Aug. 28, 2001 – The Police Department Traffic Bureau is investigating a Saturday night automobile accident that claimed what an officer said was the seventh pedestrian fatality on St. Thomas this year — and the fourth within a month.
Police Chief Jose Garcia said Monday that Lester Hart, 38, was struck while standing on the Veterans Drive median near the Watlington Post Office Annex in Frenchtown.
"He was standing across the street from the post office in the middle of the four-lane highway when he was struck around 10 p.m. Saturday," Garcia said. He said no charges had been filed pending the completion of the investigation.
Garcia said Hart was pronounced dead at Roy L. Schneider Hospital from injuries to the head, chest and abdomen. The chief identified the driver of the vehicle that struck Hart as Jimmy Baulai, 23, of Contant.
One week earlier, a 66-year-old man was killed while crossing the road in Smith Bay. An unidentified man has been arrested and charged with vehicular homicide in that death.
On Aug. 3 Joel "Joey" Benjamin was charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of Ilma Dyer, 33, and Wilshana Stuart, 10, who were struck and killed Aug. 1 while walking on the side of the road in Bovoni.
According to Sgt. Annette Raimer, police information officer, Hart's death is the seventh pedestrian fatality this year on St. Thomas. Raimer said speeding was a big factor in the deaths, adding that police "need more vehicles" to be out patrolling the streets, checking for licenses and creating a presence.
She said police officials met with Gov. Charles W. Turnbull last week to plead their case for an increased budget for more officers and vehicles. The governor's proposed Police Department budget for Fiscal Year 2002 is $34.4 million, including about $5 million in federal funds. Raimer said the department could use $50 million.
Anyone with information about Saturday night's accident is asked to call traffic investigators at 774-2211 or the 911 emergency number.

Aug. 28, 2001 – The V.I. Game Fishing Club's Offshore Four tournament is this weekend, offering prizes for four species of fish — dolphin, kingfish, yellow-fin or black-fin tuna, and wahoo.
The Labor Day weekend competition is one of the club's small boat series of fishing events. Anglers will be trying for a Grand Slam, at least one fish of each target species, or a Slam, any three of the four. The combined catches for the two days of the tournament are what count.
First prize is cash plus a pair of U.S. Air tickets to anywhere in the continental United States, total value $3,500. Second prize is $500 cash.
The boat with the most target-species fish by weight will collect $300.
There will be awards to the boats with the largest and second-largest Grand Slams by weight. (If no Grand Slams are recorded, the awards will go to the boats with the largest and second-largest Slams by weight. And if there are no Slams, they'll go to the two boats with the largest two of the species by weight.)
Whoever catches the largest fish of each individual species will win a Shimano TLD 25 reel; whoever lands the second-largest will receive a Shimano TLD 70 rod.
Fish to be weighed in for prizes must be iced, in eatable condition, and are to be turned over to the V.I. Sport Fishing Club to be served at the awards dinner on Monday evening. Any fish not used for the dinner will be divided among the anglers who caught fish. Anglers must be present at the awards dinner to receive awards.
Tournament registration is from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday at the club headquarters in the Frigate East building in Red Hook, with the captains' meeting to follow there. On Saturday and Sunday, it's lines in the water at 6 a.m., with weigh-in at Offshore Marine no later than 4 p.m. both days.
The tournament is being run according to International Game Fishing Association rules, with live bait permitted but wire lines and electric reels not allowed. The IGFA rule book is available at the club. The entry fee is $180 per club member boat and $200 per non-member boat. For more information, call the club at 775-9144.

