Sept. 6, 2001 – Three federal grants totaling $901,936 are headed into the Planning and Natural Resources Department's budget, according to recent releases from Delegate Donna Christian Christensen:
– $864,475 from the Environmental Protection Agency. This "augmentation" funding is part of a continuous award the deparment gets every year. The money will be used for programs encompassing clean air, clean water, drinking water and public water supply, air pollution control, underground storage tanks, and pesticides.
– $25,000 from the Commerce Department. The funding is to conduct research toward reducing non-point source pollution (such as soil runoff, untreated sewage disposal and toxic wastes). The information obtained is to be made available to the public in brochures, a handbook and PowerPoint presentations.
– $12,461 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This grant will support reporting on the territory's commercial fish and shellfish resources and the disseminating of these statistics through DPNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Sept. 6, 2001 – Three federal grants totaling $901,936 are headed into the Planning and Natural Resources Department's budget, according to recent releases from Delegate Donna Christian Christensen:
– $864,475 from the Environmental Protection Agency. This "augmentation" funding is part of a continuous award the deparment gets every year. The money will be used for programs encompassing clean air, clean water, drinking water and public water supply, air pollution control, underground storage tanks, and pesticides.
– $25,000 from the Commerce Department. The funding is to conduct research toward reducing non-point source pollution (such as soil runoff, untreated sewage disposal and toxic wastes). The information obtained is to be made available to the public in brochures, a handbook and PowerPoint presentations.
– $12,461 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This grant will support reporting on the territory's commercial fish and shellfish resources and the disseminating of these statistics through DPNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Sept. 6, 2001 – The floating desalination plant that sat unused for three years after it was donated to the territory by the U.S. Navy and then was leased to a British Virgin Islands company earlier this year was unceremoniously towed back into local waters a week ago.
The vessel is moored in St. Thomas's Krum Bay while plans are being laid to put it into use locally, according to officials of the Property and Procurement Department, which has taken over jurisdiction for its use from the Public Works Department.
Alan Grieg, assistant Property and Procurement commissioner, said that Joseph Ponteen, an assistant attorney general assigned to work at the department on St. Croix and who heads the Property Division for the district, "was most instrumental" in getting the barge returned to USVI waters.
Ponteen assisted Elston George, Property and Procurement deputy commissioner, in having the barge "brought back safely to our waters," Grieg said. He added that "to my knowledge" there have been no changes to the previously reported plans of Property and Procurement Commissioner Mark Biggs to put the plant into use locally.
Ponteen said Wednesday, that "we [Property and Procurement] now have control of the barge. They [Public Works] have turned it back over to us."
The barge was leased by Public Works in March to the Jost Van Dyke Water Co., owned by David Blyden, brother-in-law of Attorney General Iver Stridiron. Blyden leased the plant in order to produce water for sale on the island of Jost Van Dyke. The leasing prompted heated debate in the Senate Rules Committee on April 4, when the panel was considering the nomination of Wayne Callwood, then acting Public Works commissioner, to become commissioner. Callwood terminated the contract with Blyden the day after that hearing.
Now, Ponteen said, Biggs has "set a committee in place to develop a comprehensive plan looking at potential needs within and without the Virgin Islands and then to determine what is the best plan for using this valuable resource." Ponteen said that he and the committee chair, George, currently are the only members. "That's the nucleus," he said. "We will be adding. We will have to get Public Works and Agriculture and broaden the committee … We have not fully decided as yet" who all the committee members will be.
According to Ponteen, the committee has established its goal. "We had our initial meeting" on Tuesday, he said. "I can safely say that by the end of this month, we will have a plan in place."
Ponteen said the committee needs to determine whether the plant "can satisfy St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, Water Island? Could we also be generous to our neighbors, if there's a need for water in the B.V.I. on Jost Van Dyke?"
