The construction of the Enighed Pond marine cargo facility on St. John could be delayed for years if the Port Authority and the Turnbull administration don’t agree on how to pay for the $16 million project.
Port Authority executive director Gordon Finch told VIPA board members Wednesday that the authority was ready to put up its half of the funding for the project. But he said he was recently told by administration officials that the government’s half would be a loan to VIPA, not a grant.
That news, Finch said, left him "exasperated" because he said he had been told by the administration that it was planning to use proceeds from the pending sale of the Water and Power Authority to fund its share of the project. The idea of a loan was never discussed, he said.
Finch implored board members not to go ahead with the project if the administration limits its contribution to a loan.
If the board chooses not to move ahead, he said, the project, which has been under discussion for years, will be delayed indefinitely.
"I’m asking the board, please don’t do it," he said. "The project will be delayed. Yes, we will do it ourselves — but when we have the financing… "It’s going to be a significant period of time, and I’m talking years."
However, Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson Jr., who sits on the VIPA board, said he expected to use Federal Highway Administration funding to pay for the project. He suggested that the funding from the proposed WAPA sale was a back-up plan.
Thompson said the government receives $12 million a year in federal transportation money and is planning to use $4 million of it this fiscal year and $4 million more later for the project.
"As long as I’m commissioner of Public Works, I’ll do my level best to get the project funded," Thompson said. "The federal highway program is the best chance to move forward."
Meanwhile, the uncertainty of where the government funding would come from and what the terms would be spurred Finch to recommend to the board that it draft a letter to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull stating why a loan would be untenable. VIPA also wants assurances that federal funding is available to pay for the project before work begins.

Deshaune Harrigan, the 24-year-old man police have accused of fatally shooting Jason Carroll on Main Street Tuesday afternoon, remained jailed Thursday in lieu of $350,000 bail.
New details emerged from an advice-of-rights hearing in Territorial Court Thursday morning.
Detective Delbert Phipps of the Police Department Major Crime Task Force testified that several witnesses have told investigators they saw Harrigan and Carroll involved in a struggle before three shots rang out Tuesday afternoon near the Main Street end of Drake's Passage.
Phipps said Carroll died at the scene from two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and another to the right arm. The medical examiner, Dr. Francisco Landron, who performed the autopsy Wednesday, said Carroll died from massive internal bleeding resulting from the bullet wound to the chest.
"He had a lot of internal hemorrhaging," Landron said. The gunshot wound to the left side of the chest was perhaps the fatal injury, he added.
Phipps presented a chronology of the events surrounding the death of Carroll, the 18-year-old son of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Carroll.
"At the scene, witnesses told police Harrigan ran through Drake's Passage to the waterfront after the shooting," Phipps testified, and he "discarded the murder weapon, a .40 caliber handgun, in the bushes as he fled toward Vendors Plaza."
At the plaza, Phipps said, a police officer encountered Harrigan with blood on his hand, clothes and face. Phipps said that statements by both witnesses and Harrigan led police to believe that Carroll and a friend of Harrigan were involved in a struggle which escalated and led to Harrigan getting involved.
The fight between Harrigan and Carroll intensified and led to the shooting, Phipps said. "Witnesses that came forward identified the defendant, Harrigan, in a photo array," Phipps, a 13-year veteran investigator, told the court and the audience, which included Harrigan's grandparents and another family member.
Phipps said police obtained the murder weapon from a witness who saw Harrigan drop a brown paper bag in the bushes, retrieved it and handed it over to an officer. The blood-soaked bag contained the black framed handgun, the officer said.
Harrigan was detained on Tuesday, questioned and released.
On Wednesday Harrigan was again apprehended and questioned by Homicide Task Force members, along with the friend who had been with him in Drake's Passage on Tuesday. It was then that Harrigan is alleged to have admitted to police that he was involved in both the struggle and the shooting of Jason Carroll. "He told us that he and the victim had a fight, shots rang out and suddenly a gun appeared in his hands," Phipps told the court.
