Aug. 17, 2001 – Henry Braddock, a psychologist who will begin work as the Health Department's deputy commissioner on Sept. 1, had this advice for parents attending a retreat Friday on St. John: Give your children positive reinforcement.
Braddock and two dozen criminal justice and social service workers have gathered at the V.I. Environmental Resources Station overlooking St. John's Lameshur Bay this weekend for a retreat aimed at helping a dozen families keep their youngsters on the straight and narrow.
The families, from St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John, all have at least one child who already has gotten in trouble with the law or is at risk for doing so. The annual retreat, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by the Drug Demand Reduction Subcommittee of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the territory.
"Instead of treating just the child, we treat the family," Azekah Jennings, executive assistant U.S. attorney, said.
The "Parents and Children Together" retreat, also known as PACT, began Friday morning and runs through Sunday afternoon. Participants have morning, afternoon and evening sessions and spend Friday and Saturday nights at the VIERS campground.
The families braved rainy skies, mosquitoes and a trip down a treacherous dirt road to the research station for the start of the retreat Friday morning. While most of the weekend will be spent in workshops, there also will be time for swimming and other recreational activities, live music and, on Saturday night, a campfire marshmallow roast.
There are separate programs for adults, adolescents and younger children.
As part of the experience, parents and their children are required to eat together. Jennings said that too often nowadays families don't take or make the time to "break bread" together, and thus parents and children miss an opportunity to interact with one another.
Braddock began his workshop for adults Friday afternoon by having the group members play a game wherein one person would throw a ball to another. Those receiving the ball then had to state what they liked about themselves and what they liked about the other person.
"I'm learning to love my children more and to be a better parent," one woman stated as what she liked about herself.
When the game was over, Braddock told the group that it was an exercise in giving positive strokes, a practice they should continue with their children. The best time to do this, he said, is when the children aren't causing problems. "Your children figured out that the way to get attention is to mess up," the psychologist said.
However, Braddock noted, parents must set an example. "It's called moral authority," he said, adding that if a man continues to beat his wife while telling his son not to beat the boy's sister, the man is sending the wrong message.
Territorial Court Judge Ishmael Meyers opened the adult section of the retreat Friday morning with a seminar on how parents are permitted to discipline their children physically within the confines of the law. "There's a difference between discipline and abuse," he pointed out. He said if parents feel they must hit their children in order to get a message across, they must by law do it with an open palm, not a closed fist. And they must not choke or shake children or in any way "interfere with their breathing," he said, or threaten them with a deadly weapon.
Meyers urged parents not to discipline their children while angry. Waiting until they have calmed down will increase the likelihood of the disciplne being "more constructive and positive," he said.

Aug. 17, 2001 – Rough weather in the lower Eastern Caribbean caused by what had been Tropical Storm Chantal has forced the cruise ship Monarch of the Seas to detour from its regular southern Caribbean itinerary and call at St. Croix on Saturday.
According to Tourism Commissioner Pamela Richards, after the ship left St. Lucia on Friday, the captain decided not to proceed to its next scheduled call, Barbados. Instead, the Royal Caribbean International vessel, carrying about 2,000 passengers and crew, will dock at Frederiksted at 8 a.m. Saturday. The ship, which sails weekly out of San Juan, is scheduled to depart at 4 p.m.
The remnants of Chantal reformed in the Eastern Caribbean Sea on Friday morning, causing the National Hurricane Center to resume issuing advisories on the minimal tropical depression at 11 a.m. But its impact on the Virgin Islands is expected to be minimal.
Hurricane forecaster Lixion Avila said an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft found a small closed circulation system associated with the remians of the tropical storm, which had been downgraded Thursday night to a strong tropical wave.
At 11 a.m. Friday, the poorly defined center of the depression was located near 13.2 degrees north latitude and 65.2 degrees west longitude, about 365 miles south of San Juan. "The depression is continuing to move to the west at near 26 miles per hour with sustained winds at 35 miles per hour," Avila said in an advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
Knight Quality Stations meteorologist Alan Archer said at midday Friday that the latest computer projection models had the system re-intensifying to tropical storm status in the next 24 hours and passing to the south of Hispaniola or Jamaica.
"Chantal is then forecast to move gradually to the northwest, slow down and intensify while over the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean," Archer said. "The storm system will have minimal, if any, effect on weather conditions across the U.S. Virgin Islands."
