Andrew Rutnik, Commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, told a group of entrepreneural women this week that he understood the trials of trying to get a business license in the V.I.
Rutnik addressed a capacity crowd of the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training (WNET) Roundtable at Marriott Frenchman's Reef. He spoke on compliance issues related to doing business in the Virgin Islands.
Many of the women in attendance have either recently begun their own business or are about to begin the licensing process. Rutnik shared tips to make licensing easier.
"I know how time consuming getting a business license can be," Rutnik said, recounting his own experience as an entrepreneur. He said he is streamlining his office to make the licensing application process easier and friendlier. "Our vision is to do a better job. We will soon be able to give better service, accept credit cards and to validate checks immediately. This will cut down on a lot of the time consuming steps now required."
The first step, the most significant change for his office, said Rutnik, is the new web page, www.usvi.org/dcla, scheduled to be online soon.
He said applicants will be able to download applications, thereby eliminating the trip to the Sub Base office to pick up an application, the first step in the licensing process.
The Women's Network is a national program sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
It was recently launched in the Virgin Islands in conjunction with New Image Foundation Corporation, a program preparing women to enter the competitive work force. The program focuses on image, personal power, self-confidence and projecting a professional image.
Cynthia Jerry, executive director of New Image Foundation and host for the WNET Roundtable, said, "We are pleased to have the WNET program in the Virgin Islands. Carl Christensen, project director for SBA, and I have worked for over a year and a half to put the program in place."
She also announced the Virgin Islands Women's Business Center mid-year conference will be held at at Divi Casino on St. Croix April 13 through 15.
The conference is a partnership between the U.S. Small Business Administration and the St. Croix Foundation, a group committed to improving the quality of life on St. Croix and in the Virgin Islands. "The SBA administration in Washington, D.C. has been very supportive and helped enormously. We are also grateful for the business women in our community who have embraced the program, " Jerry said.
WNET meets the third Wednesday of each month, alternating evenings and luncheons. For information on WNET or the St. Croix conference call Cynthia Jerry, executive director, New Image Foundation, at 777-8883.

The St. Thomas Office of Veterans Affairs has relocated from the Nisky Shopping Center to #2C Estate Contant.
Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Until the telephone lines are transferred to the new location, persons desiring service should call the office on St. Croix at 773-6663.

The Emmanuel Baptist Church located in Annas Retreat invites the public to its 27th Anniversary Service at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 26.
Special services will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, March 27-31.
For further information call 775-7365.

The V.I. Traditional Mocko Jumbies will host their first annual Wal-A-Thon that starts at 7 a.m. on Saturday, March 25, beginning at Emancipation Gardens and ending at Brewer's Bay.
Pledge sheets are available for friends, family and non-members of the troupe.

Ten girls will vie for the title of Little Miss Delta at 3 p.m on Sunday, April 2, at the Marriot Frenchman's Reef.
The St. Thomas Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority presents "The Spirit of Africa."
For more information contact Ms. Neille at 775-6393, or any member of the sorority.

Friday’s classes at St. Croix’s Central High School were called off Thursday after a student attacked a staff member.
According to a Department of Education release, a student who was suspended from school early Thursday returned to the campus with a friend and physically attacked a staff member in the registrar’s office. The name and age of the student, who was later caught by police, was not released. The accomplice was still at large Thursday evening.
The unidentified staff member was taken to Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital for observation. Although classes have been cancelled, faculty and staff are required to show up for according to their regular schedule, the release said.

