July 24, 2001 – The Water and Power Authority's new executive director, Joseph Thomas, said Tuesday that a recently passed Senate proposal to extend early retirement to certain WAPA hazardous-duty employees is a "mistake we'll all pay for."
"The bill has good intentions, without a good sense of accounting," Thomas said at a meeting of the WAPA governing board on St. Thomas. "No [other] utility in the civilized world has that kind of plan."
In a calm, determined voice, he added, "It will have a rate impact."
Thomas has said before that potential outside investors in a community look at its government and its utility companies for clues to its economic health. The players in economic development need to be fiscally sound, he said Tuesday, and, "At some point in time, we're all going to have to sober up."
While he would "like to give the employees anything they need," Thomas said, he cannot do so to the detriment of the authority. He suggested the board members lobby Gov. Charles W. Turnbull to veto the measure, which was a part of the massive supplemental appropriation bill the Senate approved last Thursday. He added, glancing at a reporter and smiling, "I've already started lobbying."
The governor has 10 days to act on the bill before it becomes law with or without his signature. None of the legislation passed by the full Senate last week has been sent to Government House. An official of the legislative legal counsel's office said Tuesday the bills and amendments were still being reviewed. When the governor vetoes legislation, it takes 10 votes in the Legislature to overturn that veto. As of last week, the majority bloc consisted of nine senators.
Thomas suggested other ways of increasing benefits for WAPA employees, such as providing more technical training and beefing up the utility's college scholarship program. When he met recently with employees, he told the board, their main issue was "training, not salary."
Glen Byron, WAPA human resources director, said 1986 language in WAPA's definition of hazardous-duty employees is "flawed." It covers all power plant and other employees, including secretarial, he said, and refers to some hazards that no longer exist.
Laurence Bryan, Government Employees Retirement System administrator, took issue with the measure at a Senate Finance Committee meeting earlier this month, saying it would lead to "bankrupting" the system. The bill was sponsored by the Finance chair, Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen.
At Tuesday's board meeting, Thomas also voiced displeasure with the Public Services Commission, expressing wonder at its fees for rate investigations. "I've worked for a company many times the size of WAPA, and the rates were nowhere near what this PSC charges," he said. The board approved a final payment of $147,300 to the commission for fiscal year 2001 investigations.
"We ought to have better control over what we pay," Thomas said, noting that the commission's Fiscal Year 2001 charge of $400,000 is up $100,000 from FY 2000. He asked what happens to any unspent fee assessments. Board member Andrew Rutnik, commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs and a former PSC member, said it goes into the General Fund. Rutnik said he has hopes for a more effective PSC, noting that Turnbull recently nominated five new commission members for seats that have been vacant or occupied by individuals whose terms have expired for some time. The nominees must be approved by the Legislature.
The board also discussed Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd's recent legislation appropriating $2.5 million to build a desalinization plant in Cruz Bay, St. John, and a substation in Coral Bay. Thomas said WAPA is "aggressively pursuing" a strategy for St. John's water problem which will be announced soon. The matter was not discussed before the board went into executive session.
Kent Bernier, the governor's economic adviser, sat in on the meeting. He said he was there to represent the governor and that Turnbull is forming a new alliance between the Port Authority and the Public Finance Authority — and wants WAPA to join in.
Bernier said the governor expects the infrastructure alliance to find ways of avoiding duplication of costs, including insurance. "We need WAPA to be a major player in this," he said.
In other action, the WAPA board:
– Extended the current budget until it adopts the Fiscal Year 2002 budget.
– Approved several already budgeted projects: the purchase of a new de-aerator for St. Croix's Unit 11; replacement of a boiler and roof tubes for the same unit; and emergency repairs to the St. Thomas Unit 15 generator.
– Approved the FY 2002 fuel oil agreement with Hovensa.
– Said a new Unit 22 on St. Thomas, which has been delayed, will be on line in early August.
– Approved Inter-Ocean Insurance Agency as its property insurance carrier.
– Approved an emergency maintenance contract with six potential bidders.
– Discussed line losses of kilowatt hours; Thomas said the local losses are three to four times what he is accustomed to seeing.
Board members attending the meeting in addition to Rutnik were the board chair, Carol M. Burke; and William E. Lomax, J.Arthur Downing, G. Luz James and Alphonso Franklin. Absent were Dean Plaskett, Planning and Natural Resources commissioner; Ira Hobson, Housing, Parks and Recreation commissioner; and Claude A. Molloy Sr.

The Virgin Islands Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners will meeet at 9:30 a.m. at the Central Offices of the Authority in Estate Anna's Retreat, St. Thomas.

The V.I. Housing Authority's monthly meeting of management and residents at Oswald Harris Court will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 31, in the Ruth Dazel Community Center.
The program will include a presentation by Verna Dagou, VIHA home ownership director, about the territory's 5H Home Ownership Conversion Program. There also will be updates on community servcies and management issues with opportunity for questions and comments.

