Philbert Baptiste of Clifton Hill died Wednesday, Nov. 22 at Methodist Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was 78.
Viewing will begin at noon on Friday, Dec. 1 at Sunny Isle Baptist Church, with funeral services at 1 p.m.
Interment will follow in Kingshill Cemetery.
Mr. Baptiste is survived by his wife, Ruffina Baptiste; sons, Anthony, Frank, Jules, Leon, Steve, Keith, and John Baptiste; daughter, Kathy Ann Baptiste; adopted son, Bryan Felix; grandchildren, Shanai, Christopher, Alicia, Jamie, Yvette, Mildley, Keeba, Johnny, Jamal, Ramondo, Suzy Anna, Steven, Keith Jr., Orlando, Pausha, Ellis, Hassan, Simone, Rochelle, Jellian and Cherry; great-grandchildren, Cordell and Shaeini.
He is also survived by his sister, Amy DeLeon; nieces, Irma, Claudette, and Cheryl; nephews, Charles, Errol, Trevor, Joseph, and David; aunt, Madeline; daughters-in-law, Shirley, Jennifer, Gloria, Prudence, Ada, Pamela, and Audrey; brothers-in-law, Anthony DeLeon and Borrel; cousins, Wayne Baptiste and Michael Lewis; close friends, Joseph Alexander, Jacob Ferret, Ivan Phillip, Eldon Providence, Mr.Henry, Conrad Williams, Jules Bledman, Leon Wilshire, Eursiline Joseph, the staff at the National Park Service, the congregation of Sunny Isle Baptist Church, congregation of Calvary Baptist Church, and numerous friends and relatives.
Funeral arrangements are in the care of James Memorial Funeral Home.

Golinda Peter Kangol of Estate Whim died Monday, Nov. 20. She was 54.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28 at First Pentecostal Church. A viewing will proceed the service beginning at 1 p.m.
First viewing will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27 at the Thomas Hyll Chapel, 129 Peter's Rest.
Mrs. Kangol is survived by her husband, Samuel Kangol; sons, Peter "Derrick" Peter, Adrian Peter, Christopher Peter, Frederick Joseph, and Raphael Joseph; daughters, Adriana Joseph and Albiana Allen; brother, John Peter; sisters, Jospehine Augustina, Elisabeth Peter, Simone Peter, Rose Serieux, and Melanie Serieux.
She is also survived by her grandchildren, Deryck Peter, Shaldon Joseph, Shawna Peter, and Nidjea Peter; nieces, Patricia Peter, Candy Peter, Annetta Peter, Carrol Peter, Nathalie Peter, Eustacia Peter, Nicole Foster, Susanna Augustina, and Satra Augustina; nephews, Ricky Peter, Desmond Peter, David Peter, Dicky Peter, Betrand Peter, Johnny Peter, Dawn Peter, Michael Charley, and Mitchell Mondesir; special friend, Ken Charles; and many other relatives, along with a wide circle of friends.

Evangeline A. Edney of Harrigan Court, Bldg. 2, Apt. 17, died Monday, Nov. 20 at Juan F. Luis Hospital. She was 91.
Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28 at Friedensborg Moravian Church. A viewing will begin at 10 a.m.
Interment will be at Frederiksted Cemetery.
She is survived by her adopted sons, Emile Henderson Jr. and Anthon L. Christian; adopted daughters, Leola A. Christian and Grace A. Williams; nieces, Jean Canton, Gertrude Iles, Isabel Williams, Claudia Merrick, Genevieve Edney, Laverne Robles; nephew, Adolphus Edney; 15 grand-nieces and nephews; 10 great-nieces and nephews; and one great-grand niece; and more than 50 godchildren.
She is also survived by special cousin, Eulalie Elcock; special friends, Rehenia Plaskett, Agnes Davilla, Margaret Thomas, Isabelle Halls, Asta Martin, Asta Williams, Marion Allick, Teckla Weeks, and Marlene Henderson; close relatives, Bradley Christian, Alvin Milligan, Ann Henry and family, Claudette Edney King and family, Wilfred James and family, G. Luz James Sr. and family, Maria Christian and family, Adelle Christian Flynn and family, Eric Christian and family, and Helena Hendrickson and family.
Funeral arrangements are in the care of James Funeral Home.