With the grand public opening of the Divi Carina Bay Resort and Casino set for Friday night, local officials have already met to discuss a problem gaming task force.
On Wednesday, V.I. Casino Control Commission members; Susan Maven, vice chair of the New Jersey Casino Commission; Dr. Olaf Hendricks, chief psychiatrist at the Juan F. Luis Hospital; Chainie Lang. administrator of VI Partners in Recovery; Jaslene Williams, assistant director of the Division of Mental Health and Terry Hogan, human resources director at the Divi Carina Bay Resort met in a round table talked about ways to design and implementing a plan for responsible gaming.
The group explored ways the casino industry, the local casino commission and health agencies can prevent problem gambling from becoming a threat to the well-being of St. Croix. According to Shawna Richards, executive director of the CCC, the Commission is in the process of forming a task force to develop a plan.
The Casino and Resort Control Act of 1995 requires casinos to visibly display signs and posters listing the Gamblers Hotline and safe betting tips. According to Hogan, the Divi has posters that show the national hotline number. Hogan said she expects that as the dealers acquire more experience, they will be able to recognize signs of problem gaming.
The panelists agreed that cultural attitudes and acceptance of some addictive behaviors will play a significant role in creating an effective plan for responsible gaming.
"The message we want to send is that it’s not bad to gamble," Lang said. "The community just needs to know their limitations."
The Casino Control Commission intends to work closely with the casino industry to ensure responsible gaming, but acknowledges that addressing problem gaming reaches beyond the commission’s jurisdiction.
"Somebody needs to insist that the Lottery and the horsemen have a plan," said CCC Chairwoman Eileen Petersen. "Until other agencies join us, we will be screaming for help."
The round table discussion was organized and moderated by CCC commissioner Lloyd McAlpin.

St. Croix’s Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, a key nesting area for endangered leatherback sea turtles, will soon see $500,000 from environmental crime penalties.
The $500,000 was presented Thursday to Whitney Tilt of the National Wildlife Foundation, a Congressionally mandated organization –- not affiliated with the private National Wildlife Federation -– that administers money derived from civil penalties and court-ordered restitution.
The half-million dollars came from a $18 million penalty paid by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for environmental crimes committed in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, New York, Alaska, California and Florida. Locally, the cruise line dumped hazardous materials into the sea while docked in Frederiksted and falsified oil discharge reports while in St. Thomas, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Nissman.
For the local crimes, Royal Caribbean was penalized $1.5 million in the District Court of the Virgin Islands. A third of that penalty will be used for land acquisition at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sandy Point Refuge and to help fund the National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, said Mike Evans, manager of the refuge.
The Sandy Point refuge, established in 1984, plays a major role in ensuring the survival of endangered leatherback sea turtles, Evans said. Over the last 50 years worldwide leatherback populations have plummeted because of lost nesting habitat, drowning in fishing nets and over-hunting.
"What that says to us is that we have to be very careful in what we’re managing," Evans said. "This nesting population (at Sandy Point) is one of two on the planet that has a stable nesting habitat.
"The payoff is that the turtles are increasing," he said.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will use the penalty proceeds to expand the 380-acre Sandy Point refuge. Negotiations for land purchases are expected to be finalized over the next several months, Evans said.
"Land acquisition will be the primary thing," he said. "Frankly, if we don’t acquire this habitat the wildlife will lose it."
Helping preserve endangered species was just one positive byproduct of prosecuting the Royal Caribbean case, Nissman said.
"Our job as prosecutors is attack…," he said. "What’s really wonderful . . . is, this is one of those rare times we can help the community in a particular way.
"It’s fitting that the money from an environmental case . . . will go back to protecting the natural resources here."
Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to discharging "gray water" that contained toxic heavy-metal silver from the ship Song of America’s photo lab and perchlorosthylene from its dry cleaner every time it was docked in Frederiksted in the summer and fall of 1994, according to the federal government.
The cruise line also admitted that in March 1997 in St. Thomas, crew members submitted a false oil record book to the Coast Guard for the Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship. Similar practices were conducted onboard the ship from approximately Nov. 20, 1996, through March 1997.
As part of the plea agreement, Royal Caribbean will be on probation for five years and will continue to report quarterly on its environmental compliance plan, approved by a federal judge in the Southern District. That district is one of six, including the V.I., Alaska, the Southern District of New York, Puerto Rico and the Central District of California, where Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to 21 environmental offenses totaling $18 million. The company paid an additional $9 million in 1998 for other violations.