Under questioning by prosecutor Guy H. Mitchell, Phipps said what Harrigan said on Tuesday differed from what he said on Wednesday. Phipps said Harrigan admitted the shooting on "the second day of questioning." Harrigan was arrested on second-degree murder charges Wednesday around 9 p.m. after a lengthy interrogation by police. He was also charged with illegal weapons possession.
Mitchell suggested that an additional charge of possessing an unlicenced firearm with an obliterated serial number may be added.
Phipps, who has been assigned to the Homicide Task Force for the last six years, also testified that Harrigan's friend who reportedly was involved in the initial scuffle with Carroll fled west on Main Street after the shooting, making his getaway through an alley near Coconuts Bar. Phipps said police have no other suspects in the murder at the present time.
Territorial Court Judge Ishmael Meyers rejected a suggestion by attorney Clive Rivers, representing Harrigan, that the government had not proven probable cause to arrest Harrigan. "A lot of persons were running away from the scene when the shots were fired," Rivers said. "I do not believe the government has brought forward enough evidence to detain this young man."
Rivers sat in at the advice-of-rights hearing for public defender Jesse Bethel, who cited a conflict in representing Harrigan at his initial court appearance.
Mitchell asked that bail be set at $1 million, terming Harrigan a threat to the community and a flight risk. "Anyone who would openly fire a gun into a crowd on Main Street is a danger to this community," he said.
In addition, Mitchell cited testimony by Phipps that when officers went to Hospital Ground on Wednesday to bring both Harrigan and his friend in for questioning, the suspect attempted to run from his home through a back door. "This I would say is a flight risk," Mitchell told Meyers.
Meyers set bail after telling the defendant that the court found probable cause to charge him with murder and weapons possession.
Harrigan, a native of St. Thomas who attended high school in New York, reportedly returned from Long Island after being offered a job with Virgin Islands Fire Services. Attorney John Zebedee will represent him on June 8 at his arraignment, the proceeding in which Harrigan will enter his plea to the charges against him.

As she prepares for a new chapter in her life, St. John businesswoman Aase Pedersen sheds a tear for the life she is leaving behind.
"I haven't dealt with leaving St. John yet — I've been so busy packing," she says.
After 22 years of life in the place she describes as her tropical dreamland, Pedersen is about to return to her native Norway. "This was my plan," she says. "I'm turning 60 this year. I have a wonderful family and I come from a town that's a lot like St. John — about 5,000 people, seaside town, resort area. And everyone came from there, my mother, my father, grandparents."
On Monday, May 22, she officially resigned her position as co-president of the St. John Action Committee, one of two civic organizations she helped to establish on the island.
Three weeks earlier, she had closed on the sale of Wicker, Wood and Shells, her shop and art gallery in the Mongoose Junction shopping center.
Pedersen has always been ready to light up a cigarette and share some neighborly chat. In the midst of her preparations to depart, it's still so. She recalls that she first came to St. John in 1978 as a lark, visiting with friends on St. Thomas who had told her about the island.
As they were driving near the Red Hook dock one day, they spotted a ferry boat — and hopped aboard. St. John made quite a first impression on her: "I saw it and fell in love and wanted to live here, and that was it," she says. "I went home to New York and gave up my rent- controlled apartment."
She remembers finding her new home filled with open-hearted local St. Johnians and a small community of free-wheeling continentals. Her first challenge was to carve out a way to make a living. She found it in a souvenir shop whose original owners, National Park Service workers who were being transferred, had put it up for sale.
In addition to showcasing the creativity of others, "I really felt the shop gave me the ability to be creative as well," she says. While she didn't make any of the items sold in the store, she did make the decisions on what to sell so that it had more variety.
She soon joined the Lioness Club — in the days when Lions were all of the male variety — and there she made some lasting friendships among the St. Johnians. A self-professed love for the local people and a spirit of volunteerism led her to help found the St. John Community Foundation and later the St. John Action Committee with the help of architect Glen Speer and businessman Elvis Yearwood.