He estimated a return to normal weather by Saturday with partly sunny skies, high temperatures near 88 and overnight lows in the mid 70s.]

Aug. 17, 2001 – The St. Thomas East End Medical Center will be participating for the first time in National Community Health Center Week, which starts Sunday. The observance happens to coincide with the launch of the center's own web site.
Both represent the kind of community outreach that for the center's young medical director, Dr. Carlos Garcia, is a satisfying part of his job.
Carmen White, assistant administrator and chair of the group that has organized the week's events, said, "We hope to see about 40 to 50 people a day." Visitors will be able to get an overview of all the services the center has to offer, as well as certain free testing, medical counseling and, in the case of young people ages 5-18, free immunizations.
"The employees are really excited about it — we've never done anything like this before," White said. "The center has so much to offer, we want people to know about it."
The open house hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The center is located in Tutu Park Mall adjacent to the Food Court.
Testing services include cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose, vision, prostate cancer and HIV OraSure screening. Counseling is offered in the areas of nutrition, breast and cervical cancer, and Medicare and air-ambulance services.
Thursday has been reserved for employees at the mall; Friday similarly is for government, hotel and industrial workers. Saturday morning is for men and boys. "We hope fathers will bring their sons for testing," White said, adding, "It's not easy getting boys to take shots!"
The full schedule of the week's offerings is posted on the center's new website, at www.steemc.freeservers.com. (The "steemc" stands for St. Thomas East End Medical Center.) The site was designed by center systems analyst Ricky Morales. "It just took about a week" to set it up, he said, and not all of the center's options are posted yet. "We're happy to have it up, but we'll be moving to a new hosting site," he said.
Taetia Phillips-Dorsett, local project coordinator of the federal Ryan White Title III HIV Program, said she wants people to be aware that the HIV-OraSure screening, a blood test for the human immunodeficiency virus which can lead to AIDS, is available and free. "There is still a stigma hanging over the testing," Phillips-Dorsett said. "We want to break through that. Anybody at all can get HIV; it's not limited to homosexuals and drug users. We want to educate people."
The man behind the medical care
Garcia also is celebrating. What seems most meaningful to the 30-year-old doctor is that he now sees about 10 patients a day, compared to one a day when he began working at the center almost a year ago. This is his first appointment, and he got it through a federal program that places young doctors in communities in need of health care.
"I love St. Thomas," Garcia said. "I'm from Puerto Rico; so, even though it's a different culture, I knew the Virgin Islands already."
Also saying that he loves his job, Garcia eagerly described his plans for the center. "I want to raise quality improvement and update medical records," he said, "because that way we can become an accredited medical organization" — something he hopes to accomplish by next spring.
What brought about his increase in patient visits? "I really don't know for sure," Garcia says, smiling. "It's word of mouth. We tell patients to tell their friends, tell their relatives. We want people to come to us," he said. "People used to think we were small with just one doctor." Being bilingual, Garcia tries to reach the local Spanish-speaking population. "I want them to know there's somebody here who can understand them," he said.
Garcia, an internist, supervises four other doctors now, plus a fifth who is part-time but will soon become full-time. The center professional staff includes a pediatrician, a general practitioner, a podiatrist and a midwife. "They all have years of experience," he said. But he added that his boss, Dr. Keith Callwood, the center executive director, "lets me do what I think is right."
In Garcia's small office are more than medical reference books and certificates on the walls. An oversized orange basketball, for instance, sits in one corner, along with some stuffed toys. "You've got to make the kids happy," he says with a smile, hoisting the ball. "We're like a family here; we all take care of each other."
Garcia's wife, Aileen, is completing a medical fellowship at the University of Puerto Rico where she and their two young children live. "I get over on weekends, or she comes over here," Garcia said. "But when she finishes her school next year, she will move over and practice here." He added, "She loves the Virgin Islands, too!"
The center has no dentist so far, Garcia noted. He's working on that, along with creating an "urgent care" section. "That's not an emergency room," he explained. "It's for things like an acute asthma or high blood pressure attack."
Formerly called the East End Family Health Center, the facility recently became a not-for-profit public benefit corporation. Funded entirely through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, it receives some maintenance and support from the V.I. Health Department through an affiliation agreement. It accepts all medical insurance and charges for services based on a federal sliding scale based on income.
