Governor Charles W. Turnbull will make his first State of the Territory Address at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11. The State of the Territory Address will be delivered in the Senate Chambers on St. Thomas.

Say what you will about Gov. Roy L. Schneider and his leadership style, you have to give him credit for what he did accomplish.
Case in point: We have a cleaner, prettier island today than when he took office four years ago, and some of the credit goes to Schneider's get-it-done approach to governing.
Our roadsides aren't nearly as littered. Garbage is picked up regularly, and isn't always scattered around the Dumpsters. Trash cans have been placed in spots where people would otherwise dispose of their litter on the streets or sidewalks. The Emancipation Garden park is a little gem in the midst of downtown. The waterfront looks better.
Not that this is all because of Roy Schneider. Others played key roles too, including the Chamber of Commerce, which helped make the park a reality, and environmentalists who have raised the community's consciousness about the need to preserve and protect the beauty that is ours. And, of course, we have to tip our hats to Mother Nature, whose copious amounts of rainfall have made the islands lush.
But Roy Schneider saw the need for improving the overall look of these islands and made it a priority.
The challenge for Gov. Charles W. Turnbull is to continue where his predecessor left off, and to accomplish what Schneider failed to do, including filling potholes, paving and maintaining roads, restoring blown-away roadside mirrors and making sure roadside brush is cut regularly.

Small businesses in the Virgin Islands may eventually benefit from a new bill in Congress that will provide greater access to startup and investment capital, lower interest rates on small business loans and boost cash flow for these enterprises.
Delegate Donna M. Christian-Christensen, a member of the House Small Business Committee, said she is encouraged by the availability of such funding for small business owners because they make up the majority of the private sector in the territory.
“This legislation will provide local entrepreneurs with the assistance they need to revive their businesses thereby improving the territory’s economy," she said. "I encourage all eligible companies to take advantage of this and other funding opportunities through the Small Business Administration.”
The new bill would improve the Small Business Investment Company Act, a public-private partnership that provides an alternative avenue from the more traditional route of banks as a source of capital, thus enabling small businesses to become large corporations.
“Although there are no SBICs currently in the V.I., it remains a potential investment tool for small business development in the territory,” Christensen said.
The bill, HR 68, is expected to be brought to the floor in the following weeks and an identical proposal will be considered in the Senate this spring.

What inspires young people to learn? What draws older children to focus and create a product or performance of originality and excellence?
How can we provide quality learning environments for young people conditioned to beleaguered schools, limited economic and recreational resources, and too many families trying to parent in the face of conflicting demands on their time, emotions and financial resources?
These and other questions are often asked among concerned parents, educators, juvenile justice officials, religious leaders and policy makers.
Studies have found that localities and organizations that focus their activities in the arts enable young people who engage in these programs regularly to improve their academic standing, increase their abilities in self-assessment and motivation, and raise their sense of the importance of planning and working for a positive future for themselves and their communities.
Learning in the arts can no longer be regarded as "extra," "trivial" or possible only when the basics are in place.
The arts are basic, for they push leaders to pose problems and find solutions, to link thought and action, and to recognize the consequences of individual behaviors on group interactions and achievements.
Current thinking and demands of communication in the continuing information-based workplace reveal the kinds of thinking necessary for civic, economic, technical, inventive and social challenges and point to society's keen need for more learning of the kind existing within the arts.
Within the Virgin Islands, environments must be created that enable educators and professional artists to see art involvement in school and non-school activities as viable and compelling options to learning.
What about the costs of these actual programs? This is a relatively easy question to answer.
Once physical space is available, the costs to support young people's involvement in the arts are surprisingly low. In figuring costs, one must take into account that young artists are not drains on resources — they are resources.
Ideally, each young artist gives back to the community and surrounding institutions in a variety of ways that are incalculable — education, counseling, entertainment and as role models.
As we in the community and the new administration embark on the threshold of a new millennium, we must remember that the arts enable us not only to honor our past but also to imagine our future.
The arts have always inspired us with new insights, discoveries and achievements. Through poems and plays, dances and documentaries, stories and songs, paintings and philosophies, the arts have touched our lives and enriched our spirits.
In this increasingly diverse society, the arts help us to appreciate and understand one another as individuals while deepening our common bonds.
As we prepare to mark the end of this century and the beginning of a new one, it is most important that we preserve, embrace and nurture the work of established and emerging artists.