Before doubters make any judgments about the makeup of the 24th Legislature’s majority, all the members want is for people to keep an open mind. So said the eight senators and senators-elect in a press conference on St. Croix Wednesday.
"There’s been much talk of the organization of the 24th Legislature," said Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd, the man slated to head the body starting in January. "Today we’re going to put all that to rest."
In front of an effusive crowd of supporters, Liburd proceeded to introduce the majority coalition: Sen. Adelbert Bryan, who will be Senate vice president and chairman of the Committee on Economic Development; Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, slated to chair the Finance Committee; Senator-Elect Celestino White, majority leader and chair of the Committee on Housing Parks and Recreation; Sen. Norman Jn. Baptiste, Education Committee; Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Government Operations Committee; Senator-Elect Norma Pickard Samuels, Committee on Labor and Veterans Affairs, and Senator-Elect Carlton Dowe, Rules Committee.
Liburd said he and the seven other members of the majority have vowed to work together for the people of the Virgin Islands, "irrespective of philosophy."
"In spite of whatever differences these members have, we’re saying we’re putting all that aside today," he said. "Don’t pre-judge us. Give us an opportunity to work."
Liburd and several other senators challenged the media to stop dwelling on senators’ past relationships and actions, saying that the territory can’t move ahead with "pettiness and negativity."
Bryan, who has had a tumultuous career in the Senate, also asked for people to look ahead rather than behind, saying that "none of us are what we were yesterday…."
As chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Bryan said he will focus on attracting investment to the territory as long as the territory gets something in return.
In a subsequent interview, Bryan said he would push to reform the Industrial Development Commission.
"We can’t continue to have economic development and not reinvestment in the Virgin Islands," he said.
Baptiste, who will continue as chair of the Education Committee, criticized the Turnbull administration for its handling of education in the territory. He also blasted some of his colleagues in the 23rd Legislature for not supporting his efforts to fund salary increases for teachers.
Education reform, Baptiste said, is high on his list of priorities.
White, meanwhile, unleashed his oratorical talents, last seen in the 22nd Legislature. He said pundits who "anticipate the worst" from the majority bloc will be dismayed.
"They simply don’t understand that a change has begun," White said. "This is a commitment and this is a compromise and recognition that there is another island, not just St. Thomas-St. John."
As chairman of the Housing Committee, White said he would focus on members of the community who are on the economic fringe.
"Home ownership and land ownership opportunities will be on the front burner," he said.
Dowe, the former director of Fire Services and a former U.S. deputy marshal, said it was not his duty to "hug up" Hansen or Bryan. Rather, he said he will focus on the community and running the Rules Committee.
His style, he said, is to get things done quickly. Commenting on the Turnbull administration’s lack of several Cabinet members, Dowe called on the governor to act "posthaste" on preparing names for boards, commissions and departments.
"Prepare those nominations and let’s get on the road," Dowe said. "We can’t go on as business as usual."
Pickard-Samuels noted she was originally from St. Croix but now lives on St. Thomas; proof, she said, that she will be able to work for the good of both islands.
"When could a Crucian walk into St. Thomas and walk away with a Senate seat?" she asked.
Cole, who will head the Government Operations Committee, said one of the main goals of the majority will be to pursue the return of a percentage of excise taxes on petroleum products produced at the Hovensa refinery. The move, if successful, could garner the territory millions of dollars a year.
"We are going for it," he said "We should be living like Arab sheiks in this territory."
Hansen, meanwhile, said she had not lobbied for the chairmanship of the Finance Committee, a position she held in the 22nd Legislature. She promised that if the governor did not send down a budget on time, her committee, with support of the majority, would give him one.
"The governor will have a body that will be the check-and-balance body," she said. "Not a body that will help him cover up."
The remaining committee chairmanships, which include Planning and Environmental Protection and Health, remain open for any other member of the Senate, Liburd said.

For all their praise of each other and assurances that bygones will be bygones, senators in the upcoming 24th Legislature’s majority didn’t hold back their disdain Wednesday for the V.I. Democratic Party or their Democrat colleagues. Except, of course, for the lone "donkey" in their midst — Sen. Norman Jn. Baptiste.
Just about every one of the eight majority senators took a shot at the Democrats during a press conference on St. Croix introducing the organization of the next Senate — even Baptiste.
"I have no qualms for the position I’ve taken," he said, referring to his running as a Democrat but then breaking ranks after the election. It is a move that has rankled some of the old guard in the party.
Baptiste was unrepentant Wednesday, saying that some of his Democratic colleagues in the 23rd Legislature were know-it-alls "who thought they had a monopoly on the answers." His maneuvering, he said, was to "declare liberty from those persons who have held a stranglehold on the territory in the name of a political party."
"It’s not about affiliation, my loyalty or my lack of loyalty to an organization," he said. "It’s about the future of these Virgin Islands."
Baptiste’s majority colleagues, meanwhile, praised his courage to go against the machine and vowed to "watch his back."
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, an independent, cited Attorney General Iver Stridiron’s attack on Baptiste just days before the election for comments Baptiste made in Territorial Court supporting striking teachers.
"That could not have taken place if it was not with the consent of the governor," Hansen said. "As far as I’m concerned, the Democratic Party and the governor meant to destroy him."
Independent Senator-Elect Norma Pickard-Samuels let lose a particularly virulent attack on the Democratic leadership, saying the party was harboring "rapists, thieves and white-collar criminals."
"We’re going to take back the territory from those vultures," she said, without naming names.

