July 29, 2002 – The U.S. Senate continued support for the territory's rum industry last week when it kept rum off the list of zero duty imports allowed under the Andean Trade Preference Act.
The primary goal of the 1991 act, which covers imports from Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil, is to promote export diversification as alternatives to drug-crop production in the Andean region, according to the Department of Commerce web site. The act provides beneficiary countries reduced duty or duty-free access to the U.S. market for most products except those excluded by law.
Brian Modeste, aide to Delegate Donna Christian Christensen, said that if rum had not been kept off the zero duty list, those countries could have sent large quantities of cheap rum to the U.S. "They would have been able to flood the market," Modeste said.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull said in a news release that he, with the help Christensen, lobbied to keep rum off the zero duty list. The administration's Washington lobbying firm, Winston and Strawn, also helped. However, rum has always been excluded from the act, which expired Dec. 4 and has not yet received final approval by Congress. Modeste said approval is expected this week.
The act will then have to be signed into law by President George Bush, who favors its renewal.
He told the Organization of American States in January, "Open trade and investment bring healthy, growing economies, and can serve the cause of democratic reform…. I ask the Senate to schedule a vote, as soon as it returns, on renewing and expanding the Andean Trade Preference Act," according to a White House press release.
When the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Andean Trade Preference Act last year, it also excluded rum.
The tax paid by mainlanders on rum made in St. Croix amounts to about $75 million a year for the territory.
An agreement recently worked out with the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to allow the St. Croix-based V.I. Rum Industries to produce 20 percent more rum than it previously could will generate another $13 million to $15 million a year in rum taxes.
That money will pay for improvements to the territory's wastewater treatment facilities. The improvements are expected to bring the territory into compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act for the first time since the standards were set in 1977.

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July 30, 2002 – Juan F. Luis Hospital needs $20 million more than the $20.8 million that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has asked the Senate to approve in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget, the hospital's chief executive officer, Thomas Robinson, told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
"We need the investment to be the best health-care facility we can be," Robinson said.
The hospital's chief financial officer, Nellon Bowry, had blunter comments. "Our fiscal crisis is here, and our operational crisis is just around the corner," he said. If the funding is not forthcoming, he said, "We will have to reduce the scope of our services and erode the quality of life."
The proposed Juan F. Luis budget, to come from the General Fund, is all to pay for salaries. As quasi-independent agencies, The Luis and Roy L. Schneider Hospitals are to cover their other expenses through revenues. For Schneider Hospital, including the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in St. John, Turnbull's proposed budget is $24.2 million.
At Tuesday's hearing, Robinson ticked off 134 positions on his wish-to-hire list, including 73 nurses. He said that if 25 of the kind of people he needs showed up willing to work, he couldn't hire them, because the hospital can't afford them. He also said that he needs $40,000 for basic neurological equipment and $1 million for other kinds of equipment.
Bowry, who in the preceding administration was director of the Office of Management and Budget, which controls the public purse strings, said vendors are threatening to stop providing goods and services because Luis Hospital is having difficulty paying them.
Nor is the hospital paying its doctors what they want. Physician salaries are at the level negotiated in 1992. Dr. Michael Potts, who heads the physicians' organization at the hospital, said it would take $114 million to put the hospital's 49 doctors on their appropriate payroll steps.
However, that would only bring them up to the contract negotiated in 1992. A later contract is mired in legal proceedings, and another new contract is scheduled for negotiation in October, Robinson said.
When the question of board certification came up, Potts said about 30 of the hospital's doctors are board certified. However, Medical Director Claudius Henry said that all doctors hired in the last few years were board certified.
The committee also heard from Health Commissioner Mavis Matthew, who was there with staff associates to defend the proposed budget of $27.2 million from the General Fund. The department also would get $2.8 million from the Health Revolving Fund and $23.4 million from the federal government, for a total of $53.4 million.
Matthew said Health Department doctors, too, are working at salary levels set in the early 1990s.
