Sept. 28, 2001 – A meeting for resident leaders and the Advisory Council on Housing has been called by the V.I. Housing Authority's Management and Tenant Services Department. The mandatory meeting will be Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the VIHA central office training room on St. Thomas, a VIHA release states.
In compliance with the law, residents with disabilities also are invited to participate in the meeting.
Any persons in need of transportation are asked to call Jacqueline Joseph at 777-8442, ext. 7394, by Monday.

Sept. 28, 2001 – Construction work will close a portion of Northshore Road Sunday, Commissioner of Public Works Wayne D. Callwood advised the motoring public in a release. Northshore Road (Route 80) will be closed between Frangipani Road (Route 723) and Scenic Road (Route 78) from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Motorists will be detoured. Alternate routes should be used, such as Route 73 (Canaan Ridge Road), route 78 (Scenic Road) via Route 72 or 73 (Midland Road and Frangipani Road).
V.I. Paving will be placing two sections of box culverts across the roadway. Commissioner Callwood appreciates the public's patience and cooperation.

Sept. 29, 2001- In an effort to keep the Creek bulkhead clear of parked cars and items left there unattended, the V.I. Port Authority will close the gates from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. starting Oct. 1.
People with vehicles and goods remaining on the Creek bulkhead are asked to remove them before the prohibition begins. Those who don't, will have their vehicles booted or ticketed.
The area, used mainly by barges, ferries carrying tour groups and other commercial vessels, is surrounded by a chain link fence.

Good Hope School senior Kieran Locke has been named an Advanced Placement (AP) Scholars by the College Board in recognition of exceptional achievement on college-level AP examinations. About 13 percent of the 700,000 students who took the examinations in May performed at a level high enough to merit the recognition.
Students take the AP examinations after completing challenging college-level courses at their high schools. At Good Hope, courses are available in seven areas: art, British literature, calculus, French, Spanish, U.S. history and world literature, a release from the school stated. Kieran qualified for the award by completing at least three examinations with grades of 3 or higher.
Most American colleges and universities award credit or advanced placement, or both, based on successful performance on the AP examinations. More than 1,400 institutions award a year of credit (equivalent to sophomore standing) to entering students who present enough qualifying grades. In the recent past, Good Hope School has had students gain more than a semester's college credits for such performance.
Kieran is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Locke.

Dear Source,
Where are the U.S. Virgin Islands?
In the aftermath of the recent bombings – and in windows of opportunity to seize moments for tasteful strategic, valuable marketing – one destination has been missing.
Missing in action and missing the boat.
While the competition like the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Puerto Rico have published in the Washington Post and New York Times modest-sized messages of sympathy and tribute along with invitations to visit, the U.S. Virgin Islands – America's Caribbean – have yet to be seen or heard from!
At the niche market of the Congressional Black Caucus's (CBC) annual conference, where our Delegate Donna Christian Christensen is at the forefront, the U.S. Virgin Islands – America's Caribbean – again is noticeably absent from the exhibit hall! Meanwhile, Barbados, Anguilla (with their tiny budget), Jamaica and various Caribbean tour operators are hawking their wares.
People! These are the worst of times and the best of times! This is the time to get back on top. Seize the moment. Implement tactical strategy! We fly the American Flag. (I'm not going to give you the campaign, jus' so).
And don't even go there about budget, etc. An open rate (no discounts, etc.) advertisement of a decent size in the Post is about $35,000 and zero creative is required. The booth at the CBC was a mere $2,000. If we can't afford to invest such little cash in our tourism marketing, we might as well close up shop.
Let's go get 'em! What are we waiting for! Let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Pick up and brush ourselves off, and go!
Steve Bornn
St. Thomas

Sept. 28, 2001 – St. Croix artist and art gallery owner Maria Henle is the subject of an article in the October issue of Caribbean Travel & Life magazine that also features a color photograph of one of her oil paintings.
Readers who have never met her or seen her work in person get to learn some things from the widely circulated publication that Henle's friends and neighbors on St. Croix may not know about how she got started creating her signature multi-image etchings and paintings.
"On a rainy day in 1982," the article begins, "artist Maria Henle climbed to the top of Paricutin volcano in Mexico and drew two scenes. The first was the way the volcano looked then; the second was how it looked 40 years earlier when it erupted in a fury of red-hot lava. Back at her studio, she decided to combine the images into one etching; and she hasn't changed her technique since.
"Today, Henle is famous for her multilayered paintings of the Caribbean. She juxtaposes two or more scenes to turn what would be a representational image into something abstract."
Henle, the daughter of famed photographer Fritz Henle, grew up on St. Croix, the article relates. After studying and working in such arts capitals as Florence, Italy, and New York City, she chose to return to the island to open her own gallery and work space, the Maria Henle Studio, in downtown Christiansted on Company Street.
The island is so small that you're never far from a view of the sea," she told freelance writer Maxine Rose Schurr, "and there's a great variation in topography — from the dry east end to the open vista of the south shore to the lush slopes of the north that drop right into the sea."
While Henle typically overlays two images to create her works, Schurr tells Caribbean Travel & Life readers, she has combined as many as five in larger pieces. The gallery, which during season "also showcases select artists in one-person exhibits," Schurr writes, "has become one of the cultural highlights of a visit to St. Croix."