White said the center is still in a transition period. It now has more autonomy than before, and although it still is under the oversight of the Health Department, it doesn't have the local government's financial burdens.
Garcia must find a new home for the center by next year. "The feds said we have to move," he said. The mall location was supposed to have been a temporary one after Hurricane Marilyn destroyed the center's old East End Clinic facility in Anna's Retreat. "We're looking at two sites now," he said while walking from the clinic area through the mall food court to the center's administrative offices on the other side. "We shouldn't be walking through here carrying medical records or anything else," he said, darting around a crowded table.
In addition to his own increase in patients, Garcia takes pride in the growing numbers of overall clients the center is seeing. As of last November, the center had recorded 11,000 "encounters." He explained, "That's everybody, family planning, counseling services, anyone who comes to the center." Figures for this year aren't available yet, he said.
But, "Oh, please tell your friends, tell anyone they can come to us," he said, adding, "I wish we could be open longer hours."

Aug. 17, 2001 — Before the Turnbull administration and Caribe Waste Technologies can move ahead with plans to build a waste-to-energy processing plant on St. Croix, the Water and Power Authority must review the multimillion-dollar implications of the project.
At a meeting Thursday on St. Croix, the WAPA board was briefed on the plan that is being billed as the panacea to the territory’s solid waste woes: a gasification plant. The proposed facility would be similar to three in operation in Italy, Japan and Germany and would, after processing garbage through a chemical conversion process, produce electricity and water, Mark Augenblick, CWT chairman and CEO, said.
Because WAPA would be purchasing the water and power generated from the plant -– at an estimated $10 million a year for 30 years -– the utility must approve a contract with CWT.
"This project cannot proceed without WAPA," Augenblick said. "We have been told by the governor’s office that the governor wants to proceed … they are waiting for us to agree on a contract on the purchase of water and power."
Along with initiating new solid waste user fees, the government would use the revenue from selling the water and electricity produced by the plant to help pay for it. The plant cost has been estimated at least $175 million.
CWT is estimating that it will be able to generate 1.5 million gallons of water and 11 megawatts of electricity a year from the facility, which will have the capacity to recycle 220,000 ton of waste per year.
"This is a major project," Joseph Thomas Jr., WAPA executive director, said. "I see this as maybe the most important decision we make over a long period of time."
He said that while the utility shares concern for environmental issues facing the territory, the WAPA board must consider how the $300 million or so that it would pay out over 30 years for water and power would affect its operations. He noted that the water and power that could be produced by the plant isn’t even needed by the utility on St. Croix.
"While WAPA doesn’t need this extra capacity now or in the foreseeable future, it attempts to work with CWT in whatever way it can to help solve the Virgin Islands' waste problem," Thomas said. "The authority has a fiduciary responsibility, however, to its customers and bondholders. We need to think through this opportunity very carefully."
CWT submitted a draft contract to WAPA in May. The utility disputed the "avoided cost" figures in the document. Essentially, avoided cost is the amount WAPA would save by not generating electricity and water itself.
Because of the disagreement, CWT and WAPA agreed to have an independent consultant determine a mutually agreeable avoided cost. Thomas said WAPA will now hire its own consultant to review the contract and the proposed facility’s technology and will report back to the board in the next 10 working days.
The trash processing plan
Under CWT’s proposal, garbage from St. John and St. Thomas would be barged to a single waste-to-energy plant on St. Croix, which could be built adjacent to the Gordon Finch Molasses Pier or on the St. Croix Alumina property, Augenblick said. The plant, he said, will allow the government to close the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the territory to close the Anguilla facility by the end of 2002 because birds that feed off of it pose a danger to aircraft at the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
But permitting and construction of the plant will take at least 21 months, Augenblick said, adding that he felt "awkward" about telling the WAPA board what the Turnbull administration plans to do about the FAA deadline and the timeline for the project.
He did say the project would generate $10 million a year for the St. Croix economy and would employ 70 people "in good-paying jobs over 30 years." Additionally, 250 people would be employed during construction of the plant, he said.
Augenblick tried to assuage fears that St. Croix would become a magnet for other islands’ trash in order to feed the waste-to-energy plant. He said the plant would run like a coal gasification plant, but instead of coal it would use waste to produce energy and water. He said the technology is a "100 percent recycling process."
"It is not a burning process. It’s a chemical conversion process," Augenblick said. "St. Croix isn’t going to be a repository or dumping ground for anybody’s waste."