"I'm very proud of what we did," she says. "We stepped in just after [Hurricane] Marilyn, when things were in disarray and a lot of people felt hopeless."
Now, she reflects, the island is more prosperous than ever, and the action committee is taking a hiatus from its activities — while remaining an organization with a solid reputation among the island's residents and businesses.
Having come from a small town where generations of families had endured, Pedersen says she immediately felt a special affinity for Virgin Islanders. And she's saddened by the impact of the population boom that's taken place since 1989. As the outside world discovered St. John, new arrivals started to treat the island as a business opportunity instead of their new home, she says.
"It's not easy to be a St. Johnian today," she reflects. "I think the influx of people from other places since [Hurricane] Hugo has been overwhelmingly massive. It would have been hard for any community to assimilate it." As a result, she says, native St. Johnians have lost some of their warmth toward strangers.
In spite of the changes, Pedersen says, she is still in love with her adopted island. She cherishes the New Year's mornings when at 8 a.m. she shared a toast with members of the Wesselhoft family at their home on the hill overlooking Cruz Bay.
On Wednesday, a group of Pedersen's childhood schoolmates arrived on island for a visit. When they return to Norway on June 2, she will go with them. Since they're all turning 60 this year, she says, it's part of one big birthday celebration. That's the plan.
She feels good about having turned her shop over to new owners who know the business and the island, but the sight of Gladys Gifford, her long-time assistant, still makes her cry as thoughts of her imminent departure overwhelm her. But she quickly brightens, saying she's looking forward to sharing life with her 10 nieces and nephews and returning to the 280-year-old, recently restored home where she grew up.

Major Crime Task Force detectives charged Deshawn Harrigan, 24, of Hospital Ground, late Wednesday night with second-degree murder and illegal possession of a weapon in connection with the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jason Carroll in downtown Charlotte Amalie Tuesday afternoon.
Harrigan's arrest came after hours of intense interrogation Wednesday afternoon and evening, a police source said.
During the hours of questioning, Harrigan reportedly told police that a friend of his and Carroll became involved in a dispute near the Main Street end of Drake's Passage. Harrigan allegedly got involved after Carroll wrestled Harrigan's friend to the ground. A fight that ensued between Harrigan and Carroll intensified to the point where a weapon was brandished and shots were fired, police sources said.
Shot in the chest and left arm, Carroll staggered across Main Street in full view of dozens of tourists and residents on the street, collapsed in front of Princess Jewelers and died a few minutes later. Witnesses said two individuals ran from Drake's Passage and fled the scene.
The murder weapon was recovered, a police source said Wednesday.
Police investigators reportedly also questioned the friend who had been with Harrigan, but since he was not involved in the final struggle in which the shots were fired, he was not charged.
Harrigan was escorted from the Investigation Bureau in Nisky Center around 10 p.m. Wednesday to be booked at Zone A Command in the Criminal Justice Complex. Details on bail were not available. It was expected that an advice-of-rights hearing would be held on Thursday morning.
WVWI/Radio One quoted unnamed sources as saying the fatal shooting was a difficult case to bring to closure with an arrest. "We spent hours up and down the block around Drake's Passage canvassing persons who may have seen the altercation — and came up empty. Persons are just not coming forward," one officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Police worked through Tuesday night and all day Wednesday evaluating evidence and information acquired in efforts to identify the assailant. Carroll, who had just completed his first year of study at the University of the Virgin Islands, was the son of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Carroll.

"Accessibility to guns is the root of the violent crime in the United States and the territory," in the view of St. Thomas therapist Alice Hamilton, who participated in the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C., on Mother's Day.
In contrast, she said, "When persons get into an altercation in Europe, they tend to ‘duke it out' with fists instead of firing off a fatal shot. Here, where guns are easily available, anger results in fatalities."
As executive director for the first 10 years of Women's Resource Center (now Family Resource Center) on St. Thomas, Hamilton had frequent experience dealing with the tragedies of violent crime. As a therapist in private practice now, she is assisting the family of the victim of Tuesday's Main Street shooting.