Noting that the plant's two reverse-osmosis systems have the capacity to produce 300,000 gallons of fresh water per day, he said this raises the question of whether there is "sufficient storage capacity" ashore for the water produced. He noted that the Water and Power Authority's 250,000-gallon storage tank at Frank Bay, St. John, could be filled with a single day's output.
Ponteen said the committee will look into how economically feasible it would be to tow the barge to available water-storage facilities on various islands as needed. "Theoretically, you could actually have the barge doing something on St. Croix, something on St. Thomas, something on St. John — maybe Jost Van Dyke and Water Island," he said, adding that the plant "can produce electricity as well."
Two and a half years ago, Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd and Bingley Richardson, then Public Works marine services director, said getting the barge to St. John and into operation there should be a government priority to alleviate the island's severe, chronic shortage of potable water.
In 1999, Richardson said that when the Navy turned the barge over to the territory, engineers placed its value at $4 million. He said the plant, built in 1994, was in excellent condition in Virginia, where he checked it out, but was damaged in rough seas en route to St. Thomas. According to Richardson, a onetime ferry boat captain, $200,000 worth of replacement parts came with the desal plant, and all that was needed to get it operational was repair of "superficial damage" and training of personnel to operate it.
The V.I. government had never gotten the plant working, and the barge, anchored for some time off Hassel Island, had been vandalized in the meantime.
Now, the committee created by Biggs also must deal with the outstanding bills submitted by Blyden for expenditures to get the desal plant working. According to Ponteen, "We're looking at invoices for about $74,000." In August, while the barge was still in the B.V.I., Biggs said Public Works was "attempting to secure the funds" to pay the water company.

Sept. 6, 2001 — The Port Authority unveiled an ambitious economic development plan for St. Croix at a sparsely attended public meeting Wednesday in Frederiksted.
The plan, now in draft form, was launched in May and is at the halfway point. There are some 80 projects outlined, based on an eight-point "action plan."
The draft sets out timetables for attaining a variety of objectives that include identifying St. Croix's assets, developing a marketing and promotional plan to attract new, high-tech industries, creating more jobs, and diversifying the economy.
The plan of action includes:
– Building pride in St. Croix community and culture.
– Improving safety in downtown areas.
– Establishing a culture of collaboration between the public and private sectors.
– Building gateways to St. Croix.
– Stopping the island’s "brain drain."
– Improving economic development effectiveness.
– Stimulating investment diversification on St. Croix.
– Developing and marketing a "St. Croix Commerce Center" to be operated by the Port Authority.
Different aspects of the plan are proposed to be carried out by a variety of public and private-sector groups and agencies in two time frames, 1-18 months and 19-36 months.
"What we are trying to shoot for is a plan that is workable," said Gordon Finch, Port Authority executive director.
Finch said Triad Associates, the consulting firm developing the plan, has presented the draft to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull. Involvement from the executive branch will be crucial in carrying out many aspects of the plan, Finch said, including a proposal to develop 100 acres of Port Authority land adjacent to the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport into a business park for light industry.
Finch said the U.S. Economic Development Agency, which funded the bulk of the economic development plan at $300,000, has approved funding for preliminary engineering for the industrial park.
"The only place in the territory that significant economic development is going to occur is St. Croix," because St. Thomas is built to capacity, Finch said.
He said future increases in cruise ship and air arrivals also will be on St. Croix.
"The growth of those kinds of economic engines" will be determined in part "by what St. Croix has to offer," he said.
According to the draft plan, for that growth to occur, and for many of St. Croix’s residents to lift themselves out of below-average living standards, several basic institutions need to be improved, particularly education.
Richard Moore, Triad’s economist, said that the "weakest link in the Virgin Islands is labor," and that weakness can be addressed only by improving the education system.
"Without an education base, you can’t mold your labor force," Moore said.
Finch concurred, calling the state of public education in the territory "abysmal."
Meanwhile, of the 10 or so people in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, Arnold Golden asked who was going to spearhead the plan. "We don’t have a mayor," he said. "Who is going to lead this?"
