March 27, 2002 – The nation's major airlines have announced they will no longer pay travel agent commissions. Delta initiated the move on March 14, and American/TWA, America West, ATA, Continental, Northwest, United, and U.S. Airways followed suit followed suit last week.
"The airlines see Internet booking as their preferred means of distribution and are forcing flyers to book that way, whether they want to or not," Derryle Berger of Caribbean Travel said. "The fact that not everyone has the access, interest, time or willingness to put their credit card out on the net is immaterial."
The airlines' move comes as no surprise to Berger and most others in the industry, however.
Marilyn Mackay, who spent about 40 years as owner of Travel Services on St. Thomas and now lives in Long Island, New York, said she predicted in 1995, when the airlines first imposed a cap on travel agent commissions, that they wouldn't pay at all by 2000. She was off by two years.
After the 1995 cap, the airlines further squeezed travel agents until, from last August, they were paying no more than $20 on a domestic ticket, which included the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. "It's economic," Mackay said. She now predicts that travel agents will soon be like the horse and buggy — extinct.
St. Thomas hotelier Richard Doumeng, general manager of Bolongo Bay Beach Resort and Villas, disagrees. He said that there always will be people who want personal contact, and that agencies that give good service will survive.
Mary Simpson of Southerland Travel — which has been in business in Christiansted for 42 years — said her company "started planning three months ago" for the complete cutoff of airline commissions. "We had devised our survival plan and a new promotion and had scheduled a hotel conference room for a meeting of all staff on March 22," she said. That turned out to be four days after the other major airlines announced they were following Delta's lead.
Southerland "began charging fees when the first commission cut happened five years ago," Simpson said. "We knew then that we were headed for zero. We had already been developing products that we could sell that would not be cut."
Derryle Berger of Caribbean Travel on St. Thomas said she, too, had "felt for some time that this was where the airlines were headed." In her view, "Delta may have gotten the jump on the others. They seem to have already made their deals with their preferred agencies — and made the move earlier than others expected."
Phillip Shannon, owner of All Travel on St. Thomas, has doubts about whether Virgin Islands travel agencies will be able to stay in business now. He noted that several have folded over the last few years. Indeed, a perusal of the Yellow Pages in the 1999 telephone book turned up quite a few agencies not listed in the 2002 book.
Customer service fees are a given
Shannon said his agency will look at expanding more into the cruise and package market in order to survive. And it will raise its service fees, which are now $10 to $30, depending on the distance and complexity of the job. The new fee schedule isn't set yet.
Ruby Bonanno, owner of Cruises Plus in Four Winds Plaza on St. Thomas, said she saw the handwriting on the wall when she opened shop five years ago. She decided to focus on the cruise business and only books airline tickets for her regular clients.
However, Bonanno also anticipates that cruise lines eventually will stop paying commissions, which are now 10 to 20 percent, depending on the volume an agent books. She charged a service fee from the start.
Travel agents must now recognize that "they are not working for the airlines," Berger said. "They are providing a service for the traveling public and should be compensated by same. I think that the way travel agents do business will change, and not just in the service fee areas. There will possibly be more emphasis on revenue-generating sales with partners that still appreciate the sales effort of agencies, such as cruises, package tours, etc."
She added, "Obviously, living on a 32-square-mile island, one is at the mercy of the airlines, but agencies need to think about how they want to sell those products."
Doumeng said the elimination of travel agent commissions will impact most hotels' bottom lines because agents now will push air and hotel packages that are put together by wholesalers who pay agents about a 10 percent commission on the whole package. An agent who sold air and hotel separately would get only the 10 percent commission on the hotel rate.
However, Doumeng said, hoteliers are paying the wholesalers a 20 percent commission, versus 10 percent to travel agents, so it costs them more to deal with wholesalers. "The only people who will benefit are the tour operators," he said.
While travel agents do book vacationers at Virgin Islands hotels and get their 10 percent commission, Mackay sees that aspect of their business soon becoming extinct, too. "You can find even itsy-bitsy bed-and-breakfasts on the web," she said.
American Airlines and the wholesaler Travel Impressions recently offered a 35 percent discount on airfares if purchased in conjunction with a hotel stay. The same kinds of deals can be found all over the Internet, and when travelers book a package on the Internet, no travel agent gets a commission.
Internet makes an agent optional
Mackay said the first direct link between the airline and the customer came in 1981, with the introduction of frequent flyer programs. But Internet use over the last decade has dealt travel agents the death blow, she said: "It's the wave of the future, and you can't hold it back."
According to the American Society of Travel Agents web site, "roughly 23 million of the nation's households will use the web to make travel purchases this year, while an additional 22 million will use the web to research travel but buy offline."
Travel agents who don't already charge service fees now will have to do so to stay in business. Mackay doesn't foresee computer-savvy travelers paying for such services when they can book online at what may be a better price and with no service charge.
Mackay said many travel agents had become mere ticket issuers rather than travel counselors, since that was the way to make money. Advising clients on where to go and stay is not profitable, she said, adding, "It's the only business I know that the more time you spend on a client, the less money you make."
