Counseling for veterans has been scheduled from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Veterans Affairs Office located at #2C Estate Contant.
Counselor Barajs of the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in San Juan, Puerto Rico will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
For more information call 773-6663.

Sept. 20, 2001 – Plans are under way to dedicate Smith Bay Road, from the crest of Cassi Hill to Red Hook, as Emile "Milo" Francis Memorial Drive.
The road was officially renamed for Francis by Act No. 6229 signed into law in 1998, shortly after the death of the native musician, band leader and war veteran. But the law's provisions for putting up signs with the new name have never been carried out.
Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. said in a release that he is happy Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood "is now commissioning the signs and will hold an unveiling ceremony." White had written to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull that "as a lasting tribute to 'Milo,' it is important that his memory be preserved through this small tribute."
Francis formed his band Milo and the Kings in 1958 and observed a big 25th anniversary celebration in 1983. The band continues today under the name Milo's Kings.
Although the legislation paying tribute to Francis refers only to Smith Bay Road, members of Holy Family Catholic Church are concerned that the name Cassi Hill not be lost. Parishioner Wendy Rouse noted that the annual Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Cassi Hill has been held since 1947. It was started two years after the end of World War II to pray for lasting peace and for protection against hurricanes, she said.
The origin of the name Cassi Hill is uncertain, but local historian Myron Jackson observed that "cassi" is a Caribbean vernacular term for prickly pear.
Other renamings on St. Thomas in honor of local figures that have occurred in deed have not had widespread effect in word — such as Julian Jackson Drive, still commonly called Harwood Highway; Valdemar Hill Sr. Drive, still referred to as Skyline Drive; and Lionel Pierre Berry Scenic Drive, still the east end of Crown Mountain Road to most. Maud Proudfoot Drive is posted, but to residents the stretch is still the bottom of the Mafolie Hill road.
In large part, residents also continue to call Rothschild Francis Square by its former generic name, Market Square. Those with long memories even refer to Addelita Cancryn Junior High School as "Wayne Aspinall," and J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary as "Lincoln School."
On the other hand, Cyril E. King Airport has become a part of the vernacular; nobody thinks of it as "Harry S. Truman" anymore. And Roy L. Schneider Hospital seems to have been accepted in place of "St. Thomas Hospital."
As for Smith Bay Road, information as to the derivation of "Smith" could not be found.

Dear Source,
Are we really serious about improving our local economic picture? I ask that question of our government officials after looking at the budget allocation for the various departments of our government. While the Governor’s proposed 3.1 million dollars to fund tourism, the finance committee saw it fit to cut that amount by almost 10% to 2.8 million.We as a community must stop looking at tourism promotion as expenditure but rather as an investment for improving this community’s future. The figure of 2.8 million represents only half a percent (.50%) of the total budget! I find it very disheartening as a member of this community to see another year go by with no serious effort to provide the financial resources to our Department of Tourism to succeed in promoting the U.S. Virgin Islands. No Tourism commissioner past, present, or future will succeed in doing the job with such a small budget. To make money you must spend money and, in saying so, our leaders must come up with a way to dedicate more money to promote tourism. Ideally a fixed percentage of 2.5% is a good start.
The tourism industry is just like a family car’s six-cylinder engine: all pistons must be working in harmony. Cruise ship arrivals represents just two pistons, overnight arrivals two, and the marine industry the other two. Imagine the revenue potential of all six pistons working to drive this economy. Where would our revenue projection be? 750 million? 900 million? The community could have it all, if it put the first piece of the puzzle in place.
In light of the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, tourism worldwide has seen a downturn. Serious tourist destinations will need to spend, spend and spend to lure tourists back. Any delay in the start of the 2001-2002 season will have serious impact on the projected revenues of our government. We as an "American Paradise" have a big advantage over other Caribbean destinations in being uniquely American, and we need to promote our islands to Americans who will be looking to escape from the daily grinds of everyday living.
"Escape to America’s Paradise. The U.S. Virgin Islands." This should be our battle cry to fight back to restore our economy and restore lost jobs. This battle cry will not be heard if we cannot pay to get the word out to the nation and restore American’s faith in travel.
Some food for thought as we look forward.
Vinnie Mohanani
St. Thomas