Book Review
"The Death of an Irish Lover"
by Bartholomew Gill
William Morrow, 265 pp., $23.00
It is my butt-headed policy to avoid the novels of Irish writers. There is a sadness deep in the roots of their people and places which slowly colors everything in the book shades of gray. Melancholy seeks me out; so, when possible, I run from it avidly.
Thus, it was a celebration to find that Bartholomew Gill has written a charming mystery story set in the Emerald Isle and lighthearted as an Irish jig.
We discover the two murder victims in the first few pages, in that "flagrante" situation as shocking as it is distressing. Thus a drama of murder, sex and eels –– you read it right, eels –– starts out with a bang. No pun intended.
The town of Leixleap (Salmon Jump in Irish) is famous for its eels. The government has eel police (I swear) to catch poachers who are not licensed to net them. The book's accounts of the history of eel breeding and farming are fascinating, especially to someone who considers the slimy things edible.
The murder presents a death scene so appalling, so complicated, that it is like a deadly jigsaw puzzle. Nothing has happened as it appears, and a super sleuth is needed to find the truth, buried as it is beneath misleading fact after fact. Here's where our talented Chief Inspector Peter McGarr methodically begins to track his killer.
When one thinks of Ireland, the lore of the Irish Republican Army comes to mind with all its romantic stories of the fight for independence from England that has raged for hundreds of years. Gill's version is that today some of the former heroes have fallen upon lean times as a troubled peace has come to their homeland. They are not cut out for 9-to-5 jobs like ordinary humans; they see themselves as warriors and, lacking a battlefield, they have become an odd type of Mafia, dealing in drugs and weapons.
The barroom scenes are bright, with the talk funny and full of jokes and light-hearted humor. At the same time, our Chief Inspector McGarr, having come down from Dublin, sees clearly through the Irish mists how to sort through things and find his culprit.
There's a lot going on, plots within plots, in this village on the River Shannon. The picture of present-day Ireland will captivate you as dozens of loose ends finally come together for our likeable inspector. Bravo, Mr. Gill, you've dispelled my Irish myths!
"The Death of an Irish Lover" is available at Dockside Bookshop at Havensight Mall. To check out other Dockside favorites click here.

The cost of the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport expansion has climbed from the original bid of $22.5 million to $27.8 million and is expected to reach $31 million before its completion, an increase of more than one-third.
Some Port Authority Board members balked at Wednesday's board meeting when asked to approve the most recent increase via change order from the contractor, Quality Builders, Inc.
"When is this project going to be completed so we can stop this bleeding?" asked board member Attorney General Iver Stridiron.
Executive Director Gordon Finch defended the company. Some change orders came from the Port Authority and some came from the airport tenants, that is airlines. "It's just something that we've got to deal with" in this type of major project.
Finch said staff have been careful about keeping down the costs. They whittled down Quality's request for $3 million in this instance to $2.1 million.
He also said the St. Thomas airport expansion cost $42 million 10 years ago, or, in 2000 dollars, roughly twice as much as the $31 million anticipated for the St. Croix project, which is targeted for an August 2001 completion.
"I'm asking this board not to abandon me now," Finch said.
They didn't. Only Stridiron voted against approval of payment.
Stridiron also complained about paying $144,000 to Misener Marine Construction, Inc. to cover cost overruns the company said it incurred at the Ann E. Abramson facility on St. Croix because its work hours were curtailed.
Finch argued for the payment, saying the Port Authority bowed to pressure from residents who did not want their Sunday or Saturday religious services interrupted by the noise of construction. It was the authority that ordered Misener not to work on weekends, thus extending the time of the project and running up their overhead for such items as equipment rental.
Stridiron was successful in holding the decision and convincing other board members that company representatives should make their case at the next board committee meeting, rather than just to the staff.
The board approved a larger payment to Misener, however, to cover another change order. At the urging of the U.S. Navy, the Navy League and other community groups, the Port Authority will have Misener install ship-to-shore electric power at the facility in order to lure submarines to use it. The cost is $580,437.
The board approved splitting the $45,000 cost of improving restroom facilities in downtown Charlotte Amalie with the West Indian Company. Stridiron voted against it because it did not include a contribution from the business community.
Acting Tourism Commissioner Monique Hodge, who is also acting board chairman, said she had approached the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce about a three-way split. They didn't say no, she said, but they didn't come up with the money either, and with the tourist season upon us "I cannot wait any longer."
A brief report from Finch on the Crown Bay development project was the perfect cue for several board members and staff to criticize WICO president Edward Thomas for his remarks last week before the Ad Club.
Not only did they chastise Thomas for suggesting the Port Authority abandon the Crown Bay project, they did not like his support of a Tourism Authority that would oversee the Port Authority and WICO.
Finch asked for and received permission from the board to make that case on its behalf in public speaking engagements and other forums.

