Aug. 17, 2001 – A team of government officials is investigating reports that several construction contractors may have overbilled the government by nearly $1.2 million for summer repair work at several schools on St. Thomas and St. John in 2000.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Wednesday that he expects results of the investigation to be presented to him within the next two weeks. Then, he said, he will decide whether the matter should be handed over to the Public Corruption Task Force.
Alternatively, he said, the government could pay the bills for the repair work if it appears that there was no wrongdoing, or it could negotiate with the contractors to work out payments appropriate for the work completed.
There already have been negotiations between several of the contractors and a team of officials from the Property and Procurement, Justice and Education Departments, according to documents relating to the investigation that have been obtained by the Source.
The documents indicate that some of the contractors have retained legal counsel, and that many of them have said they can document the basis for the bills they submitted for their repair work.
Government House Chief of Staff Juel Molloy said Wednesday that she had recommended that no payments be made on the contracts in question until an investigation was completed. Like Stridiron, she indicated that she expected the results within a few weeks.
Payment to at least four of the building contractors has been withheld since an audit was conducted last year under the auspices of the Contracts Review Committee of the Education Department's Emergency Task Force. The audit found that the costs for the work may have been vastly inflated, Stridiron confirmed.
On Friday, one of the contractors whose bills are in question told the Source that he stands by the amount he billed the government. He said the audit of the work done at the school did not factor in much of the work his crews did.
He said his crews and those of his subcontractors were in the middle of their repair work in the summer of 2000 when Education officials started changing the scope of the work they wanted done. Some of the discrepancies in the billing may have come about because of the scramble and confusion as workers tried to complete the work before classes resumed in the fall, he said.
The territory's public schools had been scheduled to reopen on Aug. 28 last year, but because of uncompleted repair work, the opening was delayed two weeks, to Sept. 11. It was then further delayed to Sept. 25 for the Lockhart and Peace Corps Elementary Schools and Charlotte Amalie High School.
Memorandum cites conflicting figures
In a memorandum dated Jan. 29, 2001, to Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds, Chief Deputy Attorney General Alva Swan wrote that the audit conducted on several of the contracts for repair work indicated that some contractors' bills were more than three times higher than the audit's valuation of the work done at the schools.
Swan wrote that one contract for repair work at Joseph Gomez Elementary School on St. Thomas was for $847,401, but the audit found that the work completed was worth an estimated $252,507. That would mean a $621,894 overbilling, Swan wrote.
"This excess is unconscionable and no reasonable person could find such an excess percentage within the range where reasonable men would or could differ," Swan wrote to Simmonds.
Documents relating to that contract show the contractor billed the government for replacing 125 doors at a cost of $1,026 per door, and for replacing 177 windows at $716 per window.
The audit found a similar level of overbilling on a contract for work at Guy Benjamin Elementary School on St. John, as well as overbilling on a $230,000 contract for work at J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School on St. Thomas. The "amount in excess" billed on the Jarvis school work was $138,739, Swan said.
"The other contractors, in my estimation, are no less egregious or culpable in their overcharges," he wrote in the memorandum.
Swan added that the audit found that two contractors who did repair work, including $238,084 worth of work completed at E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary School on St. Thomas, either undercharged the government or were within an acceptable level of about a 10 percent difference.
Stridiron has indicated that payment on the bills for those contracts has been approved.
The contractor who spoke to the Source on Friday said the contracts for repair work went through a competitive bidding process, but changes could have been made under "exigency" provisions, whereby Education Department officials could bypass some of the bureaucratic process as they tried to hurry repair work to completion.
The contractor said when he first heard the questions raised about his bills early this year, he took his documentation of costs to Justice Department and other government officials and went over them item by item. He said he was then told that he would be paid for the work, but he has not seen any money yet. He added that he nevertheless agreed to do more school repair work this summer.
Further, the contractor told the Source, if, in fact, some contractors were overbilling the government, that did not mean all of them were.