Finch said that while the Port Authority will be deeply involved in aspects of the plan where the agency is identified, he is "too stretched" to take the lead.
To that end, Triad is recommending that a "Team St. Croix" be assembled by the various stakeholders, and that it then form a leadership committee.
The draft plan is available at the Port Authority office at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport. The final plan is to be completed by the end of September.

Sept. 5, 2001 – An attorney for a downtown Charlotte Amalie property owner has asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Moore to stop all collections of commercial property taxes in the territory until the Tax Assessor's Office reappraises the properties in accordance with nationally accepted standards.
Attorney Jim Derr, who represents Berne Corp. and B&B Corp., the owner of several parcels along Kronprindsens Gade, filed the motion under seal in District Court on Wednesday.
The motion is a request for the court to enforce provisions of a settlement reached last December between the corporations and the V.I. government, Derr said. That agreement called for the Tax Assessor's Office to reappraise commercial property based on actual value.
It also specified that a special master would be assigned to ensure that the appraisals would be done according to guidelines outlined in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, according to court documents. The parties later agreed on appraiser Joe Hunt of Chapel Hill, N.C., to serve in this capacity.
Hunt is required to report back to Moore every six months on whether the reappraisals are being conducted according to the standards.
But the reappraisal of properties has not been done, Derr said Wednesday, and this led him to ask the judge to halt all collections of commercial property taxes. Derr said he expected a court hearing to be scheduled soon, at which time Hunt and Tax Assessor Roy Martin could report to the judge on the status of the reappraisals.
The motion asking to halt the collection of commercial property taxes was filed under seal because portions pertain to a confidential part of the settlement agreement, Derr said. But he said he was free to discuss other parts of the motion covering the reappraisal of commercial properties.
The corporations sued Martin and the V.I. government last year, claiming that the appraisal of their properties was based on what it would cost to replace structures rather than on their actual value, which is required by the V.I. Code. In hearings and documents pertaining to that lawsuit, an independent appraiser said the government's valuation of the Berne properties was vastly inflated, leading to far higher property taxes than would otherwise be owed.
In those court hearings, Moore heard evidence suggesting that the assessor's office had appraised many commercial properties in the territory using the same approach. That evidence led to the agreement calling for the assessor's office to reappraise all commercial properties — not just those owned by Berne Corp. — in accordance with the accepted practices.
Meantime, other commercial property owners also are filing federal lawsuits against the assessor's office, based on the same claims laid out in the Berne suit.
On Aug. 31, attorney Chad Messier filed suit on behalf of the owners of Bluebeard's Castle, the Elysian Beach Resort properties, and two parcels identified in court papers as "The Beach Club" properties, an apparent reference to Bluebeard's Beach Club, formerly known as Limetree Beach Resort. Those properties had a total assessed value in 2000 of about $98 million, which led to a tax bill of nearly $750,000.
In that lawsuit, Messier states that his clients' properties also were assessed based on replacement cost rather than actual value. He noted that the assessor's office was bound by the settlement agreement to reassess commercial property according to the uniform guidelines, and under the eye of the special master, but that the office had not done so.
The owners of property at Buccaneer Mall on St. Thomas and an apartment rental unit in Orange Grove on St. Croix also have filed suit based on similar arguments, Derr said.
District Court officials said they did not know when a hearing on the Berne case would be scheduled.

Sept. 5, 2001 – The recently completed draft of a Fish Bay Watershed Management Plan will serve as a model for developing areas across the territory, according to Bill Rohring, a geographical information system planner at the Planning and Natural Resources Department.
"We will do it as slowly as possible to try and get as many people on board as possible," he said.
The plan was developed over the last three years as a way to protect Fish Bay, a large bay that receives runoff from unpaved roads and driveways located on the hillsides above. The sedimentation smothers the coral, which impacts fish habitat.