While questions posed to Matthew covered a wide variety of topics, several senators alluded to a controversy involving Dr. Herbert Saunders, head of Emergency Medical Services. Several senators suggested that he treats his staff improperly. "Dr. Saunders is totally out of control. We have got to get that albatross off our back," Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. said.
Saunders was not at the hearing, although Matthew said she had instructed him to be there. She said his relationship with the department is under legal review and that she would take appropriate action.
Matthew came under fire from Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Finance Committee chair, for the Health Department's dealings with an overtime situation at the Frederiksted Health Center. The department negotiated with the center workers to give them compensatory time. "Our policy is that these people are to be paid," Hansen countered.
When Rodney Miller, chief executive at Schneider Hospital, had his turn before the committee, the development of an oncology, or cancer treatment, department at the hospital was among the chief topics of discussion.
Miller said the hospital has money from the Tobacco Fund, which receives annual infusions from the national tobacco settlement, to set up the cancer center infrastructure. But he said it needs $1.7 million from another source to fund its operation. "That $1.7 million will come," Sen. Carlton Dowe promised.
Hansen said that while the extra $20 million requested by Robinson for Juan F. Luis was not possible, Miller's bid for another $1.7 million for the cancer center was in the realm of possibility.
All committee members were present — Sens. Douglas Canton Jr., Donald "Ducks" Cole, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Dowe, Hansen, Norman Jn Baptiste and Norma Pickard-Samuel. White, a non-member, also was present.

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July 30, 2002 – Juan F. Luis Hospital needs $20 million more than the $20.8 million that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has asked the Senate to approve in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget, the hospital's chief executive officer, Thomas Robinson, told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
"We need the investment to be the best health-care facility we can be," Robinson said.
The hospital's chief financial officer, Nellon Bowry, had blunter comments. "Our fiscal crisis is here, and our operational crisis is just around the corner," he said. If the funding is not forthcoming, he said, "We will have to reduce the scope of our services and erode the quality of life."
The proposed Juan F. Luis budget, to come from the General Fund, is all to pay for salaries. As quasi-independent agencies, The Luis and Roy L. Schneider Hospitals are to cover their other expenses through revenues. For Schneider Hospital, including the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in St. John, Turnbull's proposed budget is $24.2 million.
At Tuesday's hearing, Robinson ticked off 134 positions on his wish-to-hire list, including 73 nurses. He said that if 25 of the kind of people he needs showed up willing to work, he couldn't hire them, because the hospital can't afford them. He also said that he needs $40,000 for basic neurological equipment and $1 million for other kinds of equipment.
Bowry, who in the preceding administration was director of the Office of Management and Budget, which controls the public purse strings, said vendors are threatening to stop providing goods and services because Luis Hospital is having difficulty paying them.
Nor is the hospital paying its doctors what they want. Physician salaries are at the level negotiated in 1992. Dr. Michael Potts, who heads the physicians' organization at the hospital, said it would take $114 million to put the hospital's 49 doctors on their appropriate payroll steps.
However, that would only bring them up to the contract negotiated in 1992. A later contract is mired in legal proceedings, and another new contract is scheduled for negotiation in October, Robinson said.
When the question of board certification came up, Potts said about 30 of the hospital's doctors are board certified. However, Medical Director Claudius Henry said that all doctors hired in the last few years were board certified.
The committee also heard from Health Commissioner Mavis Matthew, who was there with staff associates to defend the proposed budget of $27.2 million from the General Fund. The department also would get $2.8 million from the Health Revolving Fund and $23.4 million from the federal government, for a total of $53.4 million.
Matthew said Health Department doctors, too, are working at salary levels set in the early 1990s.
While questions posed to Matthew covered a wide variety of topics, several senators alluded to a controversy involving Dr. Herbert Saunders, head of Emergency Medical Services. Several senators suggested that he treats his staff improperly. "Dr. Saunders is totally out of control. We have got to get that albatross off our back," Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. said.
Saunders was not at the hearing, although Matthew said she had instructed him to be there. She said his relationship with the department is under legal review and that she would take appropriate action.