Hamilton's niece, a physician in Ann Arbor, Mich., invited Hamilton to join her in Washington for the march. "It was a very moving experience to be with so many people who are concerned about the welfare of others," Hamilton said. "It is too rare that people take action and give witness to a call for meaningful change."
It was not known whether any other Virgin Islanders took part in the march. The office of Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen in Washington had no information on any other participants.
Donna Dees-Thomases, a mother from New Jersey, led in organizing the Million Mom March. Like Hamilton, she has not lost a child to gun violence, but she agonized for the many mothers who had, and she felt a great need to make an impact for change.
As Dees-Thomases watched one more gun tragedy on the nightly news last August, she scribbled plans for a demonstration on the back of an envelope. The next day she reserved the Washington Mall, contacted several anti-gun groups, ordered an 800 number and went to work, taking a leave from her job as a CBS Entertainment publicist. The result was the gathering of hundreds of thousands of women, along with children and men, on May 14. (Organizers put the number at 750,000; while seasoned Washington demonstration observers said it was less than that, it was without question by far the nation's largest-ever protest against gun violence.)
A longtime advocate of gun control, Hamilton remembers a significant conference on violence that she attended in the late 1980s, presented by the federal government in Charlotte, N.C. "At that conference the main theme was that guns were a major factor in violent crime," she recalled. "The New York Sullivan Act was touted as the way to go. It is a law that has a mandatory prison sentence for illegal gun possession." She noted, "The relationship of gun control to the reduction of crime is not a new idea."
"The points emphasized by the many speakers at the Million Mom March included requiring gun manufacturers to put safety locks on all guns, enforcing gun registration laws already on the books, and particularly taking the time to thoroughly research the background of the applicants to see if they have a criminal record," she said.
Hamilton said strong enforcement of gun laws is desperately needed in the Virgin Islands. "Police should stop cars to search for guns and be more vigilant about enforcing minor laws before major crimes are committed," she said. She said there is no doubt about the connection between guns and drugs and believes that smuggling is a major problem.
She will continue to advocate for stronger gun control laws so she doesn't have to comfort dear friends like the parents of promising young men like Jason Carroll.

The main byproduct of Wednesday night's Senate Government Operations Committee hearing on St. Thomas was bickering, as vendors and Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik disagreed on just about everything.
The meeting, the third held on new vendor regulations, was requested by Sen. Adelbert "Bert" Bryan to resolve differences between the vendors and the licensing agency. Bryan, who was not present, had sent a letter to committee chair Gregory Bennerson asking to be excused from the meeting.
Testifying along with Rutnik were Diane Magras, V.I. Vendors Association president, and Vincent Thompson, a vendor.
The pace for the evening was set when Rutnik commented, "Maybe the Legislature should take over the vendors, and leave DLCA out of it."
Magras, whose organization has about 60 members, led off with a long list of complaints against the agency — and against Rutnik in particular, claiming he only "passed though the plaza in minutes," did not mingle with the vendors or listen to their problems, and "showed no respect." She cited as the vendors' main concerns a need for restroom facilities, a wheelchair-access ramp and a permanent roof over the plaza, located between Emancipation Garden and the waterfront.
The most hotly debated issue, however, was whether a vendor's DLCA-assigned site in the plaza could be handed down to a surviving family member, should the vendor die. Magras argued in favor of the idea and Rutnik strongly opposed it.
"I have a waiting list of over 100 people right now," he said, "and that will never happen while I'm commissioner. I will stake my integrity on that."
He said people who have applied for vendor spaces come by his office regularly to see how far their names have moved up on the list.
Rutnik expressed concern that an illegal practice may be taking place in the plaza. He said he has a signed statement from a woman who came to his office saying that a downtown shop owner was paying $1,000 a month to a vendor to front his merchandise. Rutnik said he will investigate the allegation.
Vendors pay the government a uniform fee of $200 a year for their spots. Rutnik said he wants the government to get an appraisal of the plaza's square footage and make a recommendation as to what fair market value rents should be.