Rohring said Fish Bay was selected for the plan because scientists from various agencies already were studying the sediment problem, the area was relatively unpolluted, and many homeowners in the area were interested in solving the problem.
Development began in the area several decades ago when a contractor subdivided the land into homesites and cut roads. Elissa Runyon, president of the Fish Bay Homeowners Association, said there are about 225 lots in the area and about one-third of them have houses.
There is paving on less than half of the 10 miles of roads in the area, and the Watershed Management Plan indicates that most driveways remain unpaved. However, Runyon said, the number of homeowners who are paving their driveways is on the upswing.
The plan requires residents to develop a long-term Comprehensive Road Stabilization Plan for the unpaved roads. It also calls for installation of a stormwater drainage and treatment system as well as paving. Roads will be prioritized and as funding becomes available, work will proceed. While some grant money will be available, the project also will cost homeowners money.
"Our owners in general are not particularly enamored with the idea of spending a lot of money," Runyon said. She said that about 90 percent of the homeowners association annual dues of $450 goes toward road improvements.
She said residents disagree on paving priorities. Some want to pave Marina Drive, the main road through the area, first because it gets the most traffic. It is flat and contributes little to the sedimentation problem but it's rough going for motorists. Others want to pave roads up in the hills first because runoff from those areas impacts Fish Bay.
Rohring said the homeowners association Runyon heads and the other one in the Fish Bay area can apply for federal grants. "For a lot of federal grants, they will have to put in equity," he said, but he noted that the equity could be in the form of donated labor.
The plan also calls for all homeowners to pave their driveways and install gutters, box culverts and other storm drainage systems within five years of the plan's adoption. Anyone failing to comply would face a fine. "It's one thing to tell people to do something, but that's big bucks," Fish Bay resident Beverly Biziewski said, noting that her driveway is paved.
The plan is available for review at the St. John Administrator's office and the Elaine Ione Sprauve Library, both in Cruz Bay, as well as the Coastal Zone Management office located at Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas.
No date has been set to implement the plan, which is now in draft form. Rohring said if it is determined that changes are necessary, they will be made.

Sept. 5, 2001 – An attorney for a downtown Charlotte Amalie property owner has asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Moore to order a stop on all collections of commercial property taxes in the territory until the Tax Assessor's Office reappraises the properties in accordance with nationally accepted standards.
Attorney Jim Derr, who represents Berne Corp. and B&B Corp., the owner of several parcels along Kronprindsens Gade, filed the motion under seal in District Court on Wednesday.
The motion is a request for the court to enforce provisions of a settlement reached last December between the corporations and the V.I. government, Derr said. That agreement called for the Tax Assessor's Office to reappraise commercial property based on actual value.
It also specified that a special master would be assigned to ensure that the appraisals would be done according to guidelines outlined in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, according to court documents. The parties later agreed on appraiser Joe Hunt of Chapel Hill, N.C., to serve in this capacity.
Hunt is required to report back to Moore every six months on whether the reappraisals are being conducted according to the standards.
But the reappraisal of properties has not been done, Derr said on Wednesday, and this led him to ask the judge to halt all collections of commercial property taxes. Derr said he expected that a court hearing would be scheduled soon, at which time Hunt and Tax Assessor Roy Martin could report to the judge on the status of the reappraisals.
The motion asking for the collection of commercial property taxes to be halted was filed under seal because portions pertain to a confidential part of the settlement agreement, Derr said. But he said he was free to discuss other parts of the motion covering the reappraisal of commercial properties.
The corporations sued Martin and the V.I. government last year, claiming that the appraisal of their properties was based on what it would cost to replace structures, rather than on the actual value of the properties, which is required by the V.I. Code. In hearings and documents pertaining to that lawsuit, an independent appraiser said the government's valuation of the Berne properties was vastly inflated, leading to far higher property taxes than would otherwise be owed.