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

Sept. 21, 2001 – Alec, who's 6, and his sister Jewel, who's 4, have been hand-painting American flags at their home each evening this week. On Saturday, the children of Amy and Harold Tayler will have a makeshift lemonade stand set up with the 18 flags, lemonade, cookies and brownies for sale.
They also will be selling yellow ribbons, to be worn or displayed in honor of the children of the victims of last week's terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland.
Every penny they collect will be turned over to the American Red Cross, to assist children of those who lost their lives in the attacks or in responding to them.
The youngsters will have their stand set up from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the shady area across from the main entrance to Mahogany Run on St. Thomas.
"Children can make a difference," Amy Tayler said, "if given opportunities."

Dear Source,
Are we really serious about improving our local economic picture? I ask that question of our government officials after looking at the budget allocation for the various departments of our government. While the Governor’s proposed 3.1 million dollars to fund tourism, the finance committee saw it fit to cut that amount by almost 10% to 2.8 million.We as a community must stop looking at tourism promotion as expenditure but rather as an investment for improving this community’s future. The figure of 2.8 million represents only half a percent (.50%) of the total budget! I find it very disheartening as a member of this community to see another year go by with no serious effort to provide the financial resources to our Department of Tourism to succeed in promoting the U.S. Virgin Islands. No Tourism commissioner past, present, or future will succeed in doing the job with such a small budget. To make money you must spend money and, in saying so, our leaders must come up with a way to dedicate more money to promote tourism. Ideally a fixed percentage of 2.5% is a good start.
The tourism industry is just like a family car’s six-cylinder engine: all pistons must be working in harmony. Cruise ship arrivals represents just two pistons, overnight arrivals two, and the marine industry the other two. Imagine the revenue potential of all six pistons working to drive this economy. Where would our revenue projection be? 750 million? 900 million? The community could have it all, if it put the first piece of the puzzle in place.
In light of the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, tourism worldwide has seen a downturn. Serious tourist destinations will need to spend, spend and spend to lure tourists back. Any delay in the start of the 2001-2002 season will have serious impact on the projected revenues of our government. We as an "American Paradise" have a big advantage over other Caribbean destinations in being uniquely American, and we need to promote our islands to Americans who will be looking to escape from the daily grinds of everyday living.
"Escape to America’s Paradise. The U.S. Virgin Islands." This should be our battle cry to fight back to restore our economy and restore lost jobs. This battle cry will not be heard if we cannot pay to get the word out to the nation and restore American’s faith in travel.
Some food for thought as we look forward.
Vinnie Mohanani
St. Thomas

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

Are we really serious about improving our local economic picture? I ask that question of our government officials after looking at the budget allocation for the various departments of our government. While the Governor’s proposed 3.1 million dollars to fund tourism, the finance committee saw it fit to cut that amount by almost 10% to 2.8 million.We as a community must stop looking at tourism promotion as expenditure but rather as an investment for improving this community’s future. The figure of 2.8 million represents only half a percent (.50%) of the total budget! I find it very disheartening as a member of this community to see another year go by with no serious effort to provide the financial resources to our Department of Tourism to succeed in promoting the U.S. Virgin Islands. No Tourism commissioner past, present, or future will succeed in doing the job with such a small budget. To make money you must spend money and, in saying so, our leaders must come up with a way to dedicate more money to promote tourism. Ideally a fixed percentage of 2.5% is a good start.
The tourism industry is just like a family car’s six-cylinder engine: all pistons must be working in harmony. Cruise ship arrivals represents just two pistons, overnight arrivals two, and the marine industry the other two. Imagine the revenue potential of all six pistons working to drive this economy. Where would our revenue projection be? 750 million? 900 million? The community could have it all, if it put the first piece of the puzzle in place.
In light of the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, tourism worldwide has seen a downturn. Serious tourist destinations will need to spend, spend and spend to lure tourists back. Any delay in the start of the 2001-2002 season will have serious impact on the projected revenues of our government. We as an "American Paradise" have a big advantage over other Caribbean destinations in being uniquely American, and we need to promote our islands to Americans who will be looking to escape from the daily grinds of everyday living.
"Escape to America’s Paradise. The U.S. Virgin Islands." This should be our battle cry to fight back to restore our economy and restore lost jobs. This battle cry will not be heard if we cannot pay to get the word out to the nation and restore American’s faith in travel.
Some food for thought as we look forward.
Vinnie Mohanani
St. Thomas

