.
Rob West has been a producer of the New York Animated Film Festival, now in its 30th year, and has served on the New York board of ASIFA. In 1987 he founded Animators of the World, a company that markets animation artwork. Annie West, his wife, a graphic artist, is the festival administrator.
The Wests said they conceived and developed the festival as a format "about opening the eyes of the world to the Virgin Islands as a cultural destination and opening the eyes of the Islanders to a new art form."
Student workshops were held as scheduled
The week before the terrorist attacks, the first of two sets of long-planned children's animated film workshops were taking place at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School on St. Thomas. The week of the attacks — which occurred on a Tuesday — the second set of workshops got under way.
Workshop presenter David Ehrlich had come to the territory from Dartmouth College, where he is a visiting professor of film studies, and in the days immediately following Sept. 11, there was no way to fly back to the mainland. So the workshops proceeded as planned.
According to BCB art teacher Phebe Schwartz, who was instrumental in organizing the school project, what happened on Sept. 11 "didn't really affect what was going on in the workshops." While "it affected the adults' emotional level," she added, "those of us who are teachers could set that aside and be there for the students during class time."
Ehrlich, who for 23 years has taught animation workshops to thousands of children, was brought to St. Thomas by the Wests to work with local youngsters to produce animated films that would be shown as a special part of the December festival.
His credentials as a filmmaker include having created the first animated hologram ever shown at world-renowned festivals in Annecy, France, and Zagreb, Yugoslavia. His award-winning abstract films are held in the collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art, the International Animation Library in Tokyo and the ASIFA Archive in Berlin. One of his animation collaborations won a special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. He has served on the ASIFA executive board since 1988, for six years as vice president.
Schwartz said she and the Wests had begun discussing the workshop idea "about a year ago, and I was really interested in getting my kids involved." Initial plans were to include students from various schools, but the logistics proved too complex, so they settled on BCB as the target audience as well as the venue and secured the necessary administrative approval.
Ehrlich held two sessions a day for a week, each about an hour and a half to two hours in length, with about 20 students in each, then repeated the process with different students the following week.
"I worked with the other art teacher and a sixth grade teacher and set it up," Schwartz said. "The first week, we had a combined class of my basic art and advanced art, then the second group was the sixth grade class. The second week, we used the two basic art classes from the other teacher. It meant some rearranging of student schedules, but Mr. Farrow [BCB Principal Carver Farrow] and I had told the whole faculty about it at the first meeting of the year, so everyone knew this would be happening."
Flipbooks tell stories, teach serial thinking
The students created "flipbooks" — 3" by 5" or 5" by 8" pads of white paper. They drew in black pen and filled in small parts with colored pencil, producing enough pictures to create a video 5 to 10 seconds in length. There are 24 frames per second, so it would take a book of 120 pages to make a 5-second video.
"We'll end up with about 80 short animation films, which will be grouped by class," Schwartz said. "Each group started with something — like maybe a circle — which evolved and morphed into something else, like a face, an animal, whatever. Then it changed and morphed some more."
As background sound for the video that Ehrlich will produce from the flipbooks, "We're going to have student-produced music," Schwartz said, "like the BCB choir or band or steelband playing 'The Virgin Islands March.'"
Each year, ASIFA produces a children's animation video to be shown at its annual conference. Ehrlich hand-picked a group of promising BCB students from the workshop sessions and worked with them separately, above and beyond their own flipbooks, to create a "Moon Project" video for ASIFA. "It's a legend about a mermaid who appears only at the full moon, and how to capture her," Schwartz said. "One incredibly talented student was selected as director, another is art director." She said Ehrlich "got them set up, they check in with me daily, and they're going mostly on their own to complete this. We'll send it all to David, and he's doing the actual filming."
The non-art teacher involved, Brian McLernan, said that at the start of their workshop, many students in his sixth grade integrated-studies class "believed they couldn't do animation. Four days later, they all believe they can do it, because they have done it. When you empower kids, great things happen."