July 24, 2001 – The V.I. Housing Authority's monthly meeting of management and residents at Oswald Harris Court will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 31, in the Ruth Dazel Community Center.
The program will include a presentation by Verna Dagou, VIHA home ownership director, who said she will "talk about home ownership in general."
There also will be updates on community servcies and management issues with opportunity for questions and comments.
Dagou said the Housing Authority's 5H Home Ownership Conversion Program is under way in four public housing communities — Anna's Retreat Heights and Pollyberg Gardens on St. Thomas, George Simmonds Terrace on St. John, and Estate William's Delight on St. Croix. The program gives "residents who are renting conventional units the opportunity to purchase them," she said.
There are no immediate plans to extend the program into Oswald Harris Court, Dagou said. But "the manager asked me, and said a lot of people there are interested in home ownership," she added, "so I will be talking about ownership in general, not in particular coming to Harris Court." She also noted that federal Housing and Urban Development Department's Section 8 homeownership program is separate from the territory's 5H program and that she does not work with the federal program.
Residents with disabilities who need to make special arrangements in order to attend the meeting are asked to contact their housing manager's office by July.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, July 28, for Anselmo Emanuel Watts, age 47, who was found dead in his home at 6-LB Estate Upper Love.
He is survived by his mother, Dolorita Bastian Watts; children Anselmo Jr., Annica, Shakima, Selmo and Shamara Watts; grandson Shakeel Watts; brothers Rubio Archibald, Joseph Jr., James, Elroy, George and Antonio Watts; sisters Donah W.S. Brow and Williemae Watts-Walcotts; mothers of his children, Carolyn Bennerson and Delita Bess; godmother Idalia Acoy; special godsister Mildred Drummond; sisters-in-law Beverly Archibald and Denice Watts; brothers-in-law Charles M. Brow and Kenny L. Walcott; 11 nephews, 15 nieces, seven great-nephews and seven great-nieces. He also is survived by friends in the Police Department, Fire Services and the St. Croix community.
Funeral services will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at Friedensfeld Moravian Church. There will be no viewing. Interment will follow at Kingshill Cemetery. Arrangements are by James Memorial Funeral Home. A funeral home official said the date of death had not been determined.

July 24, 2001 – Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg's efforts for more than a year to get a bill passed to toughen penalties for animal cruelty and neglect have gotten a boost from the Police Department's K-9 Corps in the St. Thomas/St. John district.
In a letter to Sen. Carlton Dowe, who chairs the Rules Committee, where the "animal cruelty" bill is currently in a holding pattern, officers of the K-9 unit stated, "We are in full support of the increasing of penalties and the passing of legislation making animal cruelty a felony."
One of the arguments advanced by advocates of the bill is that research has shown repeatedly that animal abuse and neglect by an individual has often been a precursor to violent behavior directed by that person toward humans. "We are well acquainted with the results of the link between animal cruelty and human domestic violence," the K-9 officers wrote, adding that the unit "deals with it on a daily basis."
The bill, first introduced in the 23rd Legislature, would make first-degree animal abuse a felony punishable by a fine of not less than $1,000 and up to five years in jail. First-degree abuse would include physical injury, unnecessary killing, disposing of live animals in garbage bins, committing a hit and run, and confining an animal in a vehicle without adequate ventilation. The bill also would make second-degree animal neglect a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and up to 100 hours of community service. It defines second-degree neglect as failing to give an animal adequate care.
On July 5, the Rules Committee voted to hold the bill, which had been forwarded from the Government Operations, Planning and Natural Resources Committee, which approved it in May. It was scheduled to be heard at a Rules session on July 13, but majority senators of the 24th Legislature told Donastorg the day before that it had been "misplaced."
The bill has strong public support. Animal rights advocates gathered more than 3,000 supporting signatures and testified at hearings on St. Thomas and St. Croix last year. The bill was aired twice in the 23rd Legislature, both times consigned to be held committee and never heard from again.
"We will be most willing to testify," the St. Thomas-St. John K9 officers said in their letter, "and give eyewitness accounts of the connection between domestic violence and how it affects members of the community in both humans and animals, and why we need the laws strengthened."
The letter, dated July 11 and made available to the Source on Wednesday, was signed by Sgt. Elton Grant and Officers Ecedro Lindquist, David Rhymer and LaVenia Donastorg.
The K-9 Corps, which pairs human officers with police dogs, is often called upon to respond to crimes of violence, domestic and otherwise.

