The commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources is questioning the federal government’s recent announcement that it is considering taking over regulatory enforcement of the territory’s landfills.
On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was starting a 90-day process that would determine if it was going to become the lead enforcer of solid-waste laws in the territory. The move came, according to EPA officials, after the V.I. government failed to manage solid-waste facilities according to agreements with Washington dating back to 1993, including promises to commit staff and financial resources to operate the Bovoni and Anguilla Landfills in accordance with federal standards.
The regulatory program sought by the EPA, which is supposed to be implemented by DPNR, entails permitting, inspection and enforcement of federal regulations at the Public Works-operated landfills.
But DPNR Commissioner Dean Plaskett said Tuesday that solid-waste rules and regulations have been drafted by his department and only need to be put in place by formal action of the Senate. He also said the staffing issue has been addressed and that DPNR and Public Works, with the assistance of the EPA, have $1 million in funding available to deal with hazardous-waste issues at the landfills.
Plaskett said that in light of his department's efforts to submit an acceptable regulatory program, he had a "problem" with EPA's threatened takeover.
If the EPA does decide to become the local regulatory body, Plaskett said any fines and penalties issued against violators will go to the federal government.
"I think that in itself is a critical ramification of not having the program here," he said.
EPA will hold two public hearings to discuss the possible takeover. The first will be held on June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Department of Education Curriculum Center in Tutu on St. Thomas. The second is set for 7 p.m. on June 28 at the Curriculum Center on St. Croix.
After the hearings, the EPA will make a final decision on whether to formally disapprove the territory’s solid-waste landfill program. According to the EPA, the process will take at least 90 days from May 8.

The commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources is questioning the federal government’s recent announcement that it is considering taking over regulatory enforcement of the territory’s landfills.
On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was starting a 90-day process that would determine if it was going to become the lead enforcer of solid-waste laws in the territory. The move came, according to EPA officials, after the V.I. government failed to manage solid-waste facilities according to agreements with Washington dating back to 1993, including promises to commit staff and financial resources to operate the Bovoni and Anguilla Landfills in accordance with federal standards.
The regulatory program sought by the EPA, which is supposed to be implemented by DPNR, entails permitting, inspection and enforcement of federal regulations at the Public Works-operated landfills.
But DPNR Commissioner Dean Plaskett said Tuesday that solid-waste rules and regulations have been drafted by his department and only need to be put in place by formal action of the Senate. He also said the staffing issue has been addressed and that DPNR and Public Works, with the assistance of the EPA, have $1 million in funding available to deal with hazardous-waste issues at the landfills.
Plaskett said that in light of his department's efforts to submit an acceptable regulatory program, he had a "problem" with EPA's threatened takeover.
If the EPA does decide to become the local regulatory body, Plaskett said any fines and penalties issued against violators will go to the federal government.
"I think that in itself is a critical ramification of not having the program here," he said.
EPA will hold two public hearings to discuss the possible takeover. The first will be held on June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Department of Education Curriculum Center in Tutu on St. Thomas. The second is set for 7 p.m. on June 28 at the Curriculum Center on St. Croix.
After the hearings, the EPA will make a final decision on whether to formally disapprove the territory’s solid-waste landfill program. According to the EPA, the process will take at least 90 days from May 8.

The Senate Finance Committee approved on Tuesday, May 9, an application to be submitted by WTJX-TV/Channel 12, the territory's public television station, for a $780,542 grant to acquire equipment to convert its analog transmission operations to a digital system. The grant would be three-quarters federally funded with one-quarter matching in local funds.
The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all Public Broadcasting Service stations must have the capability to carry a digital signal by the year 2003 and must be fully digital by 2006.
According to WTJX general manager Lori Elskoe, the grant application is being submitted to the National Telecommunication and Information Administration under its Public Telecommunications Facilities Program. The grant funds being sought are to cover three types of expenditures — for a transmitter; for an antenna, component parts and transmission line; and for program input and monitoring devices.
Some of the larger flagship stations of the PBS network are now transmitting programs digitally in what is commonly called HDTV, for high-definition television, which has the markedly sharper imagery of a computer monitor, as opposed to the flickering images of a television screen. Elskoe said, "We get the programs and air them, but viewers can't see the difference because we don't have the signal and the community doesn't have the television sets to receive it."
Channel 12 is on target for complying with the 2003 mandate, she said, and "this grant, if we receive it, will assist us with our first phase, which is to purchase a digital transmitter and begin testing."
Digital transmission is line-of-sight and "with our mountainous areas, it will be more of a challenge for us than for some other stations," Elskoe said. As far as reception, "with a digital signal, either you see it or you don't. Repeaters will be needed."
The measure was approved, 6-0. It now goes to the Rules Committee.

