Founder Andrea King, a Red Hook business owner, is spearheading the movement to form a group of citizens and business owners in Red Hook, who want to find solutions to problems that plague the area, including litter and abandoned vehicles. This is the third meeting for the Citizens Alliance for an Improved Red Hook and all citizens are invited. Your input is necessary. For more information call Andrea King at 775-6666 during the day, or 775-9602 in the evening.

The Citizens Alliance for an Improved Red Hook will sponsor a Red Hook Clean Up Day at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 23 starting out at the cricket field, next to Eudora Kean High School.
All concerned citizens are urged to come out and help beautify Red Hook. Trash bags and gloves will be provided. For more information call Andrea King at 775-6666 during the day, or 775- 9602 in the evening.

Founder Andrea King, a Red Hook business owner, is spearheading the movement to form a group of citizens and business owners in Red Hook, who want to find solutions to problems that plague the area, including litter and abandoned vehicles. This is the third meeting for the Citizens Alliance for an Improved Red Hook and all citizens are invited. Your input is necessary. For more information call Andrea King at 775-6666 during the day, or 775-9602 in the evening.

The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and St.Thomas youth steel orchestra, The Rising Stars, will share the stage at 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 11 at the Reichhold Center for the Arts.
Back by popular demand, The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra performed in St.Thomas last October for the first time in 18 years, to a sell out crowd. The 80 piece orchestra along with the Rising Stars will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday November 11 at the Reichhold Center for the Arts. For ticket information call 693-1559 or tickets can be ordered on line at www.reichholdcenter.com.

Bargain Days are here at the Whim Museum. This week only from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, September 12 through September 16 at the Whim Plantation Museum the cost for adult admission is $2 and children's admission is $1. Guides will be giving talks about Whim Plantation while the greathouse floors are refinished. The store and library are open. For more information call 772-0598.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said Monday at Government House that about $50 million in assistance, most of it in the form of debt forgiveness, has been earmarked for the Virgin Islands.
At a press conference with Gov. Charles W. Turnbull in which a coral reef management program was announced, Interior officials identified more than $11 million in reprogrammed federal grant monies for the territory in addition to the debt forgiveness.
Babbitt had nothing but encouraging words for Turnbull and the territory. He said he was "enormously proud" of Turnbull's efforts in the past 18 months to pull the territory out of its fiscal crises. Congress, Babbitt said, can see the Virgin Islands has made real steps toward change.
"The V.I. isn't too far in airline miles from Washington," Babbitt said, "but it is many, many miles in the political perception of the U.S. Congress."
Indeed, the territory must be doing something right in the secretary's eyes: Babbitt said after his stint at Interior is over, he plans to move to the U.S.V.I.
Babbitt was clearly satisfied with progress made in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed last October by him and the governor for the fiscal recovery of the territory. He said the memorandum had been closely monitored.
Ferdinand Aranza, director of the Office of Insular Affairs for the Interior Department, said $42 million would go toward reduction of the V.I.'s debt incurred after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. With interest, he said, the loan balance could drop to as little as $4 million.
Aranza listed the accomplishments the V.I. government has made in fulfilling terms of the memorarndum. He said Turnbull has:
– kept the FY2000 budget at $432 million (though the Legislature subsequently raised that figure somewhat);
– created a five-year fiscal recovery plan;
– reduced government employee overtime by 50 percent;
– reduced payroll by 5 percent;
– cut five holidays (though the Legislature reinstated some of them).
Aranza said as of July, there was an overall decrease in government spending of $77 million, $32 million of that in personnel costs. Also, he said, $11.5 million in federal grants not drawn down by the local government can be reprogrammed to help out the territory.
"Just show us the paperwork," he said.
Babbitt said a joint local and federal coral reef management program should be a reality by the end of this year. There has been a U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in effect since 1998, and Babbitt stressed the "compelling need to protect the reef resources and fisheries."
Noting that 2 percent of local waters are federally owned, he said that the ocean cannot be fenced off and cooperation is essential, since "fishes have no fixed address."
Interior is holding public meetings on options for coral reef protection on Sept. 18 on St. Croix, Sept. 19 on St. Thomas and Sept. 20 on St. John.
Babbitt and Turnbull were joined by V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen, Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II and Senate President Vargrave Richards.