Study used national estimates, locally adjusted
The Education audit compared the amounts of the awarded contracts with an independent study of what the work involved should reasonably cost. The independent study was based on the "1999 National Construction Estimator," a publication that lists labor and material costs, location cost adjustments and other variables used in commercial contracting, according to a Sept. 12, 2000, memo to Property and Procurement Commissioner Marc Biggs.
The study also was adjusted for material costs in the Virgin Islands and allowed for reasonable profits and overhead costs, the memo states.
Reviewers then went to five schools on St. Thomas and St. John to calculate the value of the work they saw had been completed, or that was expected to be completed. The reviewers called this the "value analyzed."
The audit covered repair work at Joseph Gomez, Guy Benjamin, E. Benjamin Oliver, Julius Sprauve and Ivanna Eudora Kean Schools. In total, the awarded contracts came to $2,139,797. The independent study's "value analyzed" figure for the work was $945,538. That is a difference — a possible overbilling — of $1,194,259.
The study also examined the difference between contracts awarded and estimates for work done at four other schools in the district and found similar evidence of possible overbilling.
Based on that study, the Contracts Review Committee recommended last September that a team be formed to meet with each contractor to go over their bills and to negotiate an appropriate payment for the work completed.
The committee also recommended that its findings be passed along to the Public Corruption Task Force, and that similar studies be carried out on St. Croix.
Since then, the team of officials from the Property and Procurement, Justice and Education Departments have met with many of the contractors, most of whom have retained counsel and indicated they have documentation that supports the bills they submitted.

Second in a series on the Summer 2001 visit to Denmark by the Friends of Denmark, hosted by the West Indian Society there
Wednesday – rural religious and royal strongholds
On Wednesday of our first week, the Fynn group met in Christianfeld on Jutland where we got a good orientation to how it came to be that Moravian missionaries played such an important role in educating slaves in the colonial period of the Danish West Indies.
In 1457, a group of Christians gathered together in the Bohemia/Moravia area of Germany and called themselves Unitas Fratrum — the United Brethren. Two centuries of persecution by the Roman Catholic Church drove most of the church's members elsewhere, mainly in Eastern Europe. A small company of the Brothers and Sisters found refuge in 1722 in Saxony, where Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf was taken with the Moravian ways and joined the Brotherhood, granting them land upon which they founded the town of Herrnhut and in 1727 established the renewed Moravian Brethren movement.
Count Zinzendorf supported Moravian missions to the Danish West Indies (from 1732) as well as to Greenland and India. The count was related to King Christian IV and Queen Sophie of Denmark and convinced them to accept a mission of Moravians. The mission purchased a sizable plot of land in Jutland and founded the village of Christianfeld in 1772.
As a religious community under the wing of the king, Christianfeld was forgiven taxation, and the Moravians were quick to make maximum use of their money.
The Christianfeld Moravian Church is a masterpiece of understatement. It is a simple rectangular solid with the largest chapel without supporting columns in Denmark. The floors are lightly sanded, raw wood planks, and the room is painted stark white. it has no altar, baptismal font or religious art imagery. The only ornamentation, if you can call it that, are numerous candelabra suspended from the ceiling or attached to the wall.
Sitting in the middle of the church, I admired the Moravians for putting aside pomp and splendor with a total commitment to their God and his teachings, and I really wanted to join them in worship in the evening under the flickering light of hundreds of candles.
Other church-erected buildings in Christianfeld include a vicarage, choir houses — including the Sister House, where unmarried females lived and studied, the Widow House, a pharmacy with its garden of 69 different medicinal plants, and a hotel.
In the church, brothers sat on the left side facing the front, while sisters sat on the right. In the churchyard Gudsageren ("God’s Field") cemetery, males are buried on the left of the center lane while females are buried on the right. All headstones are of a standard size, with identical lettering to emphasize equality after death. There is bare dirt throughout the burial grounds.
One stop on our tour was at a bakery, where most of us purchased honey cakes. This delicacy has been a Christianfeld speciality since 1783.
Lunch was a smorgasbord of herring, salmon, pork and cheese served in the bowels of Koldinghus Castle. The castle was the early palace of Danish kings and a favorite of Denmark's builder king, Christian IV.