Matthew came under fire from Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Finance Committee chair, for the Health Department's dealings with an overtime situation at the Frederiksted Health Center. The department negotiated with the center workers to give them compensatory time. "Our policy is that these people are to be paid," Hansen countered.
When Rodney Miller, chief executive at Schneider Hospital, had his turn before the committee, the development of an oncology, or cancer treatment, department at the hospital was among the chief topics of discussion.
Miller said the hospital has money from the Tobacco Fund, which receives annual infusions from the national tobacco settlement, to set up the cancer center infrastructure. But he said it needs $1.7 million from another source to fund its operation. "That $1.7 million will come," Sen. Carlton Dowe promised.
Hansen said that while the extra $20 million requested by Robinson for Juan F. Luis was not possible, Miller's bid for another $1.7 million for the cancer center was in the realm of possibility.
All committee members were present — Sens. Douglas Canton Jr., Donald "Ducks" Cole, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Dowe, Hansen, Norman Jn Baptiste and Norma Pickard-Samuel. White, a non-member, also was present.

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July 30, 2002 – Juan F. Luis Hospital needs $20 million more than the $20.8 million that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has asked the Senate to approve in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget, the hospital's chief executive officer, Thomas Robinson, told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
"We need the investment to be the best health-care facility we can be," Robinson said.
The hospital's chief financial officer, Nellon Bowry, had blunter comments. "Our fiscal crisis is here, and our operational crisis is just around the corner," he said. If the funding is not forthcoming, he said, "We will have to reduce the scope of our services and erode the quality of life."
The proposed Juan F. Luis budget, to come from the General Fund, is all to pay for salaries. As quasi-independent agencies, the Luis and Roy L. Schneider Hospitals are to cover their other expenses through revenues. For Schneider Hospital, including the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in St. John, Turnbull's proposed budget is $24.2 million.
At Tuesday's hearing, Robinson ticked off 134 positions on his wish-to-hire list, including 73 nurses. He said that if 25 of the kind of people he needs showed up willing to work, he couldn't hire them, because the hospital can't afford them. He also said that he needs $40,000 for basic neurological equipment and $1 million for other kinds of equipment.
Bowry, who in the preceding administration was director of the Office of Management and Budget, which controls the public purse strings, said vendors are threatening to stop providing goods and services because Luis Hospital is having difficulty paying them.
Nor is the hospital paying its doctors what they want. Physician salaries are at the level negotiated in 1992. Dr. Michael Potts, who heads the physicians' organization at the hospital, said it would take $114 million to put the hospital's 49 doctors on their appropriate payroll steps.
However, that would only bring them up to the contract negotiated in 1992. A later contract is mired in legal proceedings, and another new contract is scheduled for negotiation in October, Robinson said.
When the question of board certification came up, Potts said about 30 of the hospital's doctors are board certified. However, Medical Director Claudius Henry said that all doctors hired in the last few years were board certified.
The committee also heard from Health Commissioner Mavis Matthew, who was there with staff associates to defend the proposed budget of $27.2 million from the General Fund. The department also would get $2.8 million from the Health Revolving Fund and $23.4 million from the federal government, for a total of $53.4 million.
Matthew said Health Department doctors, too, are working at salary levels set in the early 1990s.
While questions posed to Matthew covered a wide variety of topics, several senators alluded to a controversy involving Dr. Herbert Saunders, head of Emergency Medical Services. Several senators suggested that he treats his staff improperly. "Dr. Saunders is totally out of control. We have got to get that albatross off our back," Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. said.
Saunders was not at the hearing, although Matthew said she had instructed him to be there. She said his relationship with the department is under legal review and that she would take appropriate action.
Matthew came under fire from Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Finance Committee chair, for the Health Department's dealings with an overtime situation at the Frederiksted Health Center. The department negotiated with the center workers to give them compensatory time. "Our policy is that these people are to be paid," Hansen countered.
When Rodney Miller, chief executive at Schneider Hospital, had his turn before the committee, the development of an oncology, or cancer treatment, department at the hospital was among the chief topics of discussion.