Aug. 17, 2001 — Before the Turnbull administration and Caribe Waste Technologies can move ahead with plans to build a waste-to-energy processing plant on St. Croix, the Water and Power Authority must review the multimillion-dollar implications of the project.
At a meeting Thursday on St. Croix, the WAPA board was briefed on the plan that is being billed as the panacea to the territory’s solid waste woes: a gasification plant. The proposed facility would be similar to three in operation in Italy, Japan and Germany and would, after processing garbage through a chemical conversion process, produce electricity and water, Mark Augenblick, CWT chairman and CEO, said.
Because WAPA would be purchasing the water and power generated from the plant -– at an estimated $10 million a year for 30 years -– the utility must approve a contract with CWT.
"This project cannot proceed without WAPA," Augenblick said. "We have been told by the governor’s office that the governor wants to proceed … they are waiting for us to agree on a contract on the purchase of water and power."
Along with initiating new solid waste user fees, the government would use the revenue from selling the water and electricity produced by the plant to help pay for it. The plant cost has been estimated at least $175 million.
CWT is estimating that it will be able to generate 1.5 million gallons of water and 11 megawatts of electricity a year from the facility, which will have the capacity to recycle 220,000 ton of waste per year.
"This is a major project," Joseph Thomas Jr., WAPA executive director, said. "I see this as maybe the most important decision we make over a long period of time."
He said that while the utility shares concern for environmental issues facing the territory, the WAPA board must consider how the $300 million or so that it would pay out over 30 years for water and power would affect its operations. He noted that the water and power that could be produced by the plant isn’t even needed by the utility on St. Croix.
"While WAPA doesn’t need this extra capacity now or in the foreseeable future, it attempts to work with CWT in whatever way it can to help solve the Virgin Islands' waste problem," Thomas said. "The authority has a fiduciary responsibility, however, to its customers and bondholders. We need to think through this opportunity very carefully."
CWT submitted a draft contract to WAPA in May. The utility disputed the "avoided cost" figures in the document. Essentially, avoided cost is the amount WAPA would save by not generating electricity and water itself.
Because of the disagreement, CWT and WAPA agreed to have an independent consultant determine a mutually agreeable avoided cost. Thomas said WAPA will now hire its own consultant to review the contract and the proposed facility’s technology and will report back to the board in the next 10 working days.
The trash processing plan
Under CWT’s proposal, garbage from St. John and St. Thomas would be barged to a single waste-to-energy plant on St. Croix, which could be built adjacent to the Gordon Finch Molasses Pier or on the St. Croix Alumina property, Augenblick said. The plant, he said, will allow the government to close the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the territory to close the Anguilla facility by the end of 2002 because birds that feed off of it pose a danger to aircraft at the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
But permitting and construction of the plant will take at least 21 months, Augenblick said, adding that he felt "awkward" about telling the WAPA board what the Turnbull administration plans to do about the FAA deadline and the timeline for the project.
He did say the project would generate $10 million a year for the St. Croix economy and would employ 70 people "in good-paying jobs over 30 years." Additionally, 250 people would be employed during construction of the plant, he said.
Augenblick tried to assuage fears that St. Croix would become a magnet for other islands’ trash in order to feed the waste-to-energy plant. He said the plant would run like a coal gasification plant, but instead of coal it would use waste to produce energy and water. He said the technology is a "100 percent recycling process."
"It is not a burning process. It’s a chemical conversion process," Augenblick said. "St. Croix isn’t going to be a repository or dumping ground for anybody’s waste."

Aug. 17, 2001 — Before the Turnbull administration and Caribe Waste Technologies can move ahead with plans to build a waste-to-energy processing plant on St. Croix, the Water and Power Authority must review the multimillion-dollar implications of the project.
At a meeting Thursday on St. Croix, the WAPA board was briefed on the plan that is being billed as the panacea to the territory’s solid waste woes: a gasification plant. The proposed facility would be similar to three in operation in Italy, Japan and Germany and would, after processing garbage through a chemical conversion process, produce electricity and water, Mark Augenblick, CWT chairman and CEO, said.
Because WAPA would be purchasing the water and power generated from the plant -– at an estimated $10 million a year for 30 years -– the utility must approve a contract with CWT.