July 24, 2001 – Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg's efforts for more than a year to get a bill passed to toughen penalties for animal cruelty and neglect have gotten a boost from the Police Department's K-9 Corps in the St. Thomas/St. John district.
In a letter to Sen. Carlton Dowe, who chairs the Rules Committee, where the "animal cruelty" bill is currently in a holding pattern, officers of the K-9 unit stated, "We are in full support of the increasing of penalties and the passing of legislation making animal cruelty a felony."
One of the arguments advanced by advocates of the bill is that research has shown repeatedly that animal abuse and neglect by an individual has often been a precursor to violent behavior directed by that person toward humans. "We are well acquainted with the results of the link between animal cruelty and human domestic violence," the K-9 officers wrote, adding that the unit "deals with it on a daily basis."
The bill, first introduced in the 23rd Legislature, would make first-degree animal abuse a felony punishable by a fine of not less than $1,000 and up to five years in jail. First-degree abuse would include physical injury, unnecessary killing, disposing of live animals in garbage bins, committing a hit and run, and confining an animal in a vehicle without adequate ventilation. The bill also would make second-degree animal neglect a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and up to 100 hours of community service. It defines second-degree neglect as failing to give an animal adequate care.
On July 5, the Rules Committee voted to hold the bill, which had been forwarded from the Government Operations, Planning and Natural Resources Committee, which approved it in May. It was scheduled to be heard at a Rules session on July 13, but majority senators of the 24th Legislature told Donastorg the day before that it had been "misplaced."
The bill has strong public support. Animal rights advocates gathered more than 3,000 supporting signatures and testified at hearings on St. Thomas and St. Croix last year. The bill was aired twice in the 23rd Legislature, both times consigned to be held committee and never heard from again.
"We will be most willing to testify," the St. Thomas-St. John K9 officers said in their letter, "and give eyewitness accounts of the connection between domestic violence and how it affects members of the community in both humans and animals, and why we need the laws strengthened."
The letter, dated July 11 and made available to the Source on Wednesday, was signed by Sgt. Elton Grant and Officers Ecedro Lindquist, David Rhymer and LaVenia Donastorg.
The K-9 Corps, which pairs human officers with police dogs, is often called upon to respond to crimes of violence, domestic and otherwise.

Dear Source:
First, I have to say thanks for being there — you are a wonderful link for transplanted V.I. natives and potential tourists!
Second, I took a look at the new Tourism website and was appalled! It is dull and uninviting. I will reserve final judgment until they declare it up and finished, but it is a very poor first effort. I found too little emphasis on culture and entertainment aspects for tourists — seems like there 's nothing to do.
And, I think they should force feed more photos without users having to click around and "beg" for them. If I were a casual web surfer, the site would have lost me quickly. But we'll see.
Just for fun, try to get the hotel rate sheet … very amusing. It is a scan of a multi-fold brochure that is too tiny to read without many enlargements and comes in halfway upside down. Come on! … And some of the photos they show are arranged by the wrong island!
If you want to see a quick and easy tourism site look at www.VisitStCroix.com. It is not nearly as "sophisticated" but includes lots of neat information, is very enticing and actually makes you want to visit. I am sure the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce can give Tourism some tips.
I'll check back to the Tourism site when it "grows up."
Norman Ussery
Williamsport, Pa.