That's definitely not the way Simpson sees it. At Southerland, she said, "We have had people call here and say their friends told them not to call a travel agent, because 'they are not being paid to do it anymore.' The effects of the commission cutoffs are being misconstrued. I work for my customers; I don't work for the airlines."
She cited a recent note from a client who was planning to travel from the Virgin Islands to Boston: "I looked on the Internet, I called the airlines to find out the price of this trip, then I called my travel agent, who got it for $50 less. There are things they know, and it would be a shame to lose the professional help an agent can give you."
The writer concluded, according to Simpson, "We can complain, but the best defense is to support your local travel agent. They are the only remaining unbiased source for airline fares and information."

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March 27, 2002 – With spring comes softball, and with softball comes the sixth annual Ruby Rutnik Memorial Softball Tournament. The traditional dual contests — among girls' teams and, separately, among men's squads — will take place April 5-7 at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay on St. John.
"It's a lot of fun, and the games are very competitive," Janet Cook-Rutnik said.
Gayle Deller, who with her husband, George, directs the tournament, said the girls she expects to play in the 2002 tournament have vastly improved their skills over the last few years. "And there's a tremendous amount of sportsmanship among the girls," she said.
She expects teams from the Central High, Educational Complex and Good Hope schools on St. Croix[ and from All Saints, Antilles, Charlotte Amalie and Ivanna Eudora Kean on St. Thomas. Last year, Good Hope took home the trophy.
As the men's teams have yet to sign up, Deller said, she's not sure who will play. There are four available berths, and they'll go to the first four men's teams to sign up, she said.
The tournament will open at 3 p.m. on April 5, with girl's games at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and the first men's game at 8:30 p.m.
On April 6, the girls' play begins at 9 a.m., with the last game starting at 6 p.m. The men will play at 8:30 and 10 p.m.
On April 7, girls' games begin at noon. Since the tournament is a round-robin format, how many games are played on Sunday will depend on how the winners' list develops.
Rutnik and her husband, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik, organized the tournament six years ago in memory of their daughter Ruby, who died in 1996 at age 21 in a car crash in Washington, D.C., where she was attending college.
Ruby Rutnik was well known as a star pitcher at Antilles School. Her birthday is April 9, and the tournament is scheduled each year to coincide with that date.
The tournament is a fund raiser to support college scholarships for St. John young women. So far, scholarships totaling $22,500 have been awarded to five women: Tessa Williams, Khania Dawson, Tiffany Rogers, Kirsten Maise and Jessica Buchalter.
Rutnik said the goal now is to establish a $100,000 endowment. She said about two-thirds of that money has been raised.
Scholarship applications for the 2002-03 academic year are available at Connections. They must be submitted by May 15. The scholarships are for one year and renewable for a second.
Rutnik said the St. John Majorettes and St. John Rescue will operate the food and drink concessions at the tournament. The two groups will use the money raised through sales for their own projects.
Annual commemorative T-shirts will be sold for $15 at the games and at Connections. Sponsorships of game innings are $100.
For more information, call 776-6809 or Connections at 776-6922.

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March 27, 2002 – With spring comes softball, and with softball comes the sixth annual Ruby Rutnik Memorial Softball Tournament. The traditional dual contests — among girls' teams and, separately, among men's squads — will take place April 5-7 at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay.
"It's a lot of fun, and the games are very competitive," Janet Cook-Rutnik said.
Gayle Deller, who with her husband, George, directs the tournament, said the girls she expects to play in the 2002 tournament have vastly improved their skills over the last few years. "And there's a tremendous amount of sportsmanship among the girls," she said.
She expects teams from the Central High, Educational Complex and Good Hope schools on St. Croix[ and from All Saints, Antilles, Charlotte Amalie and Ivanna Eudora Kean on St. Thomas. Last year, Good Hope took home the trophy.
As the men's teams have yet to sign up, Deller said, she's not sure who will play. There are four available berths, and they'll go to the first four men's teams to sign up, she said.
The tournament will open at 3 p.m. on April 5, with girl's games at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and the first men's game at 8:30 p.m.
On April 6, the girls' play begins at 9 a.m., with the last game starting at 6 p.m. The men will play at 8:30 and 10 p.m.
On April 7, girls' games begin at noon. Since the tournament is a round-robin format, how many games are played on Sunday will depend on how the winners' list develops.
Rutnik and her husband, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik, organized the tournament six years ago in memory of their daughter Ruby, who died in 1996 at age 21 in a car crash in Washington, D.C., where she was attending college.
Ruby Rutnik was well known as a star pitcher at Antilles School. Her birthday is April 9, and the tournament is scheduled each year to coincide with that date.
The tournament is a fund raiser to support college scholarships for St. John young women. So far, scholarships totaling $22,500 have been awarded to five women: Tessa Williams, Khania Dawson, Tiffany Rogers, Kirsten Maise and Jessica Buchalter.