Aug. 28, 2001 – The V.I. Game Fishing Club's Offshore Four tournament is this weekend off St. Thomas, offering prizes for four species of fish — dolphin, kingfish, yellow-fin or black-fin tuna, and wahoo.
The Labor Day weekend competition is one of the club's small boat series of fishing events. Anglers will be trying for a Grand Slam, at least one fish of each target species, or a Slam, any three of the four. The combined catches for the two days of the tournament are what count.
First prize is cash plus a pair of U.S. Air tickets to anywhere in the continental United States, total value $3,500. Second prize is $500 cash.
The boat with the most target-species fish by weight will collect $300.
There will be awards to the boats with the largest and second-largest Grand Slams by weight. (If no Grand Slams are recorded, the awards will go to the boats with the largest and second-largest Slams by weight. And if there are no Slams, they'll go to the two boats with the largest two of the species by weight.)
Whoever catches the largest fish of each individual species will win a Shimano TLD 25 reel; whoever lands the second-largest will receive a Shimano TLD 70 rod.
Fish to be weighed in for prizes must be iced, in eatable condition, and are to be turned over to the V.I. Sport Fishing Club to be served at the awards dinner on Monday evening. Any fish not used for the dinner will be divided among the anglers who caught fish. Anglers must be present at the awards dinner to receive awards.
Tournament registration is from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday at the club headquarters in the Frigate East building in Red Hook, with the captains' meeting to follow there. On Saturday and Sunday, it's lines in the water at 6 a.m., with weigh-in at Offshore Marine no later than 4 p.m. both days.
The tournament is being run according to International Game Fishing Association rules, with live bait permitted but wire lines and electric reels not allowed. The IGFA rule book is available at the club. The entry fee is $180 per club member boat and $200 per non-member boat. For more information, call the club at 775-9144.

Aug. 28, 2001 — Short of staff and with the possibility of less federal funding in the future, Labor Commissioner Cecil Benjamin urged senators on Monday not to cut his department’s budget any further.
Benjamin, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, said the Labor Department employs about 100 fewer people now than three years ago. That has contributed to low morale and a lack of service for customers, he said.
The department’s overall $12.2 budget request for fiscal year 2002 is almost $1 million less than last year because of dwindling federal funds.
The $12.2 million is a "bare-bones" request consisting of $2.2 million from the General Fund, $2.2 million from the Government Insurance Fund, $490,000 from the Union Arbitration Fund and $7.4 million from the federal government.
"A short-staffed situation exists," Benjamin said. "We cannot do what needs to be done with less than is proposed at this time."
Three years ago there were 259 employees in the Labor Department. Now, due to retirements and resignations, there are 156, Benjamin said. Because of the loss of staff and the cuts in federal funding, the department is becoming increasingly inefficient, he said.
"These shortages have literally crippled our ability to provide viable programs in the community," Benjamin said, adding that because of less federal funding, the department will "likely be required to play a major role in absorbing" the changes.
Rent is a major expense for the department — $700,000 a year. Benjamin said his goal is to have a "one-stop" building constructed to house all Labor functions. A contractor, Hyde Park Perini, has been selected to develop a proposal within the next two years for such a complex on St. Croix, he said.
Meanwhile, in other committee action, senators blasted the Turnbull administration for its FY 2002 budget proposal for the Office of Veterans Affairs. The administration request is $246,906, about $17,000 less than last fiscal year. Fernando Webster, appointed to head the office in early July, said he wasn’t involved in preparing the budget request.
He told senators a more realistic budget for the agency is about $305,000.
Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, chair of the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, harshly criticized the administration’s treatment of veterans in the budget. She said the 10,000-plus veterans in the territory deserve more and noted that Veterans Affairs doesn’t even have an office on St. Thomas.
"It is an absolute disgrace to tell the veterans of the territory that this is all the money … that this is all you are worth to us," Pickard-Samuel said. "Someone needs to be accountable for this insult to veterans."

Aug. 28, 2001 – The start of school for students at the Michael J. Kirwan Elementary School will be delayed by one day while debris is removed from classrooms and other last-minute cleaning and an electrical inspection are carried out.
The electrical inspection of the kitchen and cafeteria will necessitate lunch being brought in from a satellite location on Wednesday when the Kirwan students are slated to return to school.
A release from the Education Department said reporting dates have been changed slightly due to the delay in school opening.
Here is the new reporting schedule:
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 8:15 a.m.: Grades 1 to 6. (Placement cards will be handed out starting at 7:30 a.m.)
Thursday, Aug. 30, from 8-11:30 a.m. – Kindergartners with last names beginning A – L.
Friday, Aug. 31, from 8 to 11:30 a.m.– Kindergartners with last names beginning M – Z.
In the release, Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds said Kirwan School underwent major repairs over the summer.