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

Sept. 21, 2001 – Following are the Fiscal Year 2002 budget appropriations approved by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and sent to the Rules Committee for consideration on Saturday. Unless specified otherwise, the funding is to come from the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0112 – $1.7 million for operating expenses of the Business and Commercial Properties Revolving Fund.
Bill No. 24-0113 – $24.6 million for University of the Virgin Islands salaries and expenses, and for other purposes.
Bill No. 24-0114 – $2.6 million from the Government Insurance Fund for Finance Department operating expenses.
Bill No. 24-0115 – $2.7 million from the Health Revolving Fund to the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0116 – $5 million from the Insurance Guaranty Fund to the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0117 – $3.2 million from the Indirect Cost Fund for Office of Management and Budget, Personnel Division, Property and Procurement Department, and Finance Department salaries and operating expenses, and for other purposes.
Bill No. 24-0118 – $3.5 million from the Interest Revenue Fund to the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0119 – $70.2 million from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund, with $25.2 million to go into the General Fund and $44.7 million to pay debt service on outstanding government bonds.
Bill No. 24-0120 – $3.1 million from the Caribbean Basin Initiative Fund to the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0121 – $6.4 million from the Anti-Litter and Beautification Fund to the Public Works Department, and for other purposes.
Bill No. 24-0122 – $306,881 for V.I. Taxicab Commission operating expenses.
Bill No. 24-0123 – $169,174 from the Transportation Revolving Fund for Property and Procurement Department salaries, fringe benefits, supplies and other services and charges.
Bill No. 24-0124 – $750,000 from the Sewage System Fund for Public Works Department operating expenses.
Bill No. 24-0125 – $514,322 for Public Services Commission operating expenses.
Bill No. 24-0126 – $1.9 million from the interest earned on bond proceeds to the General Fund.
Bill No. 24-0127 – $1.5 million from the St. John Capital Improvement Fund for Public Works Department operating expenses.
Bill No. 24-0128 – $479.7 million for executive branch operations.
Bill No. 24-0130 – $400,000 for Public Employees Relations Board operating expenses and $103,473 for the Labor Management Committee.
Bill No. 24-0135 – amending the V.I. Code to increase to $25,000 from the current $5,000 the amount of prior fiscal-year obligations that can be paid by departments and agencies from current-year appropriations.
Bill No. 24-0136 – authorizing the Office of Management and Budget director to allocate $44 million from the miscellaneous section of the FY 2002 budget to cover salary increases for executive branch workers and $12 million to cover executive branch salary and health insurance premium increases.
Bill No. 24-0138 – $12.8 million from the Transportation Trust Fund to the General Fund.
The committee also passed:
Bill No. 24-0133 – establishing the Disaster Recovery Contingency Revolving Fund; it is to be funded by $1.4 million from the miscellaneous section of the executive branch operations budget.
A bill appropriating $1.3 million from the Anti-litter and Beautification Fund to the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department for V.I. Carnival, St. John Festival and Crucian Christmas Festival celebrations.
It tabled two measures:
Bill No. 24-0131 – to amend the V.I. Code regarding the St. Croix Capital Improvement Fund.
Bill No. 24-0132 – to amend the V.I. Code regarding the Crisis Intervention Fund.
On Saturday, the Rules Committee is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on St. Croix to consider the bills forwarded from Finance. On Monday and Tuesday, the full Senate is scheduled to meet on St. Thomas to consider the budget bills sent from Rules.