Rutnik said the goal now is to establish a $100,000 endowment. She said about two-thirds of that money has been raised.
Scholarship applications for the 2002-03 academic year are available at Connections. They must be submitted by May 15. The scholarships are for one year and renewable for a second.
Rutnik said the St. John Majorettes and St. John Rescue will operate the food and drink concessions at the tournament. The two groups will use the money raised through sales for their own projects.
Annual commemorative T-shirts will be sold for $15 at the games and at Connections. Sponsorships of game innings are $100.
For more information, call 776-6809 or Connections at 776-6922.

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March 27, 2002 – Eighteen soccer players between the ages of 10 and 13 leave for Orlando, Fla., on Thursday to compete in the Disney Spring Holiday Soccer Festival IV.
The soccer team includes mostly Under 12 players who have been coached by Robert "Trip" Dunville since January 1998, when St. Thomas Youth Soccer Association, Inc. (now Peacemakers Youth Soccer Club) traveled to Cocoa Beach, Fla., for a tournament.
The team also includes four players from the Under 14 team that is usually coached by Adalio Araujo, and three guest players: Jabari Velinor, who played with the Under 12 team until this summer when his family relocated to Houston, and Kai Schuster and Ali Van Gurp of St. Croix.
The team travels with the blessings of the Peacemakers Youth Soccer Club Board of Directors and those of the "parent" body – St. Thomas Soccer Association. Over the past few years, the Peacemakers have played in many tournaments locally and in the islands of Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Antigua and St. Maarten. However, they have not played in a highly competitive tournament of this type for some years.
The Under 12 team is talented, very athletic and highly skilled, said a release from the Peacemakers. These attributes, along with the careful direction and continuous feedback of Coach Trip have provided a winning combination for this team.
The team has to "play up" because the Under 12 age group was booked but later cancelled by the tournament organizers. The team is now entered in the Under 13 category and will benefit from the skills and experience of Peacemakers U14 players: Dimitri Maduro, JP de Jongh, Richie Bourne-Vanneck and Jamie Brown.
The team is further enhanced with the talents of Jabari Velinor, who was Peacemakers' leading striker and MVP in the 2000 Inter-Scholastic Fall Soccer League. Jabari is currently a member of the Classics Soccer Club A division.
Ali, age 11, is a Good Hope honor roll sixth-grader who has been playing soccer for six years. He currently plays for Ujjama, coached by Alex Dizon. He played in the Roosevelt Roads 2001 tournament with the St. Croix Youth Soccer Association and won the award for Highest Scorer for U12.
Kai is a 12-year-old Country Day sixth-grader who normally plays mid-defense and midfield, but his first love is playing goalkeeper. Kai has been playing soccer since he was five, and he currently plays for the Marshals.
Dunville thinks his players are ready mentally and physically for the tournament and says, "The main focus is to compete at the highest level we can compete, create new friendships with players from other teams and to showcase the level of Virgin Islands soccer." He is aware that soccer in the Virgin Islands is relatively young compared to the mainland and that those players are usually bigger in size than ours, but he still expects the team to do well. He feels that the addition of the U14 players, Jabari and the St. Croix players, to the team is all very positive.
"The St. Croix players have created friendships with my team from years of competitions. They were always rivals on the field but shared a bond because of their skills and love for the sport. They [Ali and Kai] traveled to St. Thomas on Sunday, March 24, for a practice and it was obvious that they fit in well with the other players." The coach also noted that over the years he has seen Kai and Ali play and "always wanted them to work with our team, so having them as 'guest players' to complement our team should be very rewarding."
The team captain is 12-year-old Antilles honor roll student Madison van Heurck. He is from a soccer family: his father Nicolas and mother Maria play for Antilles Strikers, men's and women's teams, and his sister Charlotte plays for Antilles School and the St. John Wolfpack. Dunville is confident in Madison's abilities as team captain and notes that "he leads by example in effort and ability."
In addition to players mentioned above, the team traveling includes Rahim Benjamin, Nolan Diehl, Christo Dimopoulos, Adam Fuller, John David McDonald, Jarell Mason, Haydn Mitchell, Malvon Percival II, Luke Perry and Kamron Rondon.
The tournament guarantees each team three games with the opportunity for more games when a team wins one of their three games. The schedule of the Peacemakers' games is:
Friday, 3/29, 8:00 a.m. against Plantation Eagles of Florida
Friday, 3/29, 3:00 p.m. against the Seahawks of New York.
Saturday, 3/30, 9:45 a.m. against CFU Phoenix of Florida.
When the Peacemakers win any of these three games, they will play again on Sunday.
The other teams participating in Under 13 category are the Centennial Warriors of New Jersey, Cosmos De Granby of Canada, Enterprise Wings of Alabama and Team 8 of Florida.
The trip is expensive, with costs of airfare, accommodation, ground transportation and food for the 18 players and several parent chaperones. Most parents, however, consider this cost as an investment in their child's athletic and academic futures. These tournaments attract college coaches looking for talented players. The serious "scouting" usually starts at the Under 14 and Under 16 age groups but the Under 13 games will be watched closely.