Anyone interested in obtaining a vendors space at the Lionel Roberts Stadium Ballpark during carnival must submit a request, in writing, to the Virgin Islands Carnival Committee by January 31, 1999. Requests should include name of organization, and dates requested.

The regular meeting of the Government Employees' Retirement System board of trustees will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12 in the GERS conference room.
On the agenda under new business:
— Approval of the 1999 calendar of events
— Election of vice-chair
— Presentation by Sen. David Jones
— Status of Woodford Gayed
— Buck contract
— Revision of the FY ‘99 Complex budget

This is a great idea. I enjoyed my very fPirst visit to you site. Keep up the good work.
Cecile de Jongh
St. Thomas

There appears to be confusion over public reaction to Malaysian Tan Kay Hock's development plans for Yacht Haven Hotel, also known as Ramada Inn.
All St. Thomas residents recognize it is high time that Yacht Haven Hotel be restored. Ever since the hurricane of 1995, most of the buildings in the Yacht Haven development have been an eyesore — and, increasingly so, as nothing whatever has been done to demolish or secure the buildings on the roadside, which are not only a disgusting sight, but in real danger of falling and injuring pedestrians on the sidewalk which it abuts, or cars on the Long Bay Road.
No one that I have heard disapproves of a renovation of the original Ramada Inn, except that its buildings must be set back at least 15 feet from the sidewalk.
Being in the coastal zone, it will necessarily be required that a proper and complete application be made to the coastal zone division of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, and that the plans and details of development be reviewed by the Coastal Zone Management technical staff, and if such plans meet the requirements of law, then a public hearing be called by the Coastal Zone Management Commission to inform the public and let all interested persons have a chance to express their view about the proposed project before it proceeds to consider the project.
That stage has not as yet been met or even seems to be contemplated. No plans, no drawings, no details have yet been revealed as to the proposed Yacht Haven Malaysian development. Yet, the promoters and owners of this project are asking for approval of the development as planned by them for the sole reason advanced that it will be financially beneficial to our island — not even have the financial benefits been revealed.
However, the other aspect of Tan Kay Hock's plan — the lease from West Indian Co. Ltd. of the filled land at Lang Bay, next to Yacht Haven, for uses not yet revealed, but admittedly will bring no significant financial benefit to WICO, is the aspect that has virtually all St. Thomians up in arms.
In the first place, we strenuously object to any lease or building plans being agreed upon by any agency of the government, including the West Indian Co. Ltd. or the Public Finance Authority, without revealing in detail the plans of the developers, and their effect on the residents and our special harbor front environment.
Next, we believe firmly that this filled land now under the control of a V.1. government entity (and no longer the Danish West Indian Co. Ltd.) is subject to Virgin Islands law, and as submerged land to the specific requirement of legislative control and approval — even after any Coastal Zone Commission approval and that of the governor may have been achieved.
The filled land may now be in the name of WICO, but as submerged land, it belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands under federal law.
As we understand it, WICO is not pleased with the manner of negotiations, or rather lack of negotiation by the developer. Yet, WICO appears not to accept the fact that this filled land is not theirs to do with as they choose by agreement without public and legislative approval.
Save Long Bay Coalition, the Environmental Association of St. Thomas and the League of Women Voters of the Virgin Islands all object to any commercial development of Long Bay fill, which is in a very important position in our harbor, with a magnificent view, and which has always been used only for recreational purposes.
Without question it would now be best developed as a comfortable and beautiful park for the use of residents and tourists on their way to and from the West Indian Co. docks and the town of Charlotte Amalie.
Besides, we stress that we strongly oppose any further commercial development of our harbor coastline.
WICO earns enough money to develop Long Bay fill, with the required approval of the Coastal Zone Commission, the governor, and the Legislature, into a beautiful park for the benefit of the people of the Virgin Islands for whom it holds the land in trust.
Neither WICO, any other agency of the government, nor the governor, should overlook this responsibility.