The degree of engagement "kind of depended on the kids," Schwartz said, "with the advanced art class being about a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10." In her opinion, "It was a great workshop, and everyone — including and especially me — got a lot out of it. It's also ongoing in my advanced class. Plus some kids have made flipbooks on their own at home, and bring them in to me."
Schwartz said she hopes to travel to St. Croix to train some teachers there in how to do animation "so the project can expand a lot beyond our small group at school." She said Ehrlich also did a session with the School of Visual Arts and Careers enrichment program at the Fort Christian Museum, where she is the director, "and of course, those kids just took off with it and are completing marathons of flipbooks."
Academically speaking, she said, Ehrlich "teaches 'serial cognition,' which is just a fancy way of saying thinking of series and sequences and what comes next, but is a very important cognitive skill. We don't usually look at art as a way of teaching cognitive skills, but it's a very effective medium for doing so."
Video to be produced, program set for BCB
The children's workshops, Annie West said afterward, were "about sharing the dream of success — in our case through animation — with our youth. Although many of the children are talented artists, the children's workshop was not about drawing. It was about opening the minds of those kids at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School to recognize their abilities. To achieve a goal by putting their creativity to work, attacking the task, and seeing with pride the positive result of their labor empowered them.
"The next time they attempt a task with which they are unfamiliar and whose outcome appears tentative, they are likely to remember the simple flipbook they created and their success. Planting that seed of self-confidence is ample reward for the year and a half we have devoted to this project."
Sponsors were solicited to adopt the projects of the individual students for $100. Those on board were Bolongo Bay Beach Club and Villas, Caribbean Auto Mart, Best Western Resorts, Diamonds International, El Dorado, Hard Rock Café, S&R Telecommunications, Touch of Gold, Joan Fricke, Dr. and Mrs. Larry Goldman and Dr. Donald Pomeranz.
Annie West said she and her husband will sponsor participants who are not spoken for by others in the community. Anyone interested in sponsoring a child's project can contact her at 714-3319 for more information.
In Monday's announcement, the Wests said a children's workshop video is being produced as planned, and that they intend to make it available along with some other children's animation programs to BCB for a special, free program at the school, since the festival won't be held this year.
FINAL ANIMAL CONTROL PLAN OPEN TO COMMENT
Oct. 2, 2001 – The public has until Oct. 17 to comment on the final draft environmental assessment for the V.I. National Park's plan to reduce its rat, cat and mongoose populations.
The National Park Service does not plan to completely eliminate those populations — which are not native to St. John — but expects to reduce them to manageable numbers. Currently, they pose problems for the park's natural resources and long-term management programs as well as to visitor health and safety, said Rafe Boulon, the park's chief of resources management.
Park Supt. John King said that although the park does not normally solicit public comment on final plans, he is asking for it this time to make sure the park has addressed people's concerns.
Areas targeted include Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Francis Bays as well as Annaberg Plantation. These are the areas within the park where the most human activity occurs.
The park began developing the management plan earlier this year. Residents had a chance to express their views during the first review period. Boulon said most concerns centered on the bureaucratic language in the plan and the fate of cats.
The plan was rewritten to make it more reader friendly, he said, and "Some people want to adopt the cats."
As the plan stands now, he said, cats will be trapped and attempts will be made to find them homes through the Animal Care Center of St. John. Traps will be checked every six hours or less to reduce stress for the animals.
Additionally, park officials plan to ask owners of domestic cats that frequent park areas to put tags on their animals. This will facilitate returning pet cats to their owners should they end up in a trap.
"We certainly don't want to catch people's personal cats," Boulon said.
Details of the tag distribution are not final.
The plan calls for reducing the animal habitat and food supply. Boulon said this includes making sure concession stands dispose of food properly and use animal-proof garbage cans. Residents who live in areas inside or near the park will be asked to do the same. Next, the park plans to reduce the numbers of the targeted animals. For rats and mongooses, this would be accomplished by baiting stations with diphacione, an anti-coagulant that causes the animals to die by internal bleeding.
"It was developed to be as humane as possible. They go to sleep and don't wake up," Boulon said. It works on mammals, not other creatures such as birds, he said.