The oldest parts of the castle date from the 15th century. In 1808, Spanish troops hired to fight in the Napoleonic Wars stoked a fire so fiercely that the castle caught fire and was destroyed. Rebuilding didn't begin until 1890 — and wasn't completed until the 1990s, under the direction of architects Inger and Johannes Exner.
The restored traditional sections house an impressive collection of lace and one of Denmark's finest collections of silver. A modern wing is used to display special collections and exhibitions. At the time of our tour, the wing was filled with a Danish industrial design exhibition.
Our final stop of the day was the Lyng Church, built to replace a historic church removed to make way for the Fynn-Jutland Bridge. This church also was designed by Johannes Exner. The large sanctuary is covered by a cantilevered roof set on beams emanating from a central core, the effect being a "tree of life." The walls are decorated tiles and the altar cross is three dimensional.
The Lyng Church organ is a masterwork of design and function with trumpets projecting horizontally from the pipes. The West Indian Society had prevailed upon the church organist to play a short concert for us which showed off the instrument and the sanctuary acoustics.
Thursday – family ties
Our host drove me to Helnaes By to visit my cousin — my grandfather's brother's daughter's son. He spends October through March in an apartment in Assnes, and then retires to his beach cabin in Helnaes By from April to October.
My cousin does not speak English and I have no Danish, so we talked through an interpreter and drank a lot of beer. He lives with a Laplander who also is most interesting. His oldest daughter knows some English and is working on a family tree, so I expect to know more about the Danish side of the family in the near future.
Returning to Norre Lyndeise, we stopped at my grandfather's village of Flemlose. Here we visited my great-grandfather's tailor shop, the home my grandfather was born and raised in, and the village church.
Even having to use a translator for our conversation, my cousin and I felt a strong family bond, and we were able to trade family information. I learned that a member of his father's family went down with the Titanic, having set out on the voyage to immigrate to America.
Friday – Transfer day
For our last day in the rural north of Denmark, our hosts took us on a bicycle trip throughout the immediate countryside. We visited a goose farm — which set the juices flowing for pate and crackling goose fresh from the roaster. We pedaled along country lanes through forests and stopped to inspect several historic buildings. The Norre Soby Kirke was constructed in the 1400s. We were lucky to encounter the local archivist — who also waters the grounds and rings the bells. He gave us a thorough history of the church and led us to the tower with its two bells cast in 1470 that have been in continuous service since their installation.
We also stopped at the birthplace and favorite home of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen. We were treated to a comprehensive history by the local caretaker, who even played some early recordings of Nielsen's music for us.
After a final country smorgasbord, we boarded the train, joining more than 50 fellow Virgin Islanders for the ride to Copenhagen and our metropolitan hosts for the second half of our two-week visit.
Next: Copenhagen

Aug. 19, 2001 – Rice usually sides up to beans or peas in the Virgin Islands, but this good-for-you grain also pairs perfectly — and beautifully — with West Indian pumpkin.
Also called calabaza, the West Indian pumpkin is a squash with a brilliant orange interior and an outer skin that ranges in color from green to light tan. It's found at the supermarket most often cut into pieces and wrapped in plastic. When looking for the best pieces, choose those that have a fresh looking, moist, tightly grained flesh with no signs of soft, wet or moldy spots. Whole calabazas make good hurricane stock, as they can be stored safety in a cool dark place for up to six weeks.
The calabaza's flesh has a sweet flavor akin to that of butternut squash. Likewise, it can be cooked in any style used to prepare winter squash. It's good added to soup, especially to pea or bean varieties. You also can serve it as a side dish, scooping out sections of the inner flesh and boiling the pieces for about half an hour or until tender. Calabaza can be baked, too, or cut-up pieces can be microwaved for quicker cooking.
The beauty of adding seasoned cooked chunks of calabaza to rice is that the soft vegetable dissolves almost completely amid the grains, giving the rice a beautiful golden-orange color. Try it!