Gov. Charles W. Turnbull named acting commissioners and agency heads late Thursday to serve "until further notice."
Turnbull spent his first full day in office meeting with senior staff members and organizing his Cabinet, according to a statement from Government House.
His interim appointments include two holdovers from the Schneider administration — Attorney General Julio A. Brady and Human Services Commissioner Sedonie Halbert.
Temporarily heading the government's key financial agencies are Ira Mills at the Office of Management and Budget, Claudette Farrington at the Internal Revenue Bureau and Bernice Turnbull at the Finance Department.
Clement "Cain" Magras was named acting head of the Tourism Department and Ira Hobson got the interim post at Housing Parks and Recreation. Both appointments reportedly will be permanent.
The Government House release did not name Turnbull's senior staff members.
The appointees are:
Julio Brady — Department of Justice
Ira Mills — Office of Management & Budget
Mario Golden — Department of Education
Harry Thompson Jr.– Department of Public Works
Ira Hobson — Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation
Franz Christian — Virgin Islands Police Department
Mark Biggs — Department of Property and Procurement
Clement "Cain" Magras — Department of Tourism
Lawrence Lewis — Department of Agriculture
Eleuteria Roberts — Department of Labor
Sedonie Halbert — Department of Human Services
Claudette Lewis — Department of Planning and Natural Resources
Louis Penn — Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs
Joanne Barry — Division of Personnel
Ian Williams — Fire Services
Claudette Farrington — Internal Revenue Bureau
George Golden — Virgin Islands Lottery Commission
Julian Harley — St. John Administrator
Rupert Ross — St. Croix Administrator
Louis Hill — Administrator Governor's Office
Bernice Turnbull — Department of Finance
Raymond "Bobby James — Department of Health
Many of the interim department heads have held high-level jobs in the Scheider administration, and several have been in government through several administrations.
Claudette Lewis, for instance, was assistant director of the department's historic preservation division.
Franz Christian was assistant Police commissioner in the Schneider administration, while Mario Golden was assistant commissioner of Education under Schneider.
Biggs was assistant personnel director in the Farrelly administration, according to Friday's Daily News.

The Virgin Islands economy is on the upswing and the territory should see a spurt in tourism revenues, economist Richard Moore said Thursday.
Moore, for seven years director of the V.I. Bureau of Economic Research, predicted that tourism should experience a "fairly healthy jump in room/nights occupied" — one measure of hotel room demand, according to the Independent.
This will bring in hotel taxes, which in turn will pay for greater marketing and advertising efforts, which in turn will stimulate growth in tourism, he said.
Moore said increased employment is another sign that the V.I. economy is on the upswing.
Employment is close to the level it was 10 years ago, with more jobs and better paying jobs, according to the Daily News story on Moore's speech to the Rotary Club.
Marilyn caused a drop in employment, but now — three years later — employment is poised to expand again. Moore said much of the expansion is a result of St. Croix business expansion and development.
On another issue, the government's long term debt, Moore said the debt service on the $540 million debt is $40 million a year and is being paid by the rum excise tax, which brings in about $40 million a year.
That tax will need to remain stable for the next 25 years in order to reimburse bond holders.
Moore suggested the government needs to find another source of funds in case the rum-excise tax shrinks.
Moore said the Turnbull administration is developing an economic plan that hopefully will include incentives for private-sector growth.
He noted that unlike areas on the United States mainland, the average government worker here makes $5,200 more per year than the average private sector employee.
Moore said IDC benefits are a balancing act between assuring ample revenues to the government while providing benefits to private businesses that are significant enough to induce them to settle here and stay here.
(Editor's note: See Moore's commentary on IDC benefits on our Op-ed page.)