Sept. 28, 2001 — Arrests are imminent in the murder of a 27-year-old inmate last weekend at the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility on St. Croix, according to V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron.
Miguel Lebron of St. Croix died after being stabbed in his cell Saturday by at least one other inmate wielding a homemade weapon. Soon after the murder, officials in the Bureau of Corrections, which falls under the V.I. Department of Justice, said that at least one inmate was a suspect.
But on Thursday, Stridiron said the arrests of two inmates was near, although he declined to release their names as yet. He said that once arrests are made, the suspects will be prosecuted. If convicted they will be sent off-island to Wallens Ridge prison in Virginia.
Wallens Ridge is a maximum-security facility where inmates are confined to their cells for up to 23 hours a day. Stridiron has repeatedly said that inmates who harm other inmates or corrections officers will be sent to Wallens Ridge.
"If we get a conviction, they are gone," Stridiron said. "You can rest assured that they will be exiled to Virginia."
Lebron was housed in the minimum-security section of Golden Grove and was nine years into a 13-year sentence for aggravated child abuse. There are reports circulating that the suspects came from the maximum-security wing of the prison when Lebron remained in his cell while others in his block, which was then unguarded, went to lunch.
Stridiron said he has since toured the prison. He dismissed the possibility that prison staff were negligent in the incident.

Elizabeth Greenaway, 75, died at home in Greenland, Tortola, on Sept. 23. Funeral services will be held at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30, at the East End SDA Church. Viewing will precede the sevice at the church begininning at 3:15 p.m.
She is survived by sons Noel, Joseph, and John Weekes; daughters Sarah Pickering, Cecelia Brown, Leona Buffoage, Margaret Weekes, and Uhura Weekes; two brothers; sisters Rossana Harris and Illva Bremble; and numerous other relatives and friends.

Sept. 28, 2001 — While the Turnbull administration is willing to return to the negotiating table with the territory’s police officers, union officials have dismissed the idea.
Talks between the administration and the territory’s two police unions broke down last Friday after three days. The unions exercised their option of taking their case before a three-member arbitration panel instead of remaining at the table.
After that decision, the unions held a press conference earlier this week where they criticized Karen Andrews, the government’s chief negotiator, for being late and dismissing officers’ proposals out of hand.
In response, Andrews, Police Commissioner Franz Christian and Attorney General Iver Stridiron held their own press conference Thursday.
"Quite frankly, I think it was premature to end the negotiations when they did," Andrews said. "I believe there is still room for us to sit down and have discussions."
But Naomi Joseph, president of the St. Croix Police Benevolent Association, said that was unlikely. Returning to the table would just result in the two parties "stonewalling" each other, she said.
"If they wanted to negotiated with us, they would have come to try and meet us half way," Joseph said. "Negotiations are a series of compromises … We were told throughout the whole three days ‘no, no, no.’ I mean, you can’t go further than no."
Andrews said that union wage proposals were too costly, especially since the government still must negotiate 23 other contracts with government employees. The government’s initial wage increase offer translated to about $10,000 per officer. The union’s proposal was about $12,000 per officer, Andrews said. The unions represent about 325 officers.
Police officers have been working day-to-day since their last contract expired in September 1999. Their last salary step increase was in 1994.
"We must do things in the concept of what is affordable," Andrews said. "We will not be promising things going in that we cannot afford."

Sept. 28, 2001 — Due to safety concerns, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor will be moved out of the newly renovated Government House on St. Croix.
The move, announced Thursday, was prompted by the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., that killed more than 7,000 people. According to a release from Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, whose St. Croix office and residence are in Government House along with the office of Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II, the move was recommended by national and local security experts.
"It is standard security practice for a chief executive and the next in the chain of command to avoid traveling together on the same airplane, boat or other carrier or occupying the same working environment for long periods of time," the release said.
Therefore, the lieutenant governor's administrative offices on St. Croix will soon be moved from Government House to an as-yet unidentified building.
"Nowhere in our country do you find two leaders housed in the same building," Police Commissioner Franz Christian said Thursday.
Turnbull decided, against Christian's advice, to put both offices in the St. Croix Government House while it was undergoing a lengthy $12 million renovation. The decision was made largely to cut government spending and rental costs.
Before the renovation, the two offices were housed in separate buildings on St. Croix as they are on St. Thomas.
The governor’s official residence on St. Thomas is the historic Catherineberg on Denmark Hill. When the governor is on St. Croix, he lives in Government House.
On St. Croix, the lieutenant governor lives at the executive mansion at Estate Sion Farm, where James will continue to live.
Turnbull and James have had some public spats since the administration began in 1998. They disagreed on the Beal Aerospace deal and the proposal to sell a portion of the Water and Power Authority to a mainland company.
But Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Thursday that he hopes people won’t interpret the decision to move James out of Government House as evidence of "an acrimonious relationship."
Prior to the reopening of Government House in June 2000, Turnbull said he planned to spend up to three days in a row on St. Croix. The renovated Government House has a conference room able to accommodate 26 people that can be used for Cabinet meetings.