In elementary school semifinal hoops action Tuesday, Jane E. Tuitt defeated Kirwan Terrace, 39-32, while Lockhart topped Peace Corps, 52-49.
The games were part of the Housing Parks and Recreation/Department of Education 9-12 Basketball League in the single-elimination semifinal action at the Alvin McBean Basketball Court.
Tuitt will face Lockhart in a best-of-three championship series on Wednesday.
Kirwan kept the game close and led 7-6 after the first quarter. However, Tuitt’s Karl Laudat scored seven of his team's 12 points in the second quarter. They held Kirwan to just four points to maintain an 18-11 halftime lead.
The teams matched each other point for point in the second half, scoring 11 and 10 points apiece in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.
Kirwan’s Corey Victoria scored 11 of his game-high 13 points in the second half but it was not enough to overcome Tuitt. Rashawn Parson scored 11 points and Joseph Lee, 6 points for Kirwan.
Laudat led Tuitt’s balanced attack, scoring a total of 11 points. Emmanuel Polano contributed 8 points, while Khalid Carr, Francisco Greene and Troy Gumbs each scored 6.
In the second semifinal game, Lockhart jumped out to an early 4-point advantage and led Peace Corps 9-5 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Lockhart’s Kareem Victorine slammed dunked a missed lay-up to give his team a 14-9 lead. Peace Corps scored four easy points off of turnovers, forcing Lockhart to call a time-out. However, after the break, Peace Corps’ Adois Petersen nailed a three pointer to give his team its first lead, 16-14.
The score seesawed, but Lockhart maintained its four-point lead, 24-20, at the half.
In the third quarter, Jan Carlos Felix hit a jumper to tie the score at 24. The score once again seesawed and was tied at 30 with Peace Corps’ Veron Smith shooting free throws. He missed four in a row.
Lockhart went ahead, 34-30, and led 39-35 after the quarter.
Lockhart came out of the half roaring, scoring four points in the first minute to extend the lead to 43-35.
Peace Corps tried to keep the game within reach and mounted a comeback after being down 50-39 with 95 seconds remaining in the game. Peace Corps used a full-court press to hold Lockhart to only two points for the next 75 seconds while scoring 10 points themselves.
With only 14 seconds remaining Lockhart’s Kareem Lindo blocked Simon Rawlins' three-point shot attempt as Lockhart’s defense kept Peace Corps from the basket.
Lockhart’s game plan was to "keep the ball from Devon Peltier," coach Alcede Edwards explained. "They (Lockhart) really surprised me with their aggressiveness," Peace Corps’ coach Alvin "Bello" Richards said, adding, "My team played timid."
Lockhart is the only team to defeat Peace Corps for the year, once in the regular season and again in this semifinal match.
The top scorers for the game were Larry Fitzpatrick with 19 and Felix with 14 for Lockhart. For Peace Corps it was Peltier with 25 and Rawlins with 8.

Department of Tourism officials are hoping the combination of sweltering summer weather on the mainland and enticing advertising of the islands will mean more visitors to the territory in the coming months.
At a meeting of the St. Croix Accommodations Council Tuesday, Acting Tourism Commissioner Rafael Jackson said a "fast-track" ad blitz in the north and southeast is aimed at replicating the success of an ad campaign that ended earlier this month. During that effort, calls to the department’s 1-800 information line tripled compared to the same time last year, Jackson said.
"It indicated that the ads did generate some awareness," he said. "Our objective was to create a positive image for the destination, especially among the travel agents."
The summer campaign – set for June, August and September – will consist of radio and TV ads in 11 markets including Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, the greater Washington, D.C., area, New York-New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and a limited effort in San Francisco.
Tourism opted to skip July because of the Independence Day holidays.
Additionally, spot TV ads will be aired on Sunday nights to catch as many viewers as possible, Jackson said.
"We can better reach the audience on Sunday evening when people are returning back home," he said.
A print ad campaign will also be undertaken over the summer, Jackson said, including placements in Oprah Winfrey’s new magazine ‘O’ in September. He said a 60-40 ratio of advertising would go toward funneling more visitors to St. Croix.
Accommodations Council president Peter Locke said the anemic annual 45 percent occupancy rate on St. Croix showed that more money had to be committed to marketing the Big Island. Locke said 80 percent occupancy was the target, although according to Arthur Mayer, manager of the CCormorant Beach Resort, most hotels are viable at 60 percent.
For fiscal year 2000, Jackson said, Tourism had approximately $8 million available to market the territory. He said the number probably wouldn’t get much larger next year considering the government’s financial situation.
"Of course, I’d like to have a $12 million or $15 million budget," said Jackson. "I have to be realistic. The funds aren’t there."
Hoteliers have consistently criticized the Turnbull and Schneider administrations for siphoning off a portion of the approximately $12 million a year collected in hotel occupancy taxes — which are supposed to be used to market the territory — for other uses.
Locke said the Turnbull administration was overlooking the $3 billion generated by the tourism industry each year. He called the yearly $6 million to $7 million advertising budget "a joke" and suggested a $20 million effort would result in more tourists and subsequently more revenue for the government.
"The priority of the administration is to get tourists. What do you have? They are giving you scraps," Locke said to Jackson.