Miller said the hospital has money from the Tobacco Fund, which receives annual infusions from the national tobacco settlement, to set up the cancer center infrastructure. But he said it needs $1.7 million from another source to fund its operation. "That $1.7 million will come," Sen. Carlton Dowe promised.
Hansen said that while the extra $20 million requested by Robinson for Juan F. Luis was not possible, Miller's bid for another $1.7 million for the cancer center was in the realm of possibility.
All committee members were present — Sens. Douglas Canton Jr., Donald "Ducks" Cole, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Dowe, Hansen, Norman Jn Baptiste and Norma Pickard-Samuel. White, a non-member, also was present.

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July 30, 2002 – The V.I. Carnival Committee announces the arrival of the 2002 Carnival Videos which can be purchased for $25. They are available at the following outlets:
Nisky Center
Daniels Variety Store
Family Health Center (Barbel Plaza)
Modern Music at Havensight
Krystal Gifts and Galore (Tutu Park Mall).
DVDs will also be available for $25 within two weeks.
For more information call the Carnival Committee office at 776-3112.

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July 30, 2002 – Investigators have ruled that the death of a man aboard a cruise ship docked at Havensight earlier this month was accidental.
An autopsy performed last week on the body of O'Neil Persaud, 31, determined that he died an "accidental death," Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty announced Tuesday. He did not release the specific cause of death.
Officials aboard the Adventure of the Seas told police who were called to the ship on July 20 that Persaud had died after he was tranquilized while struggling with security officers aboard the Royal Caribbean International vessel.
Police detectives have completed their investigation into the death and the case has been turned over to the Attorney General's Office to determine whether any charges would be filed, Sgt. Annette Raimer, police spokeswoman, said Tuesday.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Tuesday afternoon that he had not yet seen the file on Persaud, so no decision has been made on whether the case warrants criminal charges.
Persaud, described by police as a native of Guyana who was carrying a Canadian passport, died aboard the Adventure of the Seas while the ship was in port at St. Thomas, cruise officials have said. Ernest Persaud, the man's uncle, said his nephew was a Canadian citizen and had lived in Canada since the age of 3.
Police have said he was vacationing on Sint Maarten when, for unknown reasons, he boarded the ship on July 19 with a man and woman who were on a cruise. When the ship arrived at St. Thomas the next morning, ship's security officers called police to say they had detained a stowaway.
The security officers had Persaud in a holding cell, but he became violent and they tried to restrain him, police said last week. A medical officer then tranquilized Persaud, and he died shortly thereafter, Raimer said. Police received the report of the death about noon.
"We think he was on some sort of drug already, and maybe the tranquilizer mixed with that and he died," Raimer said.
Stridiron said it took longer than usual to determine the cause and manner of death because one of the territory's medical examiners is on vacation and the other has been sick.

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July 30, 2002 — Teams from eight islands will compete in the Caribbean Dinghy Championships for youngsters and adults Saturday and Sunday at Coral Bay on St. John's east end.
Robin Clair Pitts, who with husband Fletcher Pitts was instrumental in organizing the hosting St. John Kids and the Sea (KATS) program more than a decade ago, says she has high hopes for the local sailors.
"We've been preparing our sailors for racing as a team and team racing by hosting multi-class regattas and team racing events over the last few years, as well as having our sailors travel to participate in the championships when they've been held on other islands," she said.
The not-for-profit KATS program employs continuous, sequential and developmental instruction that progresses from rowing and seamanship to sailing dinghies and keelboats. Its success in promoting youth sailing led to St. John's selection by the Caribbean Sailing Association as this year's host venue for the dinghy championships.
The CSA is a federation of sailing clubs in the Eastern Caribbean that promotes sailing activities, operating parallel to the International Sailing Federation. It has sponsored the championships since the 1980s. "Venues are selected to alternate south and north" within the region, Pitts said. Last year's event was in Barbados.
"A change this year, which we requested and was granted, is that representation is by island, not nation," Pitts said. This means, for example, that instead of sailors from St. Martin, St. Barths, Martinique and Guadeloupe having to complete as Team France, each island can send its own team. It also means that St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix can compete as entities.