U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Monday at Government House that about $50 million in assistance, most of it in the form of debt forgiveness, has been earmarked for the Virgin Islands.
At a press conference with Gov. Charles W. Turnbull in which a coral reef management program was announced, Interior officials identified more than $11 million in reprogrammed federal grant monies for the territory in addition to the debt forgiveness.
Babbitt had nothing but encouraging words for Turnbull and the territory. He said he was "enormously proud" of Turnbull's efforts in the past 18 months to pull the territory out of its fiscal crises. Congress, Babbitt said, can see the Virgin Islands has made real steps toward change.
"The V.I. isn't too far in airline miles from Washington," Babbitt said, "but it is many, many miles in the political perception of the U.S. Congress."
Indeed, the territory must be doing something right in the secretary's eyes: Babbitt said after his stint at Interior is over, he plans to move to the U.S.V.I.
Babbitt was clearly satisfied with progress made in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed last October by him and the governor for the fiscal recovery of the territory. He said the memorandum had been closely monitored.
Ferdinand Aranza, director of Interior's Office of Insular Affairs, said $42 million would go toward reduction of the V.I.'s debt incurred after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. With interest, he said, the loan balance could drop to as little as $4 million.
Aranza listed the accomplishments the V.I. government has made in fulfilling terms of the memorarndum. He said Turnbull has:
– kept the FY2000 budget at $432 million (though the Legislature subsequently raised that figure somewhat);
– created a five-year fiscal recovery plan;
– reduced government employee overtime by 50 percent;
– reduced payroll by 5 percent;
– cut five holidays (though the Legislature reinstated some of them).
Aranza said as of July, there was an overall decrease in government spending of $77 million, $32 million of that in personnel costs. Also, he said, $11.5 million in federal grants not drawn down by the local government can be reprogrammed to help the territory.
"Just show us the paperwork," he said.
Babbitt said a joint local and federal coral reef management program should be a reality by the end of this year. There has been a U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in effect since 1998, and Babbitt stressed the "compelling need to protect the reef resources and fisheries."
Noting that 2 percent of local waters are federally owned, he said the ocean cannot be fenced off and cooperation is essential, since "fishes have no fixed address."
Interior is holding public meetings on options for coral reef protection on Sept. 18 on St. Croix, Sept. 19 on St. Thomas and Sept. 20 on St. John.
Babbitt and Turnbull were joined by V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen, Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II and Senate President Vargrave Richards.

In the wake of Saturday’s anemic voter turnout for the primary election, the chairman of the V.I. Joint Boards of Elections is calling on the Senate to override Gov. Charles Turnbull’s veto of a bill that would have political parties pay for electing their candidates for public office.
About 2,760 of 19,686 registered Democrats, or about 14 percent, cast ballots in St. Croix on Saturday where nine senatorial candidates were vying for seven seats. In the St. Thomas-St. John district, the turnout was worse with just over 6 percent of eligible voters casting ballots – about 1,100 voters of the 17,261 registered Democrats and Republicans there.
The weak turnout has prompted Raymond "Usie" Richards, chairman of the Joint Boards of Elections and Senate candidate for the Independent Citizens Movement, to call for all political parties to conduct primaries for their party positions and candidates for public office.
As the law now stands, parties are only required to pay for electing their own party officers.
The cost to hold Saturday’s election, which along with the Democratic senatorial candidates on St. Croix included races for local Republican and Democratic party positions, was $160,000.
"The dismal turnout for Saturday’s primary is a clear indication that the government of these Virgin Islands cannot continue to finance the cost of primary affairs…," Richards said.
In 1997, the Joint Board of Elections and John Abramson, supervisor of elections, recommended a set of election reform proposals to Senate President Lorraine Berry. Those included language that called for parties to pay for their party and public office elections.
But according to Richards and Abramson, the language regarding public office was dropped before the entire reform package was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Turnbull in 1998.
However, Richards said that last January elections officials discovered the missing language, which left them stuck with the $160,000 bill to carry out the primary. Meanwhile, Sen. Adelbert Bryan was successful earlier this year in amending the public-office language back onto the law. Turnbull, however, vetoed Bryan’s amendment.
While Abramson declined to speculate on why Turnbull and Berry, both Democrats, have tried to scuttle the public office provision, Richards didn’t pull any punches. He said the issue couldn’t be financial because the Democrats are by far the largest party in the territory and they had funds to send a contingent of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles last month.
Additionally, he said that over the summer Democratic Party members supported the idea of political parties footing the entire primary bill, not just for party positions.
"It can’t be a motive of cost. They have the most money," Richards said. "They must have some fear of the inner workings of their own party."
Meanwhile, even though the law calls for parties to cover the expense for electing party officers, Abramson said the Elections Board conducted the entire primary as a "courtesy," mostly because Democratic Party leaders weren’t prepared to handle their own affairs this year.
Leaders of all three parties have said they will institute a process to elect their officers before the 2002 elections. Republicans have said they will hold caucuses to do so, just as they do to choose delegates to their national conventions. The 2-year-old law also says the Elections Board must certify each party's plan to elect its officers. None of the three parties has asked to be certified.
Meanwhile, elections officials are facing the November general election without funding. The fiscal year 2000 budget, which ends Sept. 30, contained election funds but those were spent on Saturday’s primary, Richards said. The fiscal year 2001 budget, which starts Oct. 1, has yet to be approved.
"The existing budget doesn’t have money for the general election," Richards said. "There is no way we can conduct this election without an additional appropriation."