The V.I. Water and Power Authority will not ask the Public Services Commission to increase fuel charges for electric bills in January 2000 but will instead increase the levelized energy adjustment clause, or LEAC, for water to $3.41 per thousand gallons from $1.52 per thousand gallons.
In a statement issued Wednesday, WAPA said it has been forced to pay continued high fuel costs, but Executive Director Raymond George said, "I am recommending a continuation of the existing electrical fuel factor for another six months."
The LEAC was established to pay fuel costs higher than the costs included in WAPA's base rate and is recalculated every six months based on the price of oil. WAPA submits proposed fuel charges to the PSC for review before implementation in January and July.
The PSC is expected to consider WAPA's LEAC proposal at its December meeting.

The V.I. Port Authority won't contribute $4 million toward teachers' back pay unless it is assured the money will go to teachers and until the government floats a bond to replace it.
That was the unanimous decision Wednesday by the authority's governing board.
The $4 million is coming from funds set aside by the authority for the long-awaited marine development at Enighed Pond on St. John. The total price tag for the project is $16 million.
The Turnbull administration tapped the Port Authority along with other semi-autonomous agencies in an unsuccessful attempt to find enough money to stave off the teachers' strike that crippled schools last month.
Despite the teachers' rejection of Turnbull's offer, Government House has been trying to put together the cash. The administration has been negotiating an agreement with the Port Authority for the transfer of $4 million for more than a month.
Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Finch told the board Wednesday that the agreement should ensure that "our $4 million will not go into the black hole called the General Fund."
The government is headed for impasse mediation with the American Federation of Teachers union, said board member Iver Stridiron, the V.I. attorney general. If that doesn't work, the next stop is arbitration.
In the end, if the $4 million isn't needed for teachers' salaries, Finch suggested the government should give it back to the authority.
"Give it back from where?" asked St. John board member Robert O'Connor, Jr. "Where are they going to get it from?"
O'Connor complained that the draft agreement contains no guarantee that the GARVEE (grant anticipation revenue vehicle) bond will be floated or when.
Board member Kent Bernier, a new financial advisor hired by Turnbull, responded, "the GARVEE situation is pretty much on line." There will be two issues of bonds, he said, the first for $20 million to raise money for Enighed Pond and for improvements at Red Hook. The government plans to go to market in "early February-March."
Bernier suggested tabling the agreement so he and Finch could speak about it with Turnbull.
But the board went further, authorizing Finch and acting board chairman Monique Hodge to sign a final agreement if it provides that the $4 million contribution requires two triggers: the government's use of the money for teachers' salaries and the actual execution of the bond issue.

The Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs has released its holiday food basket survey of Thanksgiving staples on all three islands.
On St. Croix, the best cumulative price for the 30 items surveyed was Sunshine Supermarket at $60.10; Plaza Extra was next at $61.70, followed by Pueblo at $63.03. Plaza Extra had the best price for Butterball turkey at $1.08 per pound. Sunshine's butterball was $1.19 per pound and Pueblo sells its for $1.29 per pound.
Pueblo had the best aggregate price on St. Thomas for 29 items surveyed at $58. Plaza Extra's total came to $60.31, though its Butterball turkey was cheaper at $1.09 compared to Pueblo at $1.29 per pound.
On St. John, 28 items were surveyed and Marina Market's overall price was $65.82 compared to Starfish Market's $71.02.
Here is a sample of some of the items surveyed. For more information, call 774-3130 on St. Thomas, 773-2226 on St. Croix, 693-8036 on St. John.
St. John
Sweet potato, fresh (per pound): Marina Market, $1.29; Starfish Market, $.79
Stuffing mix (8 oz.): Marina Market, $2.59; Starfish Market, $2.99
Idaho potatoes (5 lb.): Marina Market, $3.89; Starfish Market, $2.99
Danish butter (8 oz.): Marina Market, $1.59; Starfish Market, $1.69
Broccoli (bunch): Marina Market, $2.79; Starfish Market, $2.89
Cranberry sauce (16 oz.): Marina Market, $1.89; Starfish Market, $1.99
Macaroni & cheese (7.25 oz.): Marina Market, $.99; Starfish Market, $.99
Cabbage (per lb.): Marina Market, $.69; Starfish Market, $.49
All-purpose flour (5 lb.): Marina Market, $2.69; Starfish Market, $2.29