"The idea is to encourage more participation," Pitts said. Nine nation teams competed last year in Barbados. For this coming weekend, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Trinidad are expected to send teams. "We had interest from Cuba, but unfortunately the Cuban team won't be able to come because of a scheduling conflict," Pitts said.
The type of dinghies sailed is determined by what the host venue has available.
Each team consists of six single-handed sailors. Caribbean Championship trophies will be awarded for Laser Standard, Laser Radial, Sunfish ages 17 and older, Sunfish ages 16 and younger, Optimist ages 12-15, and Optimist ages 11 and younger. Additional prizes will be awarded for first, second and third in each fleet.

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July 30, 2002 — Teams from eight islands will compete in the Caribbean Dinghy Championships for youngsters and adults Saturday and Sunday at Coral Bay.
Robin Clair Pitts, who with husband Fletcher Pitts was instrumental in organizing the hosting St. John Kids and the Sea (KATS) program more than a decade ago, says she has high hopes for the local sailors.
"We've been preparing our sailors for racing as a team and team racing by hosting multi-class regattas and team racing events over the last few years, as well as having our sailors travel to participate in the championships when they've been held on other islands," she said.
The not-for-profit KATS program employs continuous, sequential and developmental instruction that progresses from rowing and seamanship to sailing dinghies and keelboats. Its success in promoting youth sailing led to St. John's selection by the Caribbean Sailing Association as this year's host venue for the dinghy championships.
The CSA is a federation of sailing clubs in the Eastern Caribbean that promotes sailing activities, operating parallel to the International Sailing Federation. It has sponsored the championships since the 1980s. "Venues are selected to alternate south and north" within the region, Pitts said. Last year's event was in Barbados.
"A change this year, which we requested and was granted, is that representation is by island, not nation," Pitts said. This means, for example, that instead of sailors from St. Martin, St. Barths, Martinique and Guadeloupe having to complete as Team France, each island can send its own team. It also means that St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix can compete as entities.
"The idea is to encourage more participation," Pitts said. Nine nation teams competed last year in Barbados. For this coming weekend, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Trinidad are expected to send teams. "We had interest from Cuba, but unfortunately the Cuban team won't be able to come because of a scheduling conflict," Pitts said.
The type of dinghies sailed is determined by what the host venue has available.
Each team consists of six single-handed sailors. Caribbean Championship trophies will be awarded for Laser Standard, Laser Radial, Sunfish ages 17 and older, Sunfish ages 16 and younger, Optimist ages 12-15, and Optimist ages 11 and younger. Additional prizes will be awarded for first, second and third in each fleet.

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July 30, 2002 — Teams from eight islands will compete in the Caribbean Dinghy Championships for youngsters and adults Saturday and Sunday at Coral Bay on St. John's east end.
Robin Clair Pitts, who with husband Fletcher Pitts was instrumental in organizing the hosting St. John Kids and the Sea (KATS) program more than a decade ago, says she has high hopes for the local sailors.
"We've been preparing our sailors for racing as a team and team racing by hosting multi-class regattas and team racing events over the last few years, as well as having our sailors travel to participate in the championships when they've been held on other islands," she said.
The not-for-profit KATS program employs continuous, sequential and developmental instruction that progresses from rowing and seamanship to sailing dinghies and keelboats. Its success in promoting youth sailing led to St. John's selection by the Caribbean Sailing Association as this year's host venue for the dinghy championships.
The CSA is a federation of sailing clubs in the Eastern Caribbean that promotes sailing activities, operating parallel to the International Sailing Federation. It has sponsored the championships since the 1980s. "Venues are selected to alternate south and north" within the region, Pitts said. Last year's event was in Barbados.
"A change this year, which we requested and was granted, is that representation is by island, not nation," Pitts said. This means, for example, that instead of sailors from St. Martin, St. Barths, Martinique and Guadeloupe having to complete as Team France, each island can send its own team. It also means that St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix can compete as entities.