Boulon said the stations where the bait is placed would not be accessible to larger animals. Because the animals would return to their burrows to die, larger predator animals would not have the opportunity to eat their carcasses.
After this final review period, Boulon said, the plan will go to the park's regional office in Atlanta for approval. Once that happens, reduction work by the Wildlife Service Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin.
After the numbers are reduced, the park staff plans to keep tabs on the populations. When they again exceed the limits, staff members will work to reduce them.
Copies of the plan may be viewed at public libraries, at the park's Visitor Center in Cruz Bay and at the Christiansted National Historic Site headquarters on St. Criox.
The full text of the plan is posted on the web sites for the National Park Service and the Friends of the V.I. National Park. At either site, scroll down to the second category, "Planning, Documents," and click on the listing "10/2/01 – Download final plan for sustained reduction of rats, cats and mongooses." The 81-page document requires Acrobat Reader to download; that software itself is available for downloading without charge.
Boulon also will supply hard copy versions. To request one, call him at 693-8950, ext. 224.
Comments on the plan should be made in writing to V.I. National Park Supt. John King, 130 Cruz Bay Creek, St. John VI 00830.
The National Park Service does not plan to completely eliminate those populations — which are not native to St. John — but expects to reduce them to manageable numbers. Currently, they pose problems for the park's natural resources and long-term management programs as well as to visitor health and safety, said Rafe Boulon, the park's chief of resources management.
Park Supt. John King said that although the park does not normally solicit public comment on final plans, he is asking for it this time to make sure the park has addressed people's concerns.
Areas targeted include Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Francis Bays as well as Annaberg Plantation. These are the areas within the park where the most human activity occurs.
The park began developing the management plan earlier this year. Residents had a chance to express their views during the first review period. Boulon said most concerns centered on the bureaucratic language in the plan and the fate of cats.
The plan was rewritten to make it more reader friendly, he said, and "Some people want to adopt the cats."
As the plan stands now, he said, cats will be trapped and attempts will be made to find them homes through the Animal Care Center of St. John. Traps will be checked every six hours or less to reduce stress for the animals.
Additionally, park officials plan to ask owners of domestic cats that frequent park areas to put tags on their animals. This will facilitate returning pet cats to their owners should they end up in a trap.
"We certainly don't want to catch people's personal cats," Boulon said.
Details of the tag distribution are not final.
The plan calls for reducing the animal habitat and food supply. Boulon said this includes making sure concession stands dispose of food properly and use animal-proof garbage cans. Residents who live in areas inside or near the park will be asked to do the same. Next, the park plans to reduce the numbers of the targeted animals. For rats and mongooses, this would be accomplished by baiting stations with diphacione, an anti-coagulant that causes the animals to die by internal bleeding.
"It was developed to be as humane as possible. They go to sleep and don't wake up," Boulon said. It works on mammals, not other creatures such as birds, he said.
Boulon said the stations where the bait is placed would not be accessible to larger animals. Because the animals would return to their burrows to die, larger predator animals would not have the opportunity to eat their carcasses.
After this final review period, Boulon said, the plan will go to the park's regional office in Atlanta for approval. Once that happens, reduction work by the Wildlife Service Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin.
After the numbers are reduced, the park staff plans to keep tabs on the populations. When they again exceed the limits, staff members will work to reduce them.
Copies of the plan may be viewed at public libraries, at the park's Visitor Center in Cruz Bay and at the Christiansted National Historic Site headquarters on St. Criox.
The full text of the plan is posted on the web sites for the National Park Service and the Friends of the V.I. National Park. At either site, scroll down to the second category, "Planning, Documents," and click on the listing "10/2/01 – Download final plan for sustained reduction of rats, cats and mongooses." The 81-page document requires Acrobat Reader to download; that software itself is available for downloading without charge.
Boulon also will supply hard copy versions. To request one, call him at 693-8950, ext. 224.
Comments on the plan should be made in writing to V.I. National Park Supt. John King, 130 Cruz Bay Creek, St. John VI 00830.
