National Hurricane Center Watching for Possible Cyclonic Development
Territorial Rebuild to Health Care System Update Heard at Recent Senate Hearing
Lawmakers were recently presented with details of a long-awaited plan to rebuild the Virgin Islands hospital system. Former Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls testified last week before the 35th Legislature Committee on Appropriations, Budget and Finance.
Work has already begun on the Charlotte Kimmelman Cancer Center. The head of the team overseeing a massive redevelopment project said he expects that project to wrap up soon.
Smalls is currently leading the effort as executive director of the Territorial Hospital Redevelopment Team. “The cancer center is moving forward. Right now we’re slated for completion on October 1,” he said.
Established in 2020, the redevelopment team was established to ensure that reconstruction of four major public healthcare facilities is done according to carefully developed plans.
Committee Chair Donna Frett-Gregory asked what the redevelopment center has learned so far. Working on the cancer center is also giving the team a chance to test the plan they spent months putting together, Smalls said.
The director told lawmakers that work to rebuild Schneider Hospital is expected to begin by the summer of 2025.
Committee members also asked how work on Schneider Hospital will proceed, given that Juan F. Luis Hospital and its operations were moved into a temporary site and the St. Thomas hospital has not.
“We don’t have the opportunity here, in this district, for a temporary space because of the total rebuild, right?” Frett-Gregory asked.
That’s when Smalls explained how careful planning led to a workable game plan. “We made a conscientious decision at that time … our temporary facility is actually the hospital,” he said.
That projection was based on prior experience as operations director at the St. Thomas hospital — a position Smalls left to lead Public Works and returned to after his job as commissioner was done.
Now, as the redevelopment director, he appeared at budget hearings held July 24 as the committee reviewed the spending request from the Schneider Regional Medical Center.
Two-point-three billion dollars has been earmarked for the job done at St. Thomas’ Roy L. Schneider Hospital and the nearby Charlotte Kimmelman Cancer Center; also at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix and the Myrah Keating Smith Clinic on St. John.
ISV Girls and Boys Start U19 CAZOVA Championships With Wins
Virtue of the Week – Cheerfulness
Virtue of the Week – Cheerfulness
Virtue of the Week focuses on building peaceful and caring communities through understanding and fostering the practice of virtues. The Source supports the Virtues Project and will publish one virtue developed by the project each week.
Cheerfulness
Cheerfulness is seeing the bright side of looking for the good in whatever happens. It is maintaining a positive attitude of optimism and confidence. When we give cheerfully we are wholeheartedly helpful. Even when life is challenging, we make the best of it. We trust that all will be well. We nurture happiness. A cheerful smile can light up everyone’s day.
Quote: “Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity.” -Joseph Addison
The Practice of Cheerfulness
I keep a positive outlook.
I look for ways to be helpful.
I give wholeheartedly.
I am optimistic amidst the currents of life.
I feel confident and happy.
I trust in the goodness of life.
Questions for Discussion
- What helps me stay positive when working on social justice issues?
- When life is challenging, how do I make the best of it?
- How do I help lift up the spirits of others who may have suffered injustice?
- What do we need in order to be cheerful about the future we are co-constructing?
About the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands Since 1990, CFVI has been a catalyst for positive change in the territory through initiatives committed to youth, learning, family support and the environment. With a professional staff and a volunteer Board of Directors composed of community leaders, CFVI is a trusted advocate and supporter of programs that ensure opportunity and sustainability for current and future generations. CFVI is a registered non-profit organization entirely supported by individual donors, grants, trusts, corporate donations and estate planning. For more information, visit www.cfvi.net.
About Virtues Matter Virtues Matter was started by a passionate wife-husband team of social entrepreneurs seeking to positively uplift as many lives as possible. We aim to inspire and empower, to build capacity, strengthen relationships, and help everyone lead lives of passion and purpose.
Virtues Matter believes in a world where people are committed to kindness and respect, strive to be their best, and live with hope, courage and in unity. We built the Virtues Cards mobile app, an interactive personal and team development tool, to help people identify and develop key virtue skills. We also offer dynamic workshops, online training, and customized programs to help people cultivate these positive qualities of character. To learn more, visit virtuesmatter.com.
To learn more about the Virtues Project, visit www.virtuesproject.com. Barbados Girls and Jamaica Boys Get First Win at CAZOVA Championships
Beach Advisory for July 22-26
- Frank Bay on St. John
- Cruz Bay on St. John
- Water Bay on St. Thomas.
Millicent A. Williams Percival Dies
Weekly Weather Forecast with Jesse Daley
Check out our weekly weather forecast with Jesse Daley, covering Sunday, July 28, through Saturday, Aug. 3. Our YouTube playlist is updated every week, AND check out Jesse’s daily weather updates here.