"The idea is to encourage more participation," Pitts said. Nine nation teams competed last year in Barbados. For this coming weekend, Antigua, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Trinidad are expected to send teams. "We had interest from Cuba, but unfortunately the Cuban team won't be able to come because of a scheduling conflict," Pitts said.
The type of dinghies sailed is determined by what the host venue has available.
Each team consists of six single-handed sailors. Caribbean Championship trophies will be awarded for Laser Standard, Laser Radial, Sunfish ages 17 and older, Sunfish ages 16 and younger, Optimist ages 12-15, and Optimist ages 11 and younger. Additional prizes will be awarded for first, second and third in each fleet.

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July 30, 2002 – The Port Authority is facing a shortfall of up to $5 million for Fiscal Year 2002 and will have to raise airport landing fees to balance its budget, its executive director, Gordon Finch, told the Senate Finance Committee on Monday.
The committee heard overviews of the FY 2003 budgets of the Port Authority and the Water and Power Authority, both semi-autonomous agencies, along with comments on the administration's proposed budget for the Office of the Governor.
Finch had warned at the June VIPA board meeting of the possible need to increase landing fees. He said at that time, "If the economy does not turn around soon, the Port Authority will have no choice but to raise some of its aviation fees in 2003." On Monday, his assessment was: "I see no possibility whereby the landing fees will not be increased."
As a result of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks on the U.S. mainland, air traffic to V.I. airports was off by 16 percent for the six-month period of October 2001 to April 2002, Finch said at the June meeting. He said the airlines were suffering huge financial losses in the immediate aftermath of the attacks — first because the federal government halted all flights for several days, and then because of fear of flying on the part of many persons.
The result: Airport revenues suffered a $5 million loss in the six-month period. Fees from marine-port operations also dropped in the reporting period — but nonetheless finished with a profit of $3.2 million, Finch said then.
"Simply put," Finch told the committee on Monday, "in FY 2002 operating expenses, VIPA-contributed capital expenses to capital improvements, and debt-service cost will exceed revenues raised by the authority by $3 million to $5 million."
He said with any attempt to remove any fees from VIPA, "it would go bankrupt to the extent I found it in 1991." He said the port charge of $4 per passenger that VIPA collects from the cruise lines "keeps the agency afloat," and any attempt to tamper with those fees would spell financial disaster.
Edward E. Thomas Sr., president of The West Indian Co., had suggested at a Senate meeting in early June that VIPA rebate a share of its port revenues to Carnival Cruise Lines to entice the company to resume calls at St. Croix. The idea left Finch aghast; in a release issued June 14, he said he was "flabbergasted" by Thomas's proposal.
"The Port Authority has waived all marine fees for ships entering St. Croix since 1999," Finch said then, "and the cruise ships still do not want to go to St. Croix. Now, Mr. Thomas is asking the Port Authority to give up ship dues, a major source of revenue for us … There is only so much we can do. We still have an agency to run."
The outlook for FY 2003 doesn't appear any more promising than FY 2002, Finch told the senators on Monday. He said he and his chief fiscal officer are analyzing the first draft of VIPA's FY 2003 budget. "A very unsettling revelation … is that the sum total of anticipated or requested expenditures exceeds the estimated projection of revenues by approximately $1 million," he said. "This unsettling condition becomes reason for extreme concern knowing that this very large expenses-over-revenues imbalance does not even include any VIPA revenues for capital projects or matching contribution for federal programs."
Finch vowed to present a balanced FY 2003 budget to the VIPA board at its Aug. 21 meeting. It said it is obvious that the Port Authority must make "huge reductions" in its expense budget and still take timely action to increase revenues. "These very tough decisions will be made within the next two weeks, because, rest assured, a balanced budget will be presented to the governing board," he said. As a semi-autonomous agency, VIPA, like WAPA, approves its own budget without Senate approval.
FY 2003 capital-improvement programs and projects will carry a price tag of $15 million to $20 million, Finch said, with VIPA funding up to half that amount and the remaining money coming from the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Improvement Program and other federal funding sources.