Aug. 28, 2001 — The question of who owns the submerged lands that former President Bill Clinton as designated national monuments will take at least a month to answer.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said Monday she recently spoke to the attorney in the U.S. Government Accounting Office who is charged with issuing a legal opinion on the disagreement over ownership of the lands. Christensen told WSTX radio that "because of the slow transition at the Interior Department . . . the information coming from Interior has been" delayed.
Christensen said GAO officials told her last week that they had received the last bit of information requested from Interior and it will take about six weeks for an opinion to be issued.
"We are anticipating some time in October we should get a legal opinion on the ownership of the monuments," Christensen said.
In the last days of his administration, Clinton created the 12,700-acre V.I. Coral Reef National Monument off St. John and expanded the Buck Island Reef National Monument off St. Croix by 18,000 acres. The designation and expansion, which ban fishing, anchoring and other activities in the area in order to conserve and restore coral reef ecosystems and marine life, have raised the ire of local politicians who claim the land in question belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands.
In May, Gov. Charles Turnbull wrote newly appointed Interior Secretary Gale Norton and reiterated the V.I. government’s position. Turnbull said the issue needed to be settled before any management plans for the areas are put in place. According to Clinton's proclamation, the National Park Service has two years to prepare a management plan for Buck Island and three years for the St. John monument.
Those who contend that the submerged land belongs to the territory point to an act carried out by then-President Gerald Ford in 1974 that transferred the land in question to the Virgin Islands. However, the Interior Department under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt disagreed.

Aug. 28, 2001 — The question of who owns the submerged lands that former President Bill Clinton designated as national monuments will take at least a month to answer.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said Monday she recently spoke to the attorney in the U.S. Government Accounting Office who is charged with issuing a legal opinion on the disagreement over ownership of the lands. Christensen told WSTX radio that "because of the slow transition at the Interior Department . . . the information coming from Interior has been" delayed.
Christensen said GAO officials told her last week that they had received the last bit of information requested from Interior and it will take about six weeks for an opinion to be issued.
"We are anticipating some time in October we should get a legal opinion on the ownership of the monuments," Christensen said.
In the last days of his administration, Clinton created the 12,700-acre V.I. Coral Reef National Monument off St. John and expanded the Buck Island Reef National Monument off St. Croix by 18,000 acres. The designation and expansion, which ban fishing, anchoring and other activities in the area in order to conserve and restore coral reef ecosystems and marine life, have raised the ire of local politicians who claim the land in question belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands.
In May, Gov. Charles Turnbull wrote newly appointed Interior Secretary Gale Norton and reiterated the V.I. government’s position. Turnbull said the issue needed to be settled before any management plans for the areas are put in place. According to Clinton's proclamation, the National Park Service has two years to prepare a management plan for Buck Island and three years for the St. John monument.
Those who contend that the submerged land belongs to the territory point to an act carried out by then-President Gerald Ford in 1974 that transferred the land in question to the Virgin Islands. However, the Interior Department under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt disagreed.

Aug. 28, 2001 — Members of the American Federation of Teachers unions in the territory will gather in the next few days to ratify a new contract, union officials said Monday.
However, they did not disclose any details of the proposed new deal.
Contract negotiations started about a week ago. They were initially aimed at increasing the starting salaries for public school teachers. But because the Turnbull administration had found $10 million to pay salary step increases to government workers following a strike by AFT members late last year, teachers wanted the current negotiations to focus on across-the-board raises.
AFT and government negotiators agreed on a contract late Friday, said Tyrone Molyneaux, St. Croix AFT chapter president. The St. Croix chapter will hold a ratification meeting Wednesday or Thursday. The St. Thomas-St. John AFT chapter will vote Wednesday, said Glen Smith, its president.
Without giving any details, Molyneaux said he was "comfortable" with the proposed agreement.
"Instead of only entry-level increases, the talks centered around salary increases for all members," he said.
Molyneaux said the negotiations lacked the bad feelings present last year when talks were held during a three-week AFT strike.
"The government appeared to be willing to bend more this time around," he said.
Smith said the parties started with a wide gap and negotiations were difficult. But after ground rules were agreed on that included supplementary raises for all AFT members, talks moved swiftly.
"We were both striving to reach middle ground," Smith said. "Now it’s up to the members."