Spicy West Indian Pumpkin Rice
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 small hot pepper, seeded and chopped, if desired
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
2 cups peeled and cubed West Indian pumpkin
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
In a large saucepan, melt the butter, then add the garlic, onion, green onions and hot pepper, stirring until they are tender. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the black pepper, allspice, thyme leaves and pumpkin. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 40 to 45 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft. Add the remaining chicken broth. Bring the mixture back to a boil and add the rice. Stir well. Lower heat and cover the pan. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked and all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir well to combine all ingredients thoroughly before serving. Serves 6.
Food fact: About one-half cup of calabaza contains only 35 calories and is a good source of vitamins A and C.

Aug. 19, 2001 – Rice usually sides up to beans in the Virgin Islands, but this good-for-you grain also pairs perfectly — and beautifully — with West Indian pumpkin.
Also called calabaza, the West Indian pumpkin is a squash with a brilliant orange interior and an outer skin that ranges in color from green to light tan. It's found at the supermarket most often cut into pieces and wrapped in plastic. When looking for the best pieces, choose those that have a fresh looking, moist, tightly grained flesh with no signs of soft, wet or moldy spots. Whole calabazas make good hurricane stock, as they can be stored safety in a cool dark place for up to six weeks.
The calabaza's flesh has a sweet flavor akin to that of butternut squash. Likewise, it can be cooked in any style used to prepare winter squash. It's good added to soup, especially to pea or bean varieties. You also can serve it as a side dish, scooping out sections of the inner flesh and boiling the pieces for about half an hour or until tender. Calabaza can be baked, too, or cut-up pieces can be microwaved for quicker cooking.
The beauty of adding seasoned cooked chunks of calabaza to rice is that the soft vegetable dissolves almost completely amid the grains, giving the rice a beautiful golden-orange color. Try it!
Spicy West Indian Pumpkin Rice
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 small hot pepper, seeded and chopped, if desired
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
2 cups peeled and cubed West Indian pumpkin
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
In a large saucepan, melt the butter, then add the garlic, onion, green onions and hot pepper, stirring until they are tender. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the black pepper, allspice, thyme leaves and pumpkin. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 40 to 45 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft. Add the remaining chicken broth. Bring the mixture back to a boil and add the rice. Stir well. Lower heat and cover the pan. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked and all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir well to combine all ingredients thoroughly before serving. Serves 6.
Food fact: About one-half cup of calabaza contains only 35 calories and is a good source of vitamins A and C.

Aug. 19, 2001 – Speaking to an audience including top government officials, fans and fellow athletic role models, former world champion boxer Julian "The Hawk" Jackson didn't pull any punches Saturday night in faulting the territory for failing to support the current crop of V.I. athletes in regional competitions.
The occasion was the induction of Jackson and six other Virgin Islands sports heroes simultaneously into both the new Virgin Islands Sports Hall of Fame (VISHF) and the international African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame (AAESHF). The ceremonies, the first of their kind in the territory, took place at the Palms Court Harborview Hotel on St. Thomas.
Jackson, at 40 the youngest of the honorees, used his acceptance speech to plead for additional community backing on behalf of his athletic protégés.
At a recent Caribbean sporting event, he recalled, "Our team members didn't even have Virgin Islands T-shirts to trade with the competing teams' members." He added, "We need your help."
Sharing the limelight with Jackson as inductees were fellow former world boxing champion Emile Griffith; major league baseball players Horace Clarke, Alvin McBean and Valmy Thomas; Negro Leagues baseball player Alfonso "Piggy" Gerard; and pro basketball player Glen "Kimble" Williams. Mora Gerard represented her grandfather, who was unable to attend because of illness. Each of the inductees received both an engraved plaque from the VISHF committee chair, Edgar "Baker" Phillips, and an engraved trophy from the AAESHF president, Arif Khatib.
Khatib said that all of the inductees had "demonstrated community leadership as well as great athletic accomplishments." Induction will be an annual affair, and he noted that he expects "at least one female" to be included among the 2002 AAESHF inductees.
According to Phillips, plans are "in the works" for a temporary home for the V.I. Sports Hall of Fame, with a permanent site as the eventual goal.