Among the projects are construction of the long-awaited Enighed Pond commercial dock on St. John and a new Red Hook passenger and cargo dock on St. Thomas, both of which are federally funded; expansion of the Crown Bay dock and development of an adjacent commercial facility on St. Thomas; upgrading of the air traffic control tower and fire station at Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix; and upgrading of the Gallows Bay dock on St. Croix.
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Finance Committee chair, repeatedly asked Finch for a copy of VIPA's draft FY 2003 budget. Finch held firm that he would make the budget available only in its final form, and to all senators "as is customary." He said, "I have no problem telling you or the world how VIPA makes and spends its money."
New heat on WAPA street lighting
Dominating the Water and Power Authority hearing was ongoing debate over who is to fund WAPA's new street-lighting business, and how. Also discussed, to a lesser degree, was the dilemma of what to do with the desalination barge the Legislature unceremoniously passed on to WAPA last year at the same time it transferred the territory's street lighting responsibility to the authority from the Public Works Department.
The Legislature appropriated $2.8 million to WAPA to cover start-up costs of the street lighting last year. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull vetoed the appropriation, but the Senate overrode his veto earlier this year. However, WAPA has yet to see any of the money. The authority has petitioned the Public Services Commission for permission to impose a surcharge of about $1.50 a month on residential customers' electric bills to finance the lighting. The petition is not scheduled to be heard until October.
The barge currently is moored at the Krum Bay dock, where WAPA officials have said it is uninsured and poses liability issues. The WAPA board has asked the governor to relieve the authority of ownership and has directed its legal counsel to continue efforts to have the vessel returned to the federal government, which donated it to the territory in the 1990s.
Glenn Rothgeb, WAPA acting executive director, said on Monday that the barge is about 10 percent operable, capable of producing about 30,000 gallons of potable water a day.
Hansen added new fuel to the ongoing street lighting controversy Monday. Rothgeb testified that the authority has continued to bill Public Works for street lighting maintenance, a service the utility has provided on a contract basis for years. Hansen said this is against the law, since WAPA itself and not Public Works now is responsible for the lights. "That's one discovery we've made here today — they're charging PWD for something they're not responsible for," she said.
Rothgeb said WAPA counsel Ishmael Meyers Jr. would have to research the matter.
He also said that Public Works owes WAPA $1.7 million, of which $784,000 is past due, and that most of that amount is for street lighting in the past.
'Austere measures' for Government House
In his presentation for the Office of the Governor, Alric Simmonds, Turnbull's chief of staff, said the governor's request for $7.2 million for his office in the coming fiscal year represents an increase of $287,212 or 4.2 percent over FY 2002. Simmonds said the increase covers $150,000 for the January 2003 inauguration, $100,000 for the transition after the November elections, and $37,212 for special receptions.
Simmonds stressed that "austere measures" have been put in place in the office, including a decrease in staff from 95 in 1999 to 87 currently.
According to a breakdown of current staff salaries for the office, of those 87 employees, three are "executive chauffeurs" wi
th a combined yearly salary of $144,000. On St. Thomas, Haran Penn makes $58,000 and Conrad Brathwaite makes $34,000. On St. Croix, Elroy Edwards makes $52,000.
Simmonds said the office keeps costs down by monitoring travel, controlling overtime and using cellular telephones to eliminate excess phone line charges.
Government House has been successful in obtaining federal grants, Simmonds said. These include:
– A state planning grant of $930,922 through the Bureau of Economic Research to help territories develop affordable health insurance plans. Simmonds said the grant wasn't reflected in the FY 2003 budget because the funding notice was received after the budget had been submitted.
– A $360,000 grant for economic adjustment planning.
– A $150,000 grant for primary health care.
– A $44,000 grant through the Bureau of Economic Research for economic assistance planning.
All seven committee members attended the hearing — Sens. Douglas Canton Jr., Donald "Ducks" Cole, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Carlton Dowe, Norman Jn Baptiste, Hansen and Norma Pickard-Samuel. Also attending were two non-committee members, Sens. Almando "Rocky" Liburd and Celestino A. White Sr.

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