The National Park Service staff on St. Croix has a new addition, Beulah Dalmida-Smith, the former commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources in the Schneider administration.
Joel Tutein, superintendent of the Park Service’s Christiansted National Historic Site, which includes Buck Island Reef National Monument and Salt River National Park, said Thursday that an increased workload prompted him to bring Dalmida-Smith on board as special assistant for external affairs.
Dalmida-Smith, who began work last Monday, will initially focus her efforts on Salt River and coral reef issues.
On paper, the Salt River park is co-managed by the Park Service and the local government. But since the park’s inception during President Bush’s administration the V.I. government has moved slowly, especially in appointing its members to a co-management board.
"My target at this point is trying to get that commission going and land acquisition out there," Dalmida-Smith said.
Through an executive order in 1998 President Clinton launched the Coral Reef Initiative, aimed at ensuring the survival of coral reef throughout the nation. The Park Service has 10 coral reef parks, three of them in the Virgin Islands and two of the three in St. Croix, Tutein said.
"We’ve got a third of the coral reef parks," Tutein said. "The Coral Reef Initiative has really increased the workload."
And after a decade without budget increases Tutein has managed to secure more funding – from $500,000 a year to almost $1.2 million – for the St. Croix Park Service unit. That effort, however, has forced Tutein to be on the road regularly, pulling his attention away from day-to-day operations on St. Croix. Hence the hiring of Dalmida-Smith.
"He’s always after securing funding," she said. "We have a very good support in Washington and (Park Service regional headquarters) Atlanta."
Through her time at the helm of DPNR between 1995 and 1998, Dalmida-Smith said she established a long list of contacts in the world of natural resource management. That networking and experience will serve her and the Park Service well, she said.
"I’m not new. That position required constant networking with federal agencies," she said. "Really and truly it put my name out there."
After graduating from the University of the Virgin Islands with a degree in marine biology and Yale with a masters in conservation biology in 1993, Dalmida-Smith spent a year at the V.I. National Park on St. John as a environmental education specialist. She then was appointed to lead DPNR.

"If you violate, you will vacate."
"One strike and you're out."
The V.I. Housing Authority has strong slogans to describe the policy of evicting tenants involved in criminal activity. Now the agency is trying to ensure that it isn't easier said than done.
This week VIHA announced the arrest of Haneef Abiff in connection with the recovery of a semi-automatic Glock weapon and said his family can face eviction.
His is one of numerous cases in which VIHA is seeking to enforce a national policy aimed at weeding the criminal element out of federally funded public housing.
"We're looking at the most serious cases," said VIHA executive director Conrad Francois. That means ones involving drugs, guns and/or violent crime.
Chief Fitzroy Williams, head of the 3-year-old Housing Authority Police, said VIHA has crime-related eviction proceedings pending against 45 people on St. Croix and 15 on St. Thomas.
In the past year, VIHA officers have found three unregistered firearms in St. Thomas public housing and six on St. Croix, Williams said. They included a shotgun, an Uzie and the Glock as well as smaller caliber guns.
As for drugs, Williams said, "every week there's something."
"Something" ranges from the 321 marijuana plants recently found growing just outside the Bovoni Housing Community to the relatively small amount of drugs left behind when an officer's approach scatters a group of people. The contraband is "occasionally crack cocaine" or more often marijuana.
"We very seldom find it 'in possession of'" Williams said, so usually the drugs are disposed of rather than held for evidence. "Generally we've used the incinerator at the hospital to get rid of them."
In cases where an individual is identified, VIHA can evict him as well as the leaseholder of the unit in which he resides. If the individual is not a resident but a visitor, his host may be evicted.
It is not necessary to wait for a conviction, either.
However, Francois said, a St. Croix judge recently granted a continuance to three people VIHA was evicting. The public defender argued that they had not received a grievance hearing, the normal proceeding for any type of eviction.
Francois said VIHA will hold the hearings "while we apply to HUD" (U.S. Housing and Urban Development ) for a waiver of the grievance proceeding in cases involving the safety of residents and/or authority staff.
"This is not an easy thing to implement," Francois noted. "We're going to look at this thing on a case-by-case basis." But it is important for residents to understand that criminal activity by a guest or a family member "triggers an automatic review for eviction," he said.