"This project cannot proceed without WAPA," Augenblick said. "We have been told by the governor’s office that the governor wants to proceed … they are waiting for us to agree on a contract on the purchase of water and power."
Along with initiating new solid waste user fees, the government would use the revenue from selling the water and electricity produced by the plant to help pay for it. The plant cost has been estimated at least $175 million.
CWT is estimating that it will be able to generate 1.5 million gallons of water and 11 megawatts of electricity a year from the facility, which will have the capacity to recycle 220,000 ton of waste per year.
"This is a major project," Joseph Thomas Jr., WAPA executive director, said. "I see this as maybe the most important decision we make over a long period of time."
He said that while the utility shares concern for environmental issues facing the territory, the WAPA board must consider how the $300 million or so that it would pay out over 30 years for water and power would affect its operations. He noted that the water and power that could be produced by the plant isn’t even needed by the utility on St. Croix.
"While WAPA doesn’t need this extra capacity now or in the foreseeable future, it attempts to work with CWT in whatever way it can to help solve the Virgin Islands' waste problem," Thomas said. "The authority has a fiduciary responsibility, however, to its customers and bondholders. We need to think through this opportunity very carefully."
CWT submitted a draft contract to WAPA in May. The utility disputed the "avoided cost" figures in the document. Essentially, avoided cost is the amount WAPA would save by not generating electricity and water itself.
Because of the disagreement, CWT and WAPA agreed to have an independent consultant determine a mutually agreeable avoided cost. Thomas said WAPA will now hire its own consultant to review the contract and the proposed facility’s technology and will report back to the board in the next 10 working days.
The trash processing plan
Under CWT’s proposal, garbage from St. John and St. Thomas would be barged to a single waste-to-energy plant on St. Croix, which could be built adjacent to the Gordon Finch Molasses Pier or on the St. Croix Alumina property, Augenblick said. The plant, he said, will allow the government to close the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills. The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the territory to close the Anguilla facility by the end of 2002 because birds that feed off of it pose a danger to aircraft at the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
But permitting and construction of the plant will take at least 21 months, Augenblick said, adding that he felt "awkward" about telling the WAPA board what the Turnbull administration plans to do about the FAA deadline and the timeline for the project.
He did say the project would generate $10 million a year for the St. Croix economy and would employ 70 people "in good-paying jobs over 30 years." Additionally, 250 people would be employed during construction of the plant, he said.
Augenblick tried to assuage fears that St. Croix would become a magnet for other islands’ trash in order to feed the waste-to-energy plant. He said the plant would run like a coal gasification plant, but instead of coal it would use waste to produce energy and water. He said the technology is a "100 percent recycling process."
"It is not a burning process. It’s a chemical conversion process," Augenblick said. "St. Croix isn’t going to be a repository or dumping ground for anybody’s waste."

Aug. 17, 2001 — What cost Virgin Islanders one dollar to purchase in January cost almost $1.03 six months later, according to the territory’s newly initiated consumer price index.
Until now, the Virgin Islands did not have a CPI, which is a way to measure the cost of goods and services purchased by local households over time. In 1997, however, the Eastern Caribbean Center at the University of the Virgin Islands conducted a consumer expenditure survey. The results were used to create a "market basket" of a fixed set of goods and services to measure the territory's CPI. The market basket consists of 174 items, including food, beverages and tobacco, housing apparel and transportation, medical care, recreation, communication and other goods and services.
According to the Economic Research Bureau, the CPI rose from its baseline of 100 in January to 100.7 for the first quarter of 2001, and then to 102.5 for the second quarter.
If the trend in the cost of goods and services continues in the next six months, the rate of inflation in the territory will exceed 6 percent at the end of the year, according to bureau analysts. That compares to a 3.4 percent rate of inflation on the mainland and 6.4 percent in Puerto Rico.
Carmelo Rivera, president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, said the CPI is important for measurung inflation and for adjusting wages and salaries for employment contracts.
"It does give us a good, reliable basis to make decisions on salaries and to make negotiations with unions," Rivera said. "We also see how far the purchase power of the dollar goes."

Aug. 16, 2001 – The potential for significant wind and shower activity associated with Tropical Storm Chantal across the Virgin Islands was greatly minimized Thursday night when the National Hurricane Center downgraded the weather system to tropical wave.
Forecasters said the effects of the still rapidly westward-moving system were expected to remain out over open water in the Caribbean Sea.