During the induction ceremony, Delegate Donna Christian Christensen stated that, "Each inductee, far beyond their contribution to their respective sports, has put the U.S. Virgin Islands on the world stage, bringing positive publicity and renown to the benefit of all of us who live here."
Also offering congratulations in brief remarks from the podium were Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Sen. Adelbert M. Bryan and Sen. Celestino A. White Sr.
The AAESHF co-sponsored the induction ceremonies along with the VISHF and the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department, according to a Government House release.
The mission of the AAESHF, as stated on its web site, www.afrosportshall.com, "is to broaden the public's understanding of African American ethnic history and the role of diversity and cultural tolerance in the growth of professional sports. The Hall of Fame gives the world the opportunity to better understand the impact African American and other ethnic groups throughout the world have had on American sports and society." The AAESHF is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in Oakland, Calif.
For biographical information and photos of Clarke, Gerard, McBean and Thomas, see the vibaseball web site.

Aug. 19, 2001 — More than 500 unionized employees of a Hovensa refinery contractor will return to work Monday after members ratified a new contract on Friday.
The approval of the contract by 172 members of the 500-strong Untied Steelworkers of America Local 8248 ended a two-day lockout that began Thursday by Jacobs IMC, Hovensa’s primary maintenance contractor. The vote to approve was 144 to 28, according to a report in the Daily News.
The lockout began Thursday morning after members of Local 8248 rejected a contract at midnight Wednesday. Negotiations between the company and union officials had been going on for two weeks before the vote.
In subsequent negotiations, concessions were made on sick pay, severance pay, vacation pay and bereavement pay and company insurance contributions. Demands for wage increases by the union were rejected by the company, which, according to published reports, said it couldn’t afford.

Aug. 17, 2001 – A team of government officials is investigating reports that several construction contractors may have overbilled the government by nearly $1.2 million for summer repair work at several schools on St. Thomas and St. John in 2000.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Wednesday that he expects results of the investigation to be presented to him within the next two weeks. Then, he said, he will decide whether the matter should be handed over to the Public Corruption Task Force.
Alternatively, he said, the government could pay the bills for the repair work if it appears that there was no wrongdoing, or it could negotiate with the contractors to work out payments appropriate for the work completed.
There already have been negotiations between several of the contractors and a team of officials from the Property and Procurement, Justice and Education Departments, according to documents relating to the investigation that have been obtained by the Source.
The documents indicate that some of the contractors have retained legal counsel, and that many of them have said they can document the basis for the bills they submitted for their repair work.
Government House Chief of Staff Juel Molloy said Wednesday that she had recommended that no payments be made on the contracts in question until an investigation was completed. Like Stridiron, she indicated that she expected the results within a few weeks.
Payment to at least four of the building contractors has been withheld since an audit was conducted last year under the auspices of the Contracts Review Committee of the Education Department's Emergency Task Force. The audit found that the costs for the work may have been vastly inflated, Stridiron confirmed.
On Friday, one of the contractors whose bills are in question told the Source that he stands by the amount he billed the government. He said the audit of the work done at the school did not factor in much of the work his crews did.
He said his crews and those of his subcontractors were in the middle of their repair work in the summer of 2000 when Education officials started changing the scope of the work they wanted done. Some of the discrepancies in the billing may have come about because of the scramble and confusion as workers tried to complete the work before classes resumed in the fall, he said.
The territory's public schools had been scheduled to reopen on Aug. 28 last year, but because of uncompleted repair work, the opening was delayed two weeks, to Sept. 11. It was then further delayed to Sept. 25 for the Lockhart and Peace Corps Elementary Schools and Charlotte Amalie High School.
Memorandum cites conflicting figures
In a memorandum dated Jan. 29, 2001, to Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds, Chief Deputy Attorney General Alva Swan wrote that the audit conducted on several of the contracts for repair work indicated that some contractors' bills were more than three times higher than the audit's valuation of the work done at the schools.
Swan wrote that one contract for repair work at Joseph Gomez Elementary School on St. Thomas was for $847,401, but the audit found that the work completed was worth an estimated $252,507. That would mean a $621,894 overbilling, Swan wrote.