The costs of this trip are defrayed somewhat by the proceeds of Peacemakers' fundraisers – a bake sale at the beginning of March and a car wash at Wendy's parking lot this past Saturday. Other forms of financial assistance have come from corporate sponsors and from a Law Enforcement Planning Commission (LEPC) youth delinquency prevention grant. The uniforms and coaching equipment were purchased with funds allocated in this organization's "Youth Soccer Enhancement Program". This trip would not be possible without the collective efforts of many committed parents, Peacemakers' friends and the Board of Directors who have shared the commitment of providing opportunities to play competitive soccer.
The team leaves St. Thomas at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 28, and returns Tuesday, April 2, in the afternoon. Coaches Dunville and Araujo and several parents will accompany the team of 18 players.
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March 27, 2002 – Three out of four of the not-for-profit agencies on the front lines in helping victims of domestic violence and child abuse in the territory say they are on the brink of financial collapse. And the fourth admits to being short of funds because of government cuts.
This month, the Safety Zone on St. John and Family Resource Center on St. Thomas, have sounded public alarms about strained resources, both fiscal and human. Both say they may be forced to close their doors and that promised action by a group of concerned lawmakers may not come in time to prevent that.
Last week, the board and executive director of Family Resource Center took a hard look at whether it is feasible for the 16-year-old agency to keep its doors open, given that the V.I. government has slashed its funding while continuing to refer more clients than ever. (See St. Thomas Source story "Family Resource Center 'can't do more with less'.")
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Safety Zone says she can no longer work with half pay or no pay. And the director of the third agency, Kidscope, says reductions in aid from the V.I. government have left it short of funds needed to cover operating expenses.
The fourth agency, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, is short of funds because of government budget cuts, co-director Mary Mingus says, but vigorous fund-raising efforts by a broad base of volunteers has helped the agency create an endowment fund to help ensure its future.
Both Safety Zone and the Family Resource Center leaders say they are relying on promises by members of the 24th Legislature to push for restoration of the $150,000 funding request submitted as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 budget. At the end of the budget process last fall, funds were cut to $60,000.
In the case of Family Resource Center, government money may materialize next week, Sen. Carlton Dowe said Wednesday, and promised assistance is on the way for the other agencies.
Dowe said that he and Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole had agreed to sponsor an appropriation of $100,000 to help the various agencies out. The bill was to have been introduced during the full Senate session scheduled for April 16, he said, but when the session was postponed until late May, he called Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to see what could be done in the meantime.
According to Dowe, Mills has agreed to expedite the third- and fourth-quarter FY 2002 payments to Family Resource Center under the current allotment schedule. Dowe said that with the cooperation of the Finance Department, Mills hoped to cut a check for the agency within a week.
Meanwhile, Dowe said, with the support of six colleagues so far, he plans to introduce the supplement appropriation measure during the rescheduled full Senate session, now set for May 22-24. "I'm confident that the appropriation will happen," he said.
Human Services
A large percentage of the clients who benefit from the professional counseling, crisis intervention and referral services provided by these agencies are referred by the Human Services Department. Commissioner Sedonie Halbert said she knows the domestic violence service agencies are in trouble. And, she added, without their help, a lot of the people referred to them for help would be in even more trouble. "It means the demands on our department would be greater, which means we wouldn't be able to provide the kind of quality care they need," she said.
The local government's appropriation for these services is through the miscellaneous expenditures section of the executive budget. But Halbert said the Legislature approved the Fiscal Year 2002 budget as a line-item budget instead of giving departments their usual lump-sum amounts. Because of this, she said, she is unable to shift balances to address pressing financial needs such as those now apparent at the domestic violence agencies.
In spite of the restrictions, Halbert said, she will do all she can to ease the financial burden for the Family Resource Center and the Women's Coalition of St. Croix — which are sub-grantees of Human Services providing critical care for individuals and families in crisis.
Halbert said she could not offer a similar promise for the other agencies. "I don't even know if I can say I have monies to award for Safety Zone — but I would if I could, because the people of St. John deserve those kinds of services," she said.
Where the department cannot itself provide funding, she said, Human Services turns to its research and resource development unit, which seeks out financial aid alternatives and shares the information with entities that need help.
Halbert said that throughout her years of service, the greatest rise in the Human Services caseload has been "abused children and adolescent cases … particularly our girls. I find we are having a lot of runaway teen-age girls, many of whom are sexually abused by male relatives."
The Safety Zone
For Iris Kern, executive director at Safety Zone, the need couldn't be greater. The agency's only paid staff member, Kern said she relinquished her salary for two of the six years the agency has been in existence. Last year, she said, she was able to draw down half pay. Now, she says, "I'm not willing to do that anymore."