Dear Source,
My sincere thanks to Jean Etsinger for her recent piece decrying the media reaction to the Wyndham SBBC child sexual abuse case.
I was thoroughly sickened by the comments that I read in the printed media attributed to the Justice Department, Martin Public Relations, the V. I. Tourism Director, and what amounted to "no comment" by the management of the hotel chain.
The Justice Department was the worst — not to worry, St. Thomas parents, these children weren't from here. Gross! The next people to be prosecuted in this case, after the accused, should be the local hotel management personnel who neglected their responsibilities in proper oversight of the child care operation.
Talk about bad publicity! If the V.I. loses family travelers over this, we should not be surprised. Its message of attempting to minimize such horrifying instances are far worse than the poor hotel service reputation we have already earned.
Helen Gjessing
Editor's note: To read the original column click here.

A St. Croix police officer was arrested Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a civilian last month.
Officer Gary Simmonds, 28, was arrested on a Territorial Court warrant for two counts of third-degree assault and possession of a weapon during a crime of violence, according to Police Commissioner Franz Christian.
While off duty on April 24, Simmonds allegedly became involved in a confrontation with Kevin Sealey in Estate Diamond. During the argument, Simmonds allegedly pointed his service weapon at Sealey's face, then hit him several times with a metal pipe.
The incident was reportedly the culmination of a running feud between the two men.
Simmonds, a four-year veteran on the force, has been suspended without pay and released on his own recognizance pending further investigation, Christian said.
The arrest follows other incidents on St. Thomas and St. John that involved police officers. On March 28 an on-duty officer and a motorist were involved in a heated verbal exchange and an alleged physical confrontation on the St. Thomas waterfront. A subsequent investigation by the officer’s superior found no basis for an assault charge but recommended an official reprimand.
On March 18, an officer on St. John reportedly slammed a woman against a car several times after becoming involved in a dispute between her and a taxi driver over parking.
Both incidents are being investigated by the FBI.

It's 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and St. John bus driver Denise Thomas is rolling up the road with a full load just collected at the Cruz Bay dock.
It's also the morning after 62 Vitran public transit workers throughout the territory heard a discouraging word from Labor Commissioner Sonia Jacobs-Dow.
Dow had been invited to testify at Monday night's hearing before the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, which was looking into the looming layoffs of half the Vitran staff. Although she did not appear, she did send a letter to committee chair Roosevelt David saying she had just that day received a list of the names of transit workers to be processed for layoff.
Thomas, a Vitran St. John driver since public transit service began on an experimental basis on the island in 1997, is one of those scheduled for layoff come Thursday. So are all of the other St. John employees, except for island operations manager Donna Roberts.
That's because they have only two or three years on the job, while Vitran workers on St. Thomas and St. Croix have much greater seniority. The unions that represent the employees have a last-in, first-out clause on layoffs in their contracts with the Public Works Department, under which Vitran falls.
The planned workforce reduction is at the direction of the Turnbull administration as a cost-cutting measure. The 62 employees to be laid off amount to half of the Vitran staff. Along with the cuts in personnel, bus service is to be curtailed on all three islands, with some routes eliminated and hours of operation cut back. Union leaders said the remaining positions on St. John would be offered to St. Thomas employees with seniority, provided that they relocate to St. John. St. Thomas workers have indicated they do not want to move to St. John, nor do they want to displace their fellow workers there.
Public bus service, ironically, has proven to be more popular on St. John than on the larger islands, with the highest ridership in terms of average numbers of people on a bus run.
Roberts said the St. John cuts in service will most affect "senior citizens, the disabled and our poor working mothers. That is who catches the bus."
On the 10:25 Tuesday from Cruz Bay to Salt Pond, riders said they didn't want to lose a service they had come to rely on.
"This is something we need here," said Glen "Killer" Miller, traveling with his family to his home at the end of the line. "Most of the family use it, including my sister, who goes to work on the boat every day." He added, "I remember the time I couldn't even get out to Coral Bay."
Seniors Verneice Matthias and Genevieve Marsh said St. John Vitran service has made their lives easier. "Senior citizens who can't ride themselves would miss it the most," Marsh said.
Matthias said she signed up for the special senior-citizen transit fare when she came home from a visit to the U.S. mainland. Less-frequent service than what is available now, she said, would leave her trying to catch a ride from passing motorists. "It's ridiculous," she said.
The compact coaches that run the country route are even social centers of a sort — places where locals and tourists mingle on St. John in close, yet comfortable, quarters.
One of the visitors aboard the 10:25 was Chrissi Serini, who said she once lived on St. John and was back to see friends after having moved to St. Croix. When she lived on-island, she said, she used the public transit service frequently. "And now that I'm visiting, I need it," she added.
In Serini's view, "I think they could afford to cut it a little on St. Thomas and St. Croix, but they need to keep it on St. John. People can't get to work without it."