In those court hearings, Moore heard evidence suggesting that the assessor's office had appraised many commercial properties in the territory using the same approach. That evidence led to the agreement calling for the assessor's office to reappraise all commercial properties — not just those owned by Berne Corp. — in accordance with the accepted practices.
Meantime, other commercial property owners also are filing federal lawsuits against the assessor's office, based on the same claims laid out in the Berne suit.
On Aug. 31, attorney Chad Messier filed suit on behalf of the owners of Bluebeard's Castle, the Elysian Beach Resort properties, and two parcels identified in court papers as "The Beach Club" properties, an apparent reference to Bluebeard's Beach Club, formerly known as Limetree Beach Resort. Those properties had a total assessed value in 2000 of about $98 million, which led to a tax bill of nearly $750,000.
In that lawsuit, Messier states that his clients' properties also were assessed based on replacement cost, rather than actual value. He noted that the assessor's office was bound by the settlement agreement to reassess commercial property according to the uniform guidelines, and under the eye of the special master, but that the office had not done so.
The owners of property at Buccaneer Mall on St. Thomas and an apartment rental unit in Orange Grove on St. Croix, also have filed suit based on similar arguments, Derr said.
District Court officials said they did not know when a hearing on the Berne case would be scheduled.

Sept. 5, 2001 – Tests performed on water samples taken Tuesday from the John Brewers Bay area indicate that the water has not been contaminated by sewage from the waste treatment plant near the Cyril E. King Airport, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett said.
The test results showed the water "virtually clean and free of coliform bacteria contamination," Plasked said in a release distributed Wednesday.
Although "the discharge of solid sewage materials from the main outfall south of the Cyril E. King Airport continues," he said in the release, "a water-quality analysis survey performed yesterday at a number of locations indicates that there is no immediate health concern in the surrounding surface waters associated with the malfunctioning treatment plant."
Nonetheless, Plaskett recommended that adults with "compromised immune systems" and all children stay out of the water at Brewers Bay and other beaches west of the airport until problems at the treatment plant are resolved. Further, "because of the increased potential presence of untreated sewage in the near shore waters," he said, all persons should "exercise caution when using the waters in the area south of the airport and John Brewers Bay and beaches to the west until the problem is corrected and the public health concern has been completely alleviated."
The beach at Brewers Bay was closed over the weekend after it was discovered that untreated sewage was being discharged into the water, and a V.I. Carnival Committee beach jam that had been planned there for Labor Day was canceled. Officials said later that turbulent weather associated with Tropical Storm Dean late last month had damaged a partition in the treatment plant that serves to prevent heavy sewage sludge from being discharged into the ocean along with cleaner water.
Although damage to the partition is not as extensive as originally feared, officials said, it has not yet been repaired. Until it is fixed, the possibility remains of the sludge being discharged into the water.
DPNR officials said earlier this week that they were working with Public Works Department personnel to come up with a repair plan, but that the repairs might not be completed for another week.

Sept. 5, 2001 – Catching a Grand Slam – the biggest dolphin, wahoo, yellowfin or blackfin tuna and kingfish – was the feat to beat in the Sept. 1 and 2 Inshore Four Tournament, hosted by the Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club. When the sea spray settled, none of the eight boats participating in the event achieved this goal, but it was the captain and anglers aboard Miss Jennifer that swept all the other award categories.
"We didn't get out early. Lines were to be in by 6 a.m., but we were trailing behind and it was nearly 7 a.m. when we started out," said Mario Austin, captain and owner of Miss Jennifer, a speedy 27-foot Contender. Tardiness and rain didn't seem to dampen the boat's angler's catch for the day, despite drenching downpours
"It was on our way out north when we saw a leatherback turtle. That was key. That's how we got the mahi," Austin said. It was angler Matt Mahaffey who reeled in the 23.4-pound fish, which would later earn the largest dolphin prize.
About an hour after the mahi catch, still en route to the fishing grounds, Austin hooked a 24.8-pound kingfish that ultimately garnered him the largest kingfish award.