A westward-moving tropical wave located about 1,250 miles east of the Windward Islands appears to have become better organized during the day Monday.
The wave, accompanied by a developing low-pressure center, was located near 14 degrees north latitude, 42 degrees west longitude at midday Monday.
Meteorologist Alan Archer said Monday afternoon the system could see slow intensification as "high-level winds are weak ahead of the system." He anticipated the wave in the general vicinity of the northern Leeward Islands Wednesday or Thursday.
But Archer noted that long-range computer forecast models put the wave and low-pressure center to the north and east of the islands, the course many tropical waves have taken this hurricane season.
National Hurricane Center forecaster James Franklin noted late Monday morning that "development of the system is possible over the next day or two as the system moves to the west or west-northwest."
Archer also said a second tropical wave that has emerged from the west coast of Africa is encountering winds unfavorable to development.
"Shower activity remains disorganized, with the wave moving westward through the east-central Caribbean Sea," he said.
Yet another tropical wave is located along 19 degrees west longitude and is already accompanied by a low-pressure center, Archer said, and he noted that thundershowers associated with the wave are on the weak side. "This system is a good six or seven days away, and we'll have some time to monitor its progress," he said.
Newly formed Tropical Storm Florence, about 400 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., is no threat to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Today's weather forecast across the region can be viewed by clicking on the rainbow menu at the top of the Source menu.

The University of the Virgin Islands has appointed Peter Sauer to the position of athletic director, giving him oversight for the new UVI Sports and Fitness Center and all of the University’s athletic programs.
Sauer, 41, had most recently held the position of associate athletic director at American University in Washington, D.C., where he supervised the athletic facilities operations of the 4,000-seat Bender Arena, Reeves Field and all box office and ticket operations.
Sauer also was responsible for setting the American University all-time men’s basketball season attendance record and establishing record revenues from athletic department corporate sponsorships. He was previously the assistant athletic director for basketball operations at the University of Maryland.
The Prince George’s County, Md, native said he plans to maximize the athletic experiences of UVI’s athletes, while offering the university and the community at large top quality events once the Sports and Fitness Center opens in December.
Sauer is pursuing professional sports teams, suggesting that they utilize the center for their training camps. He believes the center will provide professional athletes, concert promoters, trade show coordinators and special events planners all the amenities they expect from a state-of-the-art, 3,400-seat arena.
"What makes this arena special is that it was well planned," Sauer said. "There is plenty of locker room space for all UVI intercollegiate teams, an excellent training room to treat sports injuries, classroom and office space and state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems for all types of special events."
LaVerne E. Ragster, senior vice president and Provost of UVI, expects Sauer’s expertise to serve UVI well.
"With Peter Sauer's arrival as athletic director, the university expects an elevated focus on building the athletic programs," Ragster said. "When the Sports and Fitness Center is open, we anticipate that Mr. Sauer will build this into a successful facility that will link university events and the community. We expect Mr. Sauer to help us achieve new and exciting milestones in our Athletic Department."