Sept. 21, 2001 – The Senate Finance Committee worked until 2 a.m. Friday to finish up its work on the government's Fiscal Year 2002 budget, coming in at $550.9 million, virtually identical to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's proposed $551 million, although differing in specifics.
Amid numerous reductions in the administration's proposed appropriations, the University of the Virgin Islands was awarded $1.8 million more than the governor requested.
The measures approved are scheduled to be considered by the Rules Committee on Saturday. The Rules chair, Sen. Carlton Dowe, said Friday that the committee would meet on St. Croix, although earlier announcements had said it would convene on St. Thomas.
There was not much Finance Committee debate on the more than 20 bills processed Thursday. The Senate majority, which has five of the seven Finance Committee seats, had worked with other committee members fine-tuning the bills for the last two months. The unaligned committee member, Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, voted with the committee on most of the measures, as did the minority member, Sen. Douglas Canton, who missed Thursday morning's portion of the session.
The committee approved General Fund expenditures including:
– $479,756,528 for executive branch departments and agencies.
– $24,273,944 for the Territorial Court.
– $ 2,600,000 for the Territorial Public Defender's Office.
Executive branch appropriations were cut to $479.7 million from the $482.4 million proposed by Turnbull. The Tourism Department budget was reduced from $3.1 million to $2.7 million. However, the committee voted to spare the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund from contributing to the territory's carnival celebrations this fiscal year, instead appropriating $1.3 million from the Anti-litter and Beautification Fund for V.I. Carnival, the St. John Festival and the Crucian Christmas Festival.
In other executive branch funding, the Office of the Governor was reduced from $5.7 million to $5.1 million and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, from $4.2 million to $3.9 million. Always the biggest departmental budget, the Education Department was reduced minimally, from $128.9 million to $128.3 million.
The committee approved intact the governor's legislation to authorize the Office of Management and Budget to allocate $44 million for salary increases for government workers and $12 million to cover increases in government employees' health insurance premiums.
The committee also approved Turnbull's proposal to create a Disaster Recovery Contingency Fund to meet immediate expenses following a hurricane or other disaster such as emergency operations of the V. I. National Guard. It is to be funded with a $1.4 million appropriation from the executive budget miscellaneous section.
Other large appropriations included $4 million for the Molasses Subsidy Fund, a measure Public Finance Authority director Amadeo Francis spoke forcibly about in an August Finance Committee hearing. He warned the senators to be cautious with the fund. "The health and welfare of the rum industry in the territory are of critical importance" to the V.I. economy, he said.
The committee also appropriated $2.1 million for rum promotion, $8.1 million for retirees' health insurance and $1.5 million for the newly created Economic Development Authority.
The committee approved $1.8 million more than Turnbull had proposed for the University of the Virgin Islands, which Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel said would fund pension increases for UVI retirees. Turnbull had proposed $22.8 million; the committee raised it to $24.6 million.
A line-item budget came out of the committee for the first time in recent years. The budget specifies amounts for salaries, rent, travel, capital outlays and several other expense categories. Recent budgets had allocated lump-sum budgets in order to give departments greater leeway in spending their appropriations.
"For the first time in many years, we are delivering an itemized budget," Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Finance Committee chair, said. "They must spend it for the specific purposes, and if there are changes, they must return to the Legislature."
But the committee approved granting departments more flexibility in paying off prior year obligations from current year appropriations, raising the cap from $5,000 to $25,000. Turnbull had asked for a $50,000 cap.
There were several recesses throughout the marathon meeting to allow the legislative legal counsel to draft amendments. The meeting had been scheduled to begin 10 a.m. Thursday but convened at 11:30 a.m., then broke repeatedly throughout the day and night. Hansen stated several times on Thursday that the committee members, other majority members and Post Audit staff had been up the night before, until 4:30 a.m. Thursday, hammering out the numerous bills.
An omnibus bill — a mix of policy edicts and initiatives to the executive branch — was last on the committee's agenda, and it was passed.
The committee tabled two bills, one to delay implementation of the St. Croix Capital Improvement Fund and other to supply the Crisis Intervention Fund, which is supposed to be funded through the Internal Revenue Matching Fund. Senators said the funds were especially necessary now, given the territory's unstable financial future.
All of the bills approved by Finance are now scheduled to be considered by the Rules Committee at 10 a.m. Saturday on St. Croix. The bills approved by Rules are to go before the full Senate for a final vote on Monday and Tuesday on St. Thomas.

The Rotary Club of St. Thomas II will meet at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Marriiott's Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort.
The guest speaker will be Richard Doumeng of the St. Thomas/St. John Hotel and Tourism Association. The topic will be a forecast of the tourism 2001-02 season.

The Rotary Club of St. Thomas II will meet at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort.
The guest speaker will be Richard Doumeng of the St. Thomas/St.John Hotel and Tourism Association. The topic will be a forecast of the tourism 2001-02 season.