Oct. 30, 2001 – A call to a radio talk show Tuesday morning about something causing a big stink created a lot of inquiries but very few answers as the morning wore on.
A caller who identified himself as a Charlotte Amalie High School teacher told WVWI "Morning Mix" host June Archibald there was a "carcass" outside the school which was emitting a foul odor and disturbing the students and teachers.
Calls to government agencies revealed little.
The CAHS principal didn't return calls. Neither did the Ethlyn Joseph, director of the Health Department's Environmental Health Division. A worker at Joseph's office said the office had been notified of the situation Monday.
Angel Robles, Department of Agriculture strategic planner, said his department picks up only live animals; he suggested calling the Public Works Department, on the theory that the carcass was apparently in the street. A PWD spokesperson suggested calling Environmental Health, explaining it's "not PWD's responsibility."
Hubert Brumant, shelter manager at the Humane Society of St. Thomas, said the Environmental Health Division is in charge of picking up dead animals. The Humane Society, formerly under contract to provide some government services, has yet to receive $75,000 from the Agriculture Department which was alloted in the supplemental 2001 budget, money that could help to fund live animal pickup by the society, he said.
Meantime, Juel Anderson, Education Department public information officer, returned a call saying the matter had been taken care of. She said Archibald — who was Anderson's immediate predecessor at Education — had called her earlier, after which Anderson had called Joel Buchanan, a CAHS vice principal, who told her he was unaware of the situation.
Anderson said school maintenance personnel can't remove things from a public street but Environmental Health would take care of it. She said the first steps would be to locate the carcass and sprinkle lye on it.
Although repeated calls to Joseph went unreturned, an employee at her office said they "don't have anybody to remove it."
The type of carcass and its location remained a mystery.