"This excess is unconscionable and no reasonable person could find such an excess percentage within the range where reasonable men would or could differ," Swan wrote to Simmonds.
Documents relating to that contract show the contractor billed the government for replacing 125 doors at a cost of $1,026 per door, and for replacing 177 windows at $716 per window.
The audit found a similar level of overbilling on a contract for work at Guy Benjamin Elementary School on St. John, as well as overbilling on a $230,000 contract for work at J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School on St. Thomas. The "amount in excess" billed on the Jarvis school work was $138,739, Swan said.
"The other contractors, in my estimation, are no less egregious or culpable in their overcharges," he wrote in the memorandum.
Swan added that the audit found that two contractors who did repair work, including $238,084 worth of work completed at E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary School on St. Thomas, either undercharged the government or were within an acceptable level of about a 10 percent difference.
Stridiron has indicated that payment on the bills for those contracts has been approved.
The contractor who spoke to the Source on Friday said the contracts for repair work went through a competitive bidding process, but changes could have been made under "exigency" provisions, whereby Education Department officials could bypass some of the bureaucratic process as they tried to hurry repair work to completion.
The contractor said when he first heard the questions raised about his bills early this year, he took his documentation of costs to Justice Department and other government officials and went over them item by item. He said he was then told that he would be paid for the work, but he has not seen any money yet. He added that he nevertheless agreed to do more school repair work this summer.
Further, the contractor told the Source, if, in fact, some contractors were overbilling the government, that did not mean all of them were.
Study used national estimates, locally adjusted
The Education audit compared the amounts of the awarded contracts with an independent study of what the work involved should reasonably cost. The independent study was based on the "1999 National Construction Estimator," a publication that lists labor and material costs, location cost adjustments and other variables used in commercial contracting, according to a Sept. 12, 2000, memo to Property and Procurement Commissioner Marc Biggs.
The study also was adjusted for material costs in the Virgin Islands and allowed for reasonable profits and overhead costs, the memo states.
Reviewers then went to five schools on St. Thomas and St. John to calculate the value of the work they saw had been completed, or that was expected to be completed. The reviewers called this the "value analyzed."
The audit covered repair work at Joseph Gomez, Guy Benjamin, E. Benjamin Oliver, Julius Sprauve and Ivanna Eudora Kean Schools. In total, the awarded contracts came to $2,139,797. The independent study's "value analyzed" figure for the work was $945,538. That is a difference — a possible overbilling — of $1,194,259.
The study also examined the difference between contracts awarded and estimates for work done at four other schools in the district and found similar evidence of possible overbilling.
Based on that study, the Contracts Review Committee recommended last September that a team be formed to meet with each contractor to go over their bills and to negotiate an appropriate payment for the work completed.
The committee also recommended that its findings be passed along to the Public Corruption Task Force, and that similar studies be carried out on St. Croix.
Since then, the team of officials from the Property and Procurement, Justice and Education Departments have met with many of the contractors, most of whom have retained counsel and indicated they have documentation that supports the bills they submitted.

On Tuesday August 21, at 10 am, in the Earl B. Ottley Hall of the Legislature
Building, St. Thomas, V. I., the Committee on Planning and Environmental Protection, chaired by Senator Cole, will reconsider a 1985 CZM permit for development of a marina in the pond at Benner Bay (Benner Bay Pond, also called Compass Point Pond).
First, a brief description of what the marina project will involve:
a) approximately 1,000 cubic yards to a depth of 8 ft. will be dredged from
Benner Bay Pond;
b) the dredge material will be used to construct an island in the middle of the former pond basin;
c) an entrance channel will be opened to Benner Bay;
d) a marina complex which would include a 165 slip docking facility and fueling station will ring the edge of the island and the outer edge of the
dredged basin;
e) 85 room mariner's inn will be linked to a 64 one bedroom complex, all water
side;
f) also included in the proposal are a swimming pool, a full service trade building, a tennis court, and
g) a 33,500 gallons per day sewage treatment plant.