Aug. 28, 2001 — Members of the American Federation of Teachers unions in the territory will gather in the next few days to ratify a new contract, union officials said Monday.
Contract negotiations started about a week ago and were initially aimed at increasing the starting salaries for public school teachers in the territory. But after the Turnbull administration found $10 million to pay salary step increases to government workers following a strike by AFT members late last year, teachers wanted negotiations to focus on across-the-board raises.
AFT and government negotiators agreed on a contract late Friday, said Tyrone Molyneaux, St. Croix AFT chapter president. The St. Croix chapter will hold a ratification meeting on either Wednesday or Thursday. The St. Thomas-St. John AFT chapter will vote on Wednesday, said its president, Glen Smith.
Without giving any details, Molyneaux said he was "comfortable" with the proposed agreement.
"Instead of only entry level increases, the talks centered around salary increases for all members," he said.
Molyneaux said the negotiations lacked the bad feelings present last year when talks were held during a three week AFT strike.
"The government appeared to be willing to bend more this time around…," he said.
Smith said the parties started with a wide gap and that negotiations were difficult. But after ground rules were agreed on that included supplementary raises for all AFT members, talks moved swiftly.
"We were both striving to reach middle ground," smith said. "Now it’s up to the members."

Aug. 27, 2001 – One small class will be combined with another at J. Antonio Jarvis School, and a music teacher will switch to a different classroom. Those are the stop-gap solutions to the threat posed by an old classroom building on the schoolgrounds that was identified more than two years ago as being structurally unsound.
The decision to not use the aging Conrad Building at the Jarvis School came before a meeting Friday of officials of the Education, Public Works, Property and Procurement, Planning and Natural Resources and Police Departments and Fire Services and the Office of the Governor, according to Education spokeswoman Juel Anderson.
The officials met to decide what to do in the face of reports that the more than 100-year-old Conrad Building on Prindsens Gade has major structural damage that could endanger children and staff at the school.
The officials decided not to use the building until it can be assessed and any necessary repairs are made. They also decided to erect a wooden barricade to keep people away from the Conrad Building and an adjacent abandoned building on the school grounds. The barricade was built over the weekend, and Anderson said school officials were confident it would keep the children away from any possible danger the old buildings might pose.
Instead of taking children to the music classroom in the Conrad Building, the music teacher will use a formerly empty room in the main Jarvis building, Anderson said Monday.
The only other Conrad Building room that had been scheduled for use was for a relatively small kindergarten class. The pupils now will be combined with another small kindergarten class.
"The children won’t be affected," Anderson said of the logistical change. There will still be fewer than 16 students in the class.
As far back as June of 1999, government officials have been aware of the possible dangers posed by the old buildings.
In a letter dated June 19, 1999, to Myron Jackson, then Historic Preservation Office senior planner, Martin Weaver, an architect with experience in preserving historic buildings, wrote that the Conrad Building had a large diagonal crack indicative of structural damage to the foundation. That crack posed an immediate danger of structural failure, Weaver said. And so did the possibility that water flowing past the building might have damaged floor joists and contributed to termite damage and decay.
"Since this is an elementary school with small children in it, the combination of phenomena appears to pose a serious and unacceptable risk," Weaver wrote to Jackson. "I would strongly recommend that you should inform the responsible senior officer, who I believe is the commissioner of the Department of Education."
The Historic Preservation Office passed the information along to Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds in a letter dated July 6, 1999. In that letter, officials in the Historic Preservation Office stated that both the Conrad Building and the adjacent abandoned building "pose a threat to both the school’s student body and the public."
Last week, Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel charged that Jarvis School, where she said she sends one of her children, is unsafe. She said she learned of the problems during discussions about possible uses for $200,000 that is to go toward repairs at the school.
Architects will begin a thorough assessment of the Conrad Building and the abandoned structure on Tuesday, Anderson said. After they submit their report, officials will decide what to do with the historic structures.
Education officials did not respond to questions Monday about why it took more than two years to address a situation potentially dangerous to the children attending the school.