July 24, 2001 — Even with the insistence of the government’s top environmental officials at a town meeting Monday night that a proposed marine park around the east end of St. Croix is far from finalized, local fishermen eyed the plan with skepticism.
The first part of the Department of Planning and Natural Resource’s marine park plan for the territory includes the St. Croix East End Marine Park, said Dean Plaskett, commissioner of DPNR. But before any boundaries are drawn for a park, Plaskett told fishermen that their input – along with other stakeholders – is vital to a successful plan.
"Our extremely limited marine resources are utilized heavily by a variety of users and also provide the livelihood for many of our fisherman," Plaskett told an audience of about 60, half of whom were fishermen. "With your input, we will develop a plan . . . that takes into consideration those areas already off-limits, those areas that are controversial, those areas that must be protected, and those areas that provide a livelihood for our fellow Virgin Islanders."
Despite Plaskett’s assurances, fishermen – many of whom only speak Spanish – believe a park proposal means that a large part of their fishing grounds will become off-limits. Such a move, in tandem with existing and proposed boundaries around the National Park Service’s Buck Island Reef National Monument, would be the death knell for the local fishing industry.
"We aren’t against protecting what we have," said fisherman Jose Sanchez. "You have to remember that fishermen are one of the Virgin Islands industries.
"Our concern today is protecting what we have. And I’m here to protect my five kids and my wife," Sanchez said.
Plaskett, however, was adamant that nothing will be done without the input of fishermen, or anyone else.
"I don’t think you should see this as a threat. The fact of the matter is we want your input," Plaskett said, noting that without some form of conservation, the fishing industry would decline as well. "The fact of the matter is if we don’t do it, you won’t have any resources anyway.
"You could fish all you want today and take all you want today, but what would be left for the children of the future?"
Janice Hodge, director of the Division of Coastal Zone Management, the agency overseeing the marine park effort, said that up to now, efforts have been focused on acquiring funding from the federal government and coordinate the involvement of the Nature Conservancy and the University of the Virgin Islands. No uses — be it fishing, diving or boating – in the proposed marine park have been marked off the map.
"What we want to stress is we’re here with a blank slate. There are no lines," Hodge said.
Monument melee
If the St. Croix East End Marine Park contains no-fishing zones it will depend on whether or not the Buck Island Reef National Monument expansion sticks.
Just prior to the end of the Clinton administration in January, the U.S. Interior Department extended the monument area around the existing park, which is managed by the U.S. National Park Service, and created the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument off St. John.
The move not only spurred cries of protest from fishermen who say the expansion eliminates more of their fishing area, but caused the Turnbull administration to challenge Interior’s position. Plaskett and former DPNR commissioner Virdon Brown contend that the submerged lands claimed by Interior actually belong to the Virgin Islands.
Plaskett said the question is still being hashed out between the two parties. In the meantime, however, DPNR will go ahead with the territorial marine park plan, which has actually been on the drawing board for decades, and as part of the larger U.S. Coral Reef Task Force.
"What we are doing is allowing the process to take its course," Plaskett, a lawyer, said of the Turnbull administration’s challenge to the monument designations. Once the federal government make a determination, "then we will know what our next step will be."
The goal of the coral reef initiative is to protect what is left of quickly diminishing healthy areas of coral reef, including what is found around St. Croix. As a part of the Coral Reef Task Force, the V.I. government has signed on to protect at least 5 percent of all coral reefs under the American flag by 2002; 10 percent by 2005 and 20 percent by 2010. Part of the effort calls for 20 percent of those areas to be held as no-take zones.
But with the legal challenges around the monument issue, and the practical challenges presented by fishermen, Plaskett said DPNR plans to use the 20 percent no-take reference point as just that – a reference point.
"While no-take zones may be designated for the St. Croix East End Marine Park, there will be no implementation of these management strategies until the issues surrounding the monument designations are resolved," he said.
The 20 percent no-take zone reference, Plaskett noted, comprises all no-take areas within the territory regardless if they are managed by the National Park Service or the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council.
"If those areas are already no-take zones, it would make no sense for us to do that," he said.
Meanwhile, it was pointed out at the meeting on Monday that fishing isn’t the only activity that damages coral and the aquatic life that depends on it.
More than one fishermen talked about the government's sewage discharges into the sea and the outfall from the rum distillery on St. Croix. Nick Drayton of the Nature Conservancy noted that the degradation of reefs and the ensuing decline in fish populations agreed that the problems aren't caused by one factor.
"It’s not just about fishermen," he said. "It’s multifaceted."
He pointed to runoff from land caused by poor construction methods that silts up reef areas and damage cause by recreational activities, such as boating and divers.

July 24, 2001 – One of recently departed Ritz-Carlton general manager Carter Donovan's vivid memories of her tenure on St. Thomas is of an all-day power outage over the Memorial Day weekend in 1999 when Sinbad and his thousands of Soul Music Festival followers were on island.
Donovan recalls that incident in a story that dominates the front page of the features section of Sunday's Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, the daily print newspaper in the community that she will now be calling home as general manager of the new Ritz-Carlton hotel set to open there in November.
The power outage "had also knocked out the water supply at the resort," the story states. "There wouldn't be any showering, and primping would have to be minimal in a hotel without electricity in the sweltering tropics." (Sarasota, it should be noted, often has higher temperatures and invariably has higher humidity than St. Thomas at the end of May.)
According to the newspaper account, Donovan said that the hotel's response was to pass out bottles of water. "Now you can say you've washed your hair in Evian," she is quoted as having told guests.
And, the story states, she sent this memo to the Ritz-Carlton corporate office in Atlanta: "Just need to let you know, we have a little problem. Toto, we ain't in Kansas anymore. — Dorothy."
Despite the occasional day from Oz, however, Donovan's overall memories of St. Thomas are full of appreciation, the report states. She said that leaving her staff of 360 on the island was difficult because of professional and personal friendships, and that the employees there — like those at hotels she had served previously — "have given me great confidence and taught me to be a great leader. They developed me into who I am today so that I actually got this opportunity in Sarasota."
That opportunity is one that will grow and grow: She will oversee the opening of the new 18-story, 269-room, $130 million hotel with condominiums on its upper floors this fall. And then a new Ritz-Carlton beach club and spa which are to open in 2002. And after that, the all-condo Tower Residences high rise adjacent to the hotel, which is to open in 2003.
The article also noted that Donovan and her husband of five years, Kevin Donovan, recently returned to the Virgin Islands to renew their marriage vows aboard a 44-foot catamaran with friends and family members who had attended their wedding.