Kern also said she is under the gun from having to perform the multiple tasks of administrator, crisis counselor, public advocate and chief fund raiser. Juggling these various jobs proved costly recently, she said, when she found herself completing two grant applications at the same time. For one, "There was a misunderstanding over the deadline," she said.
Discovering the error, she said, she called the Law Enforcement Planning Commission, where she was told to send in the paperwork anyway, only to be told later that the funding source was holding firm to its deadline and therefore denying the application.
"We're not in trouble because of local money," Kern said. "I've got that money. It's federal money, which represents about $50,000." She added, "We have survived for the last five months without any government funding."
In 2001, she said, Safety Zone provided intervention services, crisis counseling and referrals for 243 clients on an island with a population of less than 5,000. An anonymous donor recently gave $5,000, and an emergency fund-raising concert is scheduled for April 7. But after a disappointing showing at a recent charity art auction, Kern said, she's "hopeful but not optimistic" about the results.
But if some form of help is not forthcoming, she said, the agency will be forced to close.
Kidscope
"We're hurting very badly, too," Dilsa Capdeville, founder and director of Kidscope, said. "We're struggling. We're smaller than the other places. We've lost money from all the places FRC has lost funding, that Safety Zone has lost."
Capdeville, who for years was on the staff of Family Resource Center, then known as Women's Resource Center, founded Kidscope four years ago specifically to help children who have been abused, neglected or molested and their families. She said 70 percent of Kidscope's revenues come from federal funding, and the agency is suffering because of cuts in grant funding provided through LEPC.
One of the items cut was funding that went to pay rent, Kidscope administrator Carmen O'Garro said, and this has added urgency to her search for grants and donations. Ten percent of the agency's funding has come from the V.I. government. "We've been appropriated funds, but we have not been able to get all the funds," O'Garro said.
As perilous as the situation is, Capdeville said, she is not ready to give up. She is hoping that private donations — like one recently received from the V.I. Bar Ass
ociation — will help her agency to meet the needs of young rape and child abuse victims, which she described as the fastest-growing segment of people in need of crisis intervention.
Family Resource Center
"When funding is not [provided] on a timely basis, or is cut for some unknown reason, it puts the whole center in a crisis," Maria Ferreras, Family Resource Center board chair, said.
Ferreras said she got word of the FY 2002 budget cut on Dec. 12, when she went to draw down funds to pay the salaries of seven critical-care workers. Local government funds account for about a third of their salaries. At about the same time, the St. Thomas center found itself facing an eviction notice, although Ferreras said the landlord had been very understanding. "They carried us for 16 months," she said.
Expenses of moving into a new building were met in part through a $40,000 fund-raising effort by FRC board members, but Ferreras said that wasn't enough to address all of the agency's basic needs.
After agonizing over the situation, Ferreras brought a motion to the March 21 board meeting that the center would close by April 30 unless funds were restored. She described it as one of the hardest decisions of her life. She said the thought of a child who has found refuge in one of the agency's domestic violence shelters reading in a newspaper that his or her safe place was about to be taken away left her sleepless for the two nights prior the meeting.
After that meeting received media attention, OMB's Mills said he was trying to arrange for advance quarterly payments of the budgeted allocations. But Ferreras said she is doubtful that additional action will come from the Senate in time, in spite of pledges from about half a dozen lawmakers, including Cole, Dowe, Lorraine Berry and Emmett Hansen II.
Ferreras, Kern and Capdeville said they had heard from lawmakers offering sympathy for their plight and a plan for relief.
Ferreras said that when she expressed the urgency of the situation to lawmakers and executive branch officials, she was advised that she might have to lay off some staff members. But, she said, every member of the FRC staff is essential to meeting the needs of the hundreds of people who turned to the agency for help. "We can't lay off one-third of a person," she said.

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March 27, 2002 – Three out of four of the not-for-profit agencies on the front lines in helping victims of domestic violence and child abuse in the territory say they are on the brink of financial collapse. And the fourth admits to being short of funds because of government cuts.
This month, the Safety Zone on St. John and Family Resource Center on St. Thomas, have sounded public alarms about strained resources, both fiscal and human. Both say they may be forced to close their doors and that promised action by a group of concerned lawmakers may not come in time to prevent that.
Last week, the board and executive director of Family Resource Center took a hard look at whether it is feasible for the 16-year-old agency to keep its doors open, given that the V.I. government has slashed its funding while continuing to refer more clients than ever. (See the St. Thomas Source story "Family Resource Center 'can't do more with less'.")
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Safety Zone says she can no longer work with half pay or no pay. And the director of the third agency, Kidscope, says reductions in aid from the V.I. government have left it short of funds needed to cover operating expenses.
The fourth agency, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, is short of funds because of government budget cuts, co-director Mary Mingus says, but vigorous fund-raising efforts by a broad base of volunteers has helped the agency create an endowment fund to help ensure its future.
Both Safety Zone and the Family Resource Center leaders say they are relying on promises by members of the 24th Legislature to push for restoration of the $150,000 funding request submitted as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 budget. At the end of the budget process last fall, funds were cut to $60,000.