"All watches and warnings were discontinued at 8 p.m. on Thursday for the islands of the Lesser Antilles, except for a storm watch for Martinique and Guadeloupe, which will be discontinued on Friday," hurricane forecaster Richard Pasch said.
Pasch, based at the National Hurricane Center in Florida, said reports from an Air Force reconnaissance hurricane hunter plane indicated that Chantal no longer had a center of circulation. At 8 p.m., the system's dissipating center was estimated at about 13 degrees north latitude and 61 degrees west longitude, near the island of St. Vincent.
The remnants of the storm were continuing to move westward at nearly 29 miles per hour, with the rapid westerly motion expected to continue through Friday. The weather system continued to pack sustained winds of 40 mph and squalls.
Early in the day Thursday, hurricane forecasters and independent meteorologists had projected Chantal to pass about 150 miles south of St. Croix and bring showers and gusty winds to portions of the local region. At 8 p.m., the National Hurricane Center discontinued advisories on the storm.

Aug. 17, 2001 – Jeffrey Prosser, the local tycoon whose newspaper announced in 1999 that he was going to bail out the cash-strapped V.I. government, recently used a boat to pay off a debt. The move fuels speculation that Prosser’s Innovative Communication Corp. is experiencing cash-flow problems.
According to Territorial Court documents, Prosser’s ICC is suing Tip Top Construction, the company that renovated the former Victor Borge mansion in Christiansted that is now ICC’s corporate headquarters, for what ICC is essentially calling a breach of contract.
An agreement was signed by ICC and Tip Top executives in March that settled Tip Top’s $808,766 construction lien filed in February for work done on the Borge mansion, also called the Bjerget House. After what court documents characterized as "intense negotiations" mediated by project architect Robert deJongh to settle the $808,766 claim, ICC agreed to sign over title of a 1999 Contender sportfishing boat over 30 feet in length and valued at approximately $120,000 to Percy Hollins, father of Tip Top owner Joey Hollins, for $1. ICC also agreed to make two payments of $190,000 by March 16 and April 13 to Tip Top.
But in June, Tip Top filed another construction lien against ICC, this one for $47,980. Tip Top claims it is for work done on Bjerget House East. ICC disputes the claim and is suing Tip Top.
"The filing of the second lien is for a sum of monies that was fully settled and resolved between the parties," the ICC lawsuit said, adding that Tip Top’s action is "unlawful and constitutes slander" on ICC’s title to the Bjerget House property. ICC wants the lien invalidated and an award of punitive damages of $47,980. The case is being scheduled for trial.
Prosser's use of an asset to partially satisfy a debt and the existence of other liens filed by subcontractors who have worked on ICC projects have raised questions about the financial health of Prosser’s empire, something the Source reported on last April in the story "Does Prosser have money problems?"
The questions about ICC’s financial standing are a far cry from April 1, 1999, when Prosser’s newspaper, the V.I. Daily News, trumpeted in a banner headline that he was going to bail out the V.I. government in a land-for-tax breaks deal.
In the proposed deal, Prosser’s ICC, which is privately held, and its subsidiaries would have received tax breaks in exchange for giving land to the cash-strapped government. The plan was for ICC to turn over to the government 1,000 acres of improved, subdivided land on St. Croix’s northwest shore, which would then have been given to government workers in lieu of retroactive wages owed.
In addition, ICC would have given nearly $10 million for public projects to be built on St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John.
In return, Prosser would have received full tax breaks for 10 of his companies for 30 years, a deal that was valued at anywhere from $180 million to $3.5 billion.
The controversial proposal was considered by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, then pulled by Prosser after intense criticism in the community. It was revived in late May of 1999 and approved 8-7 in the Senate. Turnbull vetoed the deal.

Aug. 16, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands Little Theatre will hold auditions for the play "Marty" from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 27 and 28, in the theater, located on the second floor of the Classroom Administration Building.
The production will need approximately 15 characters — seven males and eight females — ranging in age from 17 to 30. Dancers are also needed.
"Marty," set in the 1950s, is the story of a butcher -– and a nice guy — who finds love, despite thinking he never would.
The play, by Paddy Chayefsky, was originally produced for television but later was made into a feature film. It won Oscars in 1955 for Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine as Marty), Best Picture, and Best Screenplay (Chayefsky).
For information call 693-1354.