The senators obviously grew tired of the bickering as the evening wore on. Magras kept referring to Bryan's demonstrated interest in the vendors' well-being in requesting the meeting. Bennerson reminded her more than once that all of the senators present wanted to see the new vendor rules and regulations implemented fairly.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, in obvious frustration, said at one point, "I thought at the last meeting we told you to iron out your differences before coming back to us." Magras replied that the vendors held a meeting to discuss matters with Rutnik, but he didn't appear. Rutnik responded that he had been off-island on the date of the meeting and had sent his deputy in charge of vendors to represent the department.
Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd also said the vendors and regulators "should have had things straightened out already" before coming to Wednesday's hearing. Bennerson suggested they do so before another is held. He then asked the parties when they would be ready. Magras responded "tomorrow." Rutnik said possibly before June 15.
Attending the meeting were committee members Bennerson, Lorraine Berry, Cole, Roosevelt David, David Jones, Liburd and Allie-Allison Petrus. Police Chief Jose Garcia also appeared. Tourism Commissioner-designate Rafael Jackson and St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce president John deJongh Jr. had been invited by the committee to testify, but didn't appear.

The Government and Industrial Coed Slowpitch Softball League is winding down as teams fight to secure playoff spots.
There were three games on Wednesday. Police beat Apex15-1, Postal edged National Guard 10-9 and Justice/Territorial Court surpassed Internal Revenue Bureau/Human Services 18-13 in the nightcap.
Police's Antonio Matthews led his team from the mound. He allowed Apex just five hits and added a two-for-three performance at the plate. Simon Venzen, Henry Thomas Jr. and Kerry Harrigan had two hits each. Thomas hit a 3-run home run in the first inning. Police scored four runs in that inning.
Harrigan and Terrence Manning added back-to- back home runs in the nine-run second inning. Nine of the eleven Police starters reached base safely.
For Apex, Anthon Cannonier and Jeffrey Hodge went perfect at the plate with two hits in two at bats. But Apex committed eight errors.
Police improved to 5-4. They have secured fifth place in the Watlington division and a playoff spot.
The six top teams in each division make it to the playoffs. The others will play in a single elimination tournament called "the best of the rest."
In game two, National Guard jumped out on top with a three-run home run off the bat of Hank Warner. The Guardsman got another two runs in the third thanks to Warner again as he led the inning off with a single. He was driven home by a triple by Nigel Richardson. Richardson then scored on a single by pitcher Gail Joseph.
Postal's Elvin Durant and Juan Rivera went perfect at the plate in two and three at bats respectively. Postal rallied back from a 6-3 deficit in the fifth inning by scoring two. They then added five more runs in the top of the sixth inning to take the lead 10-5.
National Guard tried to come back in the seventh inning. Terrence Holland started the inning off with a single. Kareem Henley then followed with a two-run inside-the-park home run. However, National Guard could not score any more runs. Joseph absorbed her first lost of the season.
Postal improved to 2-6, as Liston George picked up the victory. The defeat knocks National Guard out of first place in the Watlington division.
In the final game, Justice/Territorial Court scored nine runs in the bottom of the sixth to come back against IRB/HS. Akil Brathwaite was perfect in four at bats for Justice/Territorial Court. Shawn Roebuck hit a two-run home run in the third. Dale Brathwaite picked up the win.
IRB's William Lawrence had two home runs, a two-run in the first and a solo in the sixth. IRB/HS ends the regular season winless, 0-10.

Republican Sen. Violet Anne Golden, chairperson of the Rules Committee, lashed out Wednesday at the unreasonable and unacceptable conditions the Banking Board placed on its approval of the Virgin Islands Community Bank’s purchase of certain assets of Chase Manhattan Bank’s Virgin Islands Operations.
In a release from her office Golden said, "I am outraged by the anti-business and underhanded tactics of the board. This is obviously a document marked ‘approval’ with such unprecedented and onerous conditions that no legitimate business could accept,"she added.
Golden said the board knew that VICB could not accept these conditions.