In the case of Family Resource Center, government money may materialize next week, Sen. Carlton Dowe said Wednesday, and promised assistance is on the way for the other agencies.
Dowe said that he and Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole had agreed to sponsor an appropriation of $100,000 to help the various agencies out. The bill was to have been introduced during the full Senate session scheduled for April 16, he said, but when the session was postponed until late May, he called Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to see what could be done in the meantime.
According to Dowe, Mills has agreed to expedite the third- and fourth-quarter FY 2002 payments to Family Resource Center under the current allotment schedule. Dowe said that with the cooperation of the Finance Department, Mills hoped to cut a check for the agency within a week.
Meanwhile, Dowe said, with the support of six colleagues so far, he plans to introduce the supplement appropriation measure during the rescheduled full Senate session, now set for May 22-24. "I'm confident that the appropriation will happen," he said.
Human Services
A large percentage of the clients who benefit from the professional counseling, crisis intervention and referral services provided by these agencies are referred by the Human Services Department. Commissioner Sedonie Halbert said she knows the domestic violence service agencies are in trouble. And, she added, without their help, a lot of the people referred to them for help would be in even more trouble. "It means the demands on our department would be greater, which means we wouldn't be able to provide the kind of quality care they need," she said.
The local government's appropriation for these services is through the miscellaneous expenditures section of the executive budget. But Halbert said the Legislature approved the Fiscal Year 2002 budget as a line-item budget instead of giving departments their usual lump-sum amounts. Because of this, she said, she is unable to shift balances to address pressing financial needs such as those now apparent at the domestic violence agencies.
In spite of the restrictions, Halbert said, she will do all she can to ease the financial burden for the Family Resource Center and the Women's Coalition of St. Croix — which are sub-grantees of Human Services providing critical care for individuals and families in crisis.
Halbert said she could not offer a similar promise for the other agencies. "I don't even know if I can say I have monies to award for Safety Zone — but I would if I could, because the people of St. John deserve those kinds of services," she said.
Where the department cannot itself provide funding, she said, Human Services turns to its research and resource development unit, which seeks out financial aid alternatives and shares the information with entities that need help.
Halbert said that throughout her years of service, the greatest rise in the Human Services caseload has been "abused children and adolescent cases … particularly our girls. I find we are having a lot of runaway teen-age girls, many of whom are sexually abused by male relatives."
The Safety Zone
For Iris Kern, executive director at Safety Zone, the need couldn't be greater. The agency's only paid staff member, Kern said she relinquished her salary for two of the six years the agency has been in existence. Last year, she said, she was able to draw down half pay. Now, she says, "I'm not willing to do that anymore."
Kern also said she is under the gun from having to perform the multiple tasks of administrator, crisis counselor, public advocate and chief fund raiser. Juggling these various jobs proved costly recently, she said, when she found herself completing two grant applications at the same time. For one, "There was a misunderstanding over the deadline," she said.
Discovering the error, she said, she called the Law Enforcement Planning Commission, where she was told to send in the paperwork anyway, only to be told later that the funding source was holding firm to its deadline and therefore denying the application.
"We're not in trouble because of local money," Kern said. "I've got that money. It's federal money, which represents about $50,000." She added, "We have survived for the last five months without any government funding."
In 2001, she said, Safety Zone provided intervention services, crisis counseling and referrals for 243 clients on an island with a population of less than 5,000. An anonymous donor recently gave $5,000, and an emergency fund-raising concert is scheduled for April 7. But after a disappointing showing at a recent charity art auction, Kern said, she's "hopeful but not optimistic" about the results.
But if some form of help is not forthcoming, she said, the agency will be forced to close.
Kidscope
"We're hurting very badly, too," Dilsa Capdeville, founder and director of Kidscope, said. "We're struggling. We're smaller than the other places. We've lost money from all the places FRC has lost funding, that Safety Zone has lost."
Capdeville, who for years was on the staff of Family Resource Center, then known as Women's Resource Center, founded Kidscope four years ago specifically to help children who have been abused, neglected or molested and their families. She said 70 percent of Kidscope's revenues come from federal funding, and the agency is suffering because of cuts in grant funding provided through LEPC.
One of the items cut was funding that went to pay rent, Kidscope administrator Carmen O'Garro said, and this has added urgency to her search for grants and donations. Ten percent of the agency's funding has come from the V.I. government. "We've been appropriated funds, but we have not been able to get all the funds," O'Garro said.
As perilous as the situation is, Capdeville said, she is not ready to give up. She is hoping that private donations — like one recently received from the V.I. Bar
Association — will help her agency to meet the needs of young rape and child abuse victims, which she described as the fastest-growing segment of people in need of crisis intervention.
Family Resource Center
"When funding is not [provided] on a timely basis, or is cut for some unknown reason, it puts the whole center in a crisis," Maria Ferreras, Family Resource Center board chair, said.