Stanley Hedrington and his partner, Jean Charlton, stood on the ramp of their commuter barge in Cruz Bay Tuesday greeting motorists.
"Welcome back," said one cheerful voice after another. The vessel, known then as the Tuglife, had ferried cars and trucks between Cruz Bay and Red Hook from last June until December. Then it literally disappeared overnight.
Now the barge is back — but with a different name, the Roanoke. With no fanfare, it resumed service over the weekend to a slow but enthusiastic reception.
"It's going," Hedrington said. "It's not as fast, considering the fact that everybody has to adjust."
Back in December, when the barge turned up missing, U.S. Coast Guard officials said the Tuglife had been repossessed by its owners in Florida because the Virgin Islands operators had fallen behind on their payments. Hedrington denied this. A few days later he left St. John on a mission to retrieve his vessel.
Now with barge again in Hedrington's possession, and what they say is a new set of investors, he and Charlton say the Tuglife is home to stay.
According to the local operators, Roanoke was the original name of the vessel. They said they restored the name last week while waiting for the Coast Guard to complete the change-of- ownership documentation.
However, Jim Ednes, a paralegal in the Coast Guard documentation office in Virginia, said the owners of the retrieved barge face possible fines of up to $10,000 a day if they change the name before the paperwork is done. "The vessel has to be currently documented," he said. "What has to be on the document has to be on the vessel."
The documentation office keeps records on the history of vessels registered by the Coast Guard, including ownership and any liens placed on a boat. There are liens against the barge, but Hendrington said he expected them to be dropped by next week.
Meanwhile, he said, the Roanoke, or the Tuglife, is operating seven days a week, with its first run departing from Red Hook at 6:15 a.m. and service every other hour until 6 p.m. The round-trip cost is $25 — the bargain rate Hedrington introduced last year, prompting his competition to lower their charges from as much as twice that amount.

The V.I. coffers got an infusion of more than half a million dollars on April 17 as the "first annual payment" of the territory's portion of the multibillion-dollar national tobacco lawsuit settlement.
The payment was actually the third that the Virgin Islands has received, but the earlier wire-transfer deposits into a government bank account, on Dec. 14 and 31 of last year, constituted "initial payments," according to a press release issued by the V.I. Justice Department Tuesday.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said he received word from the auditing firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers of the April wire transfer of $592,395.62 to a government savings account at Banco Popular.
He said the total received to date is nearly $1.4 million of "the estimated $50 million to be received by the Virgin Islands over the next 25 years." However, he added, the April payment was less than the $615,000 anticipated. The reason, he said, was that "because of reporting and computer errors by the tobacco companies," overpayments were made in December to the states and territories that were party to the lawsuit being settled. The reduced April payment reflects adjustment to compensate for the overpayment.
Stridiron said he has been told that if the settling states and territories enact "model legislation related to tobacco sales reporting" by June 15, projected reductions in their annual share of the settlement proceeds "will be minimized." The Justice Department "will present a draft of the legislation to the governor for his consideration," he said.