Charlemagnes Seek to Sever Case from that of Co-Defendant
A St. Croix couple accused in a $4 million scheme to defraud taxpayers through a contract to store wood for the territory’s hurricane recovery have asked the court to have their case heard separately from that of their co-defendant.
Davidson Charlemagne, 50, and his wife, Sasha Charlemagne, 44, each filed motions in V.I. District Court on Thursday, seeking to sever their case from that of Darin Richardson, 56, the former chief operating officer of the V.I. Housing Finance Authority.
The trio was arrested last month after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Davidson Charlemagne with government program fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy, his wife with money laundering conspiracy, and Richardson of St. Thomas with criminal conflict of interest and making materially false statements.
According to court documents, the charges stem from a two-year FBI investigation into a VIHFA contract for the storage and management of wood that was shipped to the territory to be used for the reconstruction of commercial and residential buildings following hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
Davidson Charlemagne, head of maintenance for the V.I. Education Department, secured the contract for his private company in a bid process overseen by Richardson, according to court documents. Initially awarded in January 2021 for $2.9 million over a three-year period, the contract was increased to $4.4 million in October that year — a sum the government alleges was grossly inflated.
According to court documents, VIHFA paid Charlemagne’s trucking company a total of $3.6 million in federal funds, of which $3,177,000 was credited to bank accounts owned and controlled by him and his wife. Just over a year after the contract was awarded, Davidson allegedly received a payment of $107,000 from a person identified as “Individual One” in the indictment.
Meanwhile, the woodpiles on St. Croix and St. Thomas remained almost entirely unused and stacked on pallets outdoors and exposed to the elements for more than three years. Moreover, the St. Croix woodpile was stored rent-free at Henderson Elementary School — meaning the government was paying millions to store its own property on its own land — the Justice Department alleges.
In Thursday’s filings, the Charlemagnes allege their case should be separate from Richardson’s because none of their charges overlap, they are not alleged to have aided and abetted one another, and there is no conspiracy charged or alleged.
“Darin Richardson’s charges are not materially related with the charges against Davidson (or Sasha) Charlemagne. Richardson’s name does not even appear in the counts of the Indictment against the Charlemagnes, and the Charlemagnes’ names do not appear in the charges against Richardson,” according to Davidson Charlemagne’s motion to sever, which is essentially identical to his wife’s.
“In essence, the United States charges that Davidson Charlemagne committed some crimes by himself, and one with his wife, Sasha, and it separately charges that Richardson committed some offenses on his own. The indictment does not allege that Richardson and the Charlemagnes committed the same act (or crimes) and it does not allege that they participated in the same series of transactions constituting an offense,” the motion states.
Instead, the government seeks to use an unindicted third party (Individual One) as a link to join Richardson and Charlemagne, it says. However, the mere “presence of one overlapping member does not make two separate [crimes] part of the same series of acts or transactions.”
Further, the indictment does not allege that Charlemagne knew about or participated in the offenses lodged against Richardson, it says.
“There is no allegation that Individual One paid $107,000 on behalf of Davidson (or Sasha) Charlemagne, or that the Charlemagnes knew about or authorized the payment. The United States charged Charlemagne and Richardson together merely because it alleges a connection between Individual One and Charlemagne and Individual One and Richardson,” according to the motion.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Emile A. Henderson III had not ruled on the request as of Saturday, but earlier in the week granted a motion to extend the deadline to file motions in the case to Nov. 27 after Sasha Charlemagne said she had received a “document dump” of 48,000 pages from the government as part of the discovery process. Her attorney, Pamela Lynn Colon, estimated the review alone will take 240 hours, or six weeks, and that is at a pace of 200 pages an hour that she deemed “an extremely fast and perhaps unrealistic rate.”
The case had been scheduled to go to trial on Aug. 5, but that has been continued to a date following Dec. 1 that will be set by further order of the court, Henderson ruled.
Photo Focus: Golden Hook Hosts Annual Fishing Tournament for Kids
Ever since the Golden Hook Fishing Club has been in existence – around 30 years – they have hosted a kid’s fishing tournament on the Christiansted waterfront with prizes, lunch, and educational materials. The event is co-sponsored by the St. Croix Environmental Association.
On Saturday, around 30 youths gathered, hurried to the water with spools and fishing line and cast their lines. At the end of the day, more than a dozen fish were caught and released. The largest fish was a 10-ounce Nassau Grouper.
The competition began at 9 a.m. and ended promptly at 11 a.m. Along with Sergeant Majors, groupers, snappers, and grunts, a two-and-a-half ounce crab and a bristle worm were landed. The unusual sea creatures created a learning experience for the fishers and onlookers. At the end, a group picture was taken and prizes were given to participants.