Ferreras said she got word of the FY 2002 budget cut on Dec. 12, when she went to draw down funds to pay the salaries of seven critical-care workers. Local government funds account for about a third of their salaries. At about the same time, the St. Thomas center found itself facing an eviction notice, although Ferreras said the landlord had been very understanding. "They carried us for 16 months," she said.
Expenses of moving into a new building were met in part through a $40,000 fund-raising effort by FRC board members, but Ferreras said that wasn't enough to address all of the agency's basic needs.
After agonizing over the situation, Ferreras brought a motion to the March 21 board meeting that the center would close by April 30 unless funds were restored. She described it as one of the hardest decisions of her life. She said the thought of a child who has found refuge in one of the agency's domestic violence shelters reading in a newspaper that his or her safe place was about to be taken away left her sleepless for the two nights prior the meeting.
After that meeting received media attention, OMB's Mills said he was trying to arrange for advance quarterly payments of the budgeted allocations. But Ferreras said she is doubtful that additional action will come from the Senate in time, in spite of pledges from about half a dozen lawmakers, including Cole, Dowe, Lorraine Berry and Emmett Hansen II.
Ferreras, Kern and Capdeville said they had heard from lawmakers offering sympathy for their plight and a plan for relief.
Ferreras said that when she expressed the urgency of the situation to lawmakers and executive branch officials, she was advised that she might have to lay off some staff members. But, she said, every member of the FRC staff is essential to meeting the needs of the hundreds of people who turned to the agency for help. "We can't lay off one-third of a person," she said.

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March 27, 2002 – Three out of four of the not-for-profit agencies on the front lines in helping victims of domestic violence and child abuse in the territory say they are on the brink of financial collapse. And the fourth admits to being short of funds because of government cuts.
This month, the Safety Zone on St. John and Family Resource Center on St. Thomas, have sounded public alarms about strained resources, both fiscal and human. Both say they may be forced to close their doors and that promised action by a group of concerned lawmakers may not come in time to prevent that.
Last week, the board and executive director of Family Resource Center took a hard look at whether it is feasible for the 16-year-old agency to keep its doors open, given that the V.I. government has slashed its funding while continuing to refer more clients than ever. (See story "Family Resource Center 'can't do more with less'.")
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Safety Zone says she can no longer work with half pay or no pay. And the director of the third agency, Kidscope, says reductions in aid from the V.I. government have left it short of funds needed to cover operating expenses.
The fourth agency, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, is short of funds because of government budget cuts, co-director Mary Mingus says, but vigorous fund-raising efforts by a broad base of volunteers has helped the agency create an endowment fund to help ensure its future.
Both Safety Zone and the Family Resource Center leaders say they are relying on promises by members of the 24th Legislature to push for restoration of the $150,000 funding request submitted as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 budget. At the end of the budget process last fall, funds were cut to $60,000.
In the case of Family Resource Center, government money may materialize next week, Sen. Carlton Dowe said Wednesday, and promised assistance is on the way for the other agencies.
Dowe said that he and Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole had agreed to sponsor an appropriation of $100,000 to help the various agencies out. The bill was to have been introduced during the full Senate session scheduled for April 16, he said, but when the session was postponed until late May, he called Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to see what could be done in the meantime.
According to Dowe, Mills has agreed to expedite the third- and fourth-quarter FY 2002 payments to Family Resource Center under the current allotment schedule. Dowe said that with the cooperation of the Finance Department, Mills hoped to cut a check for the agency within a week.
Meanwhile, Dowe said, with the support of six colleagues so far, he plans to introduce the supplement appropriation measure during the rescheduled full Senate session, now set for May 22-24. "I'm confident that the appropriation will happen," he said.
Human Services
A large percentage of the clients who benefit from the professional counseling, crisis intervention and referral services provided by these agencies are referred by the Human Services Department. Commissioner Sedonie Halbert said she knows the domestic violence service agencies are in trouble. And, she added, without their help, a lot of the people referred to them for help would be in even more trouble. "It means the demands on our department would be greater, which means we wouldn't be able to provide the kind of quality care they need," she said.
The local government's appropriation for these services is through the miscellaneous expenditures section of the executive budget. But Halbert said the Legislature approved the Fiscal Year 2002 budget as a line-item budget instead of giving departments their usual lump-sum amounts. Because of this, she said, she is unable to shift balances to address pressing financial needs such as those now apparent at the domestic violence agencies.
In spite of the restrictions, Halbert said, she will do all she can to ease the financial burden for the Family Resource Center and the Women's Coalition of St. Croix — which are sub-grantees of Human Services providing critical care for individuals and families in crisis.
Halbert said she could not offer a similar promise for the other agencies. "I don't even know if I can say I have monies to award for Safety Zone — but I would if I could, because the people of St. John deserve those kinds of services," she said.
Where the department cannot itself provide funding, she said, Human Services turns to its research and resource development unit, which seeks out financial aid alternatives and shares the information with entities that need help.
Halbert said that throughout her years of service, the greatest rise in the Human Services caseload has been "abused children and adolescent cases … particularly our girls. I find we are having a lot of runaway teen-age girls, many of whom are sexually abused by male relatives."