"The mid part of the day was real slow. We saw some yellowfin tuna, but we didn't get ours until the end of the day," Austin said. "We had been working an area for a while and we knew they were down deep. So, we ran our lines deeper." Minutes before it was time to quit fishing and sprint to shore for the 4 p.m. weigh-in at Offshore Marine Services in St. Thomas' Crown Bay, Bruce Ball got a bite. "We were really struggling to meet the time limit. We just kept yelling at him to fish fast," Austin said. Ball's 58.4-pound fish received the largest tuna prize.
The next day dawned bright and sunny. "We had our slam with three species, now we needed a wahoo to make a grand slam," Austin said. The anglers ran wahoo lures and ended up catching two more yellowfin tuna and a small mahi-mahi, but no wahoo. Back at the docks, Miss Jennifer angler's learned that wahoo were equally elusive for all the other tournament participants. Still, the weight of Miss Jennifer's mahi-mahi, kingfish and yellowfin tuna – 106.6-pounds – was enough to win them a first place slam. The catch earned a prize of cash plus a pair of U.S. Air tickets to anywhere in the continental United States, a total value $3,500
"I had never fished this tournament before, but we all just love fishing and go out just about every weekend," Austin said. David Buder was also fishing aboard Miss Jennifer, although he ended up fishless. Also getting slams were Lady Marie, with Capt. Larry Aubain, and Rampage, with Albert Sibilly at the helm. Rampage did land a grand slam last year to win the tournament.
Each participating boat donated a fish that was served for the event's awards dinner.
This annual Labor Day weekend event is part of the Game Fishing Club's fifth annual Small Boat Series. The Club's next event will be a wahoo tournament later in the fall. For more information, call: 340-775-9144.

Sept. 5, 2001 – Four Ficus trees growing adjacent to the eastern side of the Reichhold Center for the Arts have to be removed to prevent further invasion from the aggressive root systems that have begun to compromise the floor of the lobby area of the Reichhold. The roots have also caused extensive damage to underground sewage pipes and a parking slab.
According to horticultural specialists at the University of the Virgin Island's Cooperative Extension Service, it will not be possible to save the adult trees, which were planted about two decades ago.
Roy Watlington, chancellor of UVI's St. Thomas campus and a former executive vice president of the Virgin Islands Conservation Society, said in a release, the University will mourn the loss of the trees.
"We at the University consider it a tragedy to have to sever these beautiful trees, which have provided a majestic canopy at the Reichhold Center, but in this situation we have no choice," Watlington said. "The planting of these trees so close to the foundation of the center almost two decades ago was a mistake. We are investigating what kind of vegetation can safely replace these trees."
For at least five years, seeping sewage has been a nagging concern for the Reichhold Center. It recently became a health issue, forcing the closure of the Reichhold Center's administrative offices, while a construction crew investigated the cause.
"It's an expensive venture to continuously repair the plumbing, and finally our plumbers determined that what needed to happen was to dig up the whole area. That's when we discovered the extent of the roots and the damage they had inflicted," said Reichhold director David Edgecombe.
Carlos Robles, a specialist with UVI's Cooperative Extension Service, said Ficus trees have aggressive growing habits. Their roots seek out moisture and even the tiniest fissure in a pipe can present an environment for growth.
During the investigation, a four-foot hole was dug under the Reichhold Center lobby, where a system of roots the size of a human forearm had not only invaded and cracked the sewage pipes, but had begun to undermine the lobby floor itself. Further, the roots caused a cement slab in the Reichhold Center's employee parking lot to lift about six inches.
Additionally, berries and leaves from the overhanging trees had corroded the Reichhold's air handling system.
"These are not bad trees themselves, they just were placed in the wrong location some 20 years ago," Robles said. "Some trees grow faster than others and ficus grow very rapidly."
The university is investigating more appropriate replacement foliage for the area.