As mitigation for loss of red mangroves, red mangrove slips would be planted in areas around the marina basin edges, and the developer would preserve the
northwest corner of the pond for wading birds.
To the casual observer, the pond in question may be nothing more than a smelly, shallow water eyesore that at times may become almost completely dry. So, why preserve it? Why not have a marina there?
The marina would completely destroy the function of the salt pond at Benner Bay as a catchment basin for storm water run-off and sediment collection. It would also destroy, or severely curtail an important feeding area for many species of birds and a potential nursery ground for fish and other marine animals. Such habitats suitable for wildlife are becoming alarmingly scarce in the Virgin Islands, indeed, throughout the Caribbean – just look at Tortola’s south shore for a nearby example!
In the Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Act, salt ponds are specifically mentioned as habitats that should be protected from development unless it can be shown that the development will not result in irreparable harm, or that the
environmental benefits will actually result in enhancement.
And yet, at the executive (decision) meeting of the St. Thomas Committee of the CZM Commission, the environmental impacts of the proposed Benner Cove project were not adequately addressed. Although two members were new, and a third had not been present at the public hearing on the project, the transcript of the public hearing was not available. The applicant was invited to present a description of the project that was 12 pages long and was given the opportunity to respond to questions from the Commissioners.
No information was solicited from the five Fish and Wildlife biologists or any other individuals who had submitted strong objections to the project.
After a similar one-sided consideration of the complaints against the CZM permit brought by the League of Women Voters, the Board of Land Use Appeals upheld the CZM permit. However, when the permit (now revised and renumbered CZT-27-87W) was considered by the 17th Legislature, in two hearings in the
summer of 1988, some of the true value of the pond’s function and potential
reached the sympathetic ears of a sufficient number of senators to result in a
denial of ratification.
Now, 13 years later, the 24th Legislature is forced (by court order) to give the permit another hearing.
There is a lot of pressure on the Legislature to ratify the Benner Cove Marina permit, to come down on the side of perceived economic benefits and ignore the serious adverse environmental impacts that are certain to result from the replacement of the salt pond by a marina basin.
The League of Women Voters will ask the 24th Legislature to note that, after
years of neglect and sometimes deliberate tampering with its natural functions by both owners and the Government of the Virgin Islands, the Benner Cove site was designated a Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in 1992.
In his order, then DPNR Commissioner Roy Adams noted that the pond, "although degraded, remains one of the most important wildlife areas on the island of St. Thomas; that this Pond is used by numerous bird species and that it forms part of the natural heritage of the United States Virgin Islands."
On August 21, the League will urge the PEP Committee to deny approval of the Benner Cove Marina permit. The League will recommend instead, that the salt pond and its surrounding wetlands be restored to its natural state. We
fervently hope that many others will testify in defense of the preservation of
the pond.
Senator Cole’s office telephone number is 693-3523. If you want more
information, feel free to call me, at 775-5674.

Dr. Ruby Simmonds, Commissioner of Education, has announced the dates for the return of Department of Education personnel and students for the 2001-2002 school year.
Employees are to report to work at their assigned work locations on the following dates:
++ Principals, Ass't. Principals, Coordinators, and Bus Drivers, Monday,Aug. 20.
++ New Teachers, Wednesday, Aug. 22.
++ Guidance Counselors and Paraprofessionals, Wednesday, Aug. 22.
++ Returning Teachers, Registrars, Attendence Counselors, Diagnosticians, Psychologists and School Nurses, Friday, Aug. 24.
All public school students are to report to schools on Tuesday, Aug. 28, unless otherwise indicated. Orientation schedules very and will be announce as recieved.
This schedule encompasses both educational districts and all public schools in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Shirley J. Joseph, principal of the Julius E. Sprauve School, announces the Orientation Assemblies and Registration schedule for the opening of the 2001-2002 school year.
8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, in the school cafeteria:
All students in grades one through 5, Elementary Special Education Students and parents.
All students in grades 6-9, Junior High Special Education students and parents.
9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, Clarice Thomas Annex:
All Kindergarten students and parents.
Parents and guardians are advised that students' attendance at the orientation assemblies in mandatory to complete the reistration process.