"The Turnbull/James administration looks at business and speaks with a forked tongue," Golden said. She pointed out that Gov. Turnbull has in fact declared war on the nay-sayers who are against economic growth. But strong and loud anti-economic growth and job creation continues to come from the Lt. Governor’s mouth and his actions. He consistently takes positions that are diametrically opposite the governor’s. "Is he the fox in the henhouse?" Golden asked, in the release.
This administration continues to send mixed signals to potential investors and the business community, she said. The governor endorses an investment proposal creating jobs and immediately members of his administration oppose the proposal. This is just another signboard with the message, ‘jobs and money not welcome in the Virgin Islands," according to Golden.
The decision of the Banking Board to load the ‘approval’ with unprecedented intrusions into the corporate affairs of a private business and even another government agency is the sheer lunacy of self aggrandizement, the release noted.
Nowhere in Virgin Islands law is the Banking Board given the authority to declare who can and cannot apply for Industrial Development Commission benefits. No ethical business can accept the proposition that a government agency shall have approval of who can sit on its board of directors, Golden said.
Both of these unacceptable intrusions where a part of the Banking Board’s conditions for approval.
After saying that VICB could not seek nor accept IDC benefits, it said that 30 percent of VICB's Board of Directors will have to be approved by the Banking Board. "It didn’t stop there," Golden said, "the Board proceeded to impose a $300,000. Annual fee (tax) on VICB which does not apply to any other bank in the Virgin Islands. This is Outrageous."
"We have a Banking Board out of control when it sets policies so completely investor unfriendly,"Golden continued. If you refuse to create an environment in which a business can prosper, then you are also denying the consumers and public interests the opportunity to make sound economic choices in the market place.
Golden said that she is concerned by the shrinking size of the financial sector in the territory. "Am I to conclude that the Banking Board and the Lieutenant Governor have a plan to deal with unemployment that will result from their misguided decision?"Golden asked. With the Virgin Islands facing a disastrous economic condition, it will be another serious loss of jobs and a reduced access to money markets she pointed out. "It baffles the mind to contemplate the degree of denial that exists in the higher echelons of our government," she said.
The Board’s actions were explained as protecting the people. "How does reducing the scope of our financial sector and creating unemployment protect the people?" she asked. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation protects the people’s money in the bank but protecting the people from their own government appears to be a bigger problem.
"The irony of this tragic decision is that our Banking Board takes a punitive view of VICB when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recognized the outstanding achievement of VICB for its investment in the community under the Community Reinvestment Act and the National Small Business Bank of the Year Award. Something is not right when this can happen Golden pointed out.
We talk about becoming investor friendly, but conduct public policy contrary to our words. "I call on Governor Turnbull," Golden concluded, "to take this proverbial bull by the horns before it completely destroys every vestige of our economy and creates a jobless rate that fosters crime and chaos."

The students of Joseph Gomez Elementary School will display their musical and dramatic talents in the annual spring concert to be held at 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 29 in the Wesley Methodist Educational Complex in Tutu.
The concert will be dedicated to Frida Farrell, who has recently become principal at Joseph Gomez elementary school.
The Concert Band will perform under the direction of Kelly Charleswell. Jeannette Rhymer and Geraldine Classen will direct the Concert Choir and Allison Cornelius directs the Primary Choir. The Drama Club, led by Felicita Donastorg, will also perform.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Tickets can be obtained at the door. For more information call the school at 775-4490 or 775-2354.

The students of Joseph Gomez Elementary School will display their musical and dramatic talents in the annual spring concert to be held at 7:30, Monday, May 29 in the Wesley Methodist Educational Complex in Tutu.
The concert will be dedicated to Frida Farrell, who has recently become principal at Joseph Gomez elementary school.
The Concert Band will perform under the direction of Kelly Charleswell. Jeannette Rhymer and Geraldine Classen will direct the Concert Choir and Allison Cornelius directs the Primary Choir. The Drama Club, led by Felicita Donastorg, will also perform.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Tickets can be obtained at the door. For more information call the school at 775-4490 or 775-2354.