The Safety Zone
For Iris Kern, executive director at Safety Zone, the need couldn't be greater. The agency's only paid staff member, Kern said she relinquished her salary for two of the six years the agency has been in existence. Last year, she said, she was able to draw down half pay. Now, she says, "I'm not willing to do that anymore."
Kern also said she is under the gun from having to perform the multiple tasks of administrator, crisis counselor, public advocate and chief fund raiser. Juggling these various jobs proved costly recently, she said, when she found herself completing two grant applications at the same time. For one, "There was a misunderstanding over the deadline," she said.
Discovering the error, she said, she called the Law Enforcement Planning Commission, where she was told to send in the paperwork anyway, only to be told later that the funding source was holding firm to its deadline and therefore denying the application.
"We're not in trouble because of local money," Kern said. "I've got that money. It's federal money, which represents about $50,000." She added, "We have survived for the last five months without any government funding."
In 2001, she said, Safety Zone provided intervention services, crisis counseling and referrals for 243 clients on an island with a population of less than 5,000. An anonymous donor recently gave $5,000, and an emergency fund-raising concert is scheduled for April 7. But after a disappointing showing at a recent charity art auction, Kern said, she's "hopeful but not optimistic" about the results.
But if some form of help is not forthcoming, she said, the agency will be forced to close.
Kidscope
"We're hurting very badly, too," Dilsa Capdeville, founder and director of Kidscope, said. "We're struggling. We're smaller than the other places. We've lost money from all the places FRC has lost funding, that Safety Zone has lost."
Capdeville, who for years was on the staff of Family Resource Center, then known as Women's Resource Center, founded Kidscope four years ago specifically to help children who have been abused, neglected or molested and their families. She said 70 percent of Kidscope's revenues come from federal funding, and the agency is suffering because of cuts in grant funding provided through LEPC.
One of the items cut was funding that went to pay rent, Kidscope administrator Carmen O'Garro said, and this has added urgency to her search for grants and donations. Ten percent of the agency's funding has come from the V.I. government. "We've been appropriated funds, but we have not been able to get all the funds," O'Garro said.
As perilous as the situation is, Capdeville said, she is not ready to give up. She is hoping that private donations — like one recently received from the V.I. Bar Association — will h
elp her agency to meet the needs of young rape and child abuse victims, which she described as the fastest-growing segment of people in need of crisis intervention.
Family Resource Center
"When funding is not [provided] on a timely basis, or is cut for some unknown reason, it puts the whole center in a crisis," Maria Ferreras, Family Resource Center board chair, said.
Ferreras said she got word of the FY 2002 budget cut on Dec. 12, when she went to draw down funds to pay the salaries of seven critical-care workers. Local government funds account for about a third of their salaries. At about the same time, the St. Thomas center found itself facing an eviction notice, although Ferreras said the landlord had been very understanding. "They carried us for 16 months," she said.
Expenses of moving into a new building were met in part through a $40,000 fund-raising effort by FRC board members, but Ferreras said that wasn't enough to address all of the agency's basic needs.
After agonizing over the situation, Ferreras brought a motion to the March 21 board meeting that the center would close by April 30 unless funds were restored. She described it as one of the hardest decisions of her life. She said the thought of a child who has found refuge in one of the agency's domestic violence shelters reading in a newspaper that his or her safe place was about to be taken away left her sleepless for the two nights prior the meeting.
After that meeting received media attention, OMB's Mills said he was trying to arrange for advance quarterly payments of the budgeted allocations. But Ferreras said she is doubtful that additional action will come from the Senate in time, in spite of pledges from about half a dozen lawmakers, including Cole, Dowe, Lorraine Berry and Emmett Hansen II.
Ferreras, Kern and Capdeville said they had heard from lawmakers offering sympathy for their plight and a plan for relief.
Ferreras said that when she expressed the urgency of the situation to lawmakers and executive branch officials, she was advised that she might have to lay off some staff members. But, she said, every member of the FRC staff is essential to meeting the needs of the hundreds of people who turned to the agency for help. "We can't lay off one-third of a person," she said.

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March 27, 2002 – Although the proposed Crown Bay development was moved to the top of the agenda for Wednesday's Port Authority board meeting, discussion on the matter was postponed because Edward E. Thomas, chief executive of The West Indian Co., didn't appear.
Thomas, according to board chair Pamela Richards, had been invited to take part in discussing Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's recent directive that the Port Authority cancel its agreement with Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean International to undertake the expansion of the Crown Bay dock and the development of an adjacent retail facility.
The governor further said he wanted VIPA and WICO, two semi-autonomous agencies that have a historically acrimonious relationship, to work together on the project.
In a release issued last week, Thomas said that "WICO has accepted the governor's position and directive and is ready to begin immediately working with the V.I. Port Authority to move forward speedily to construct the facilities in consultation with the cruise lines whose vessels will use the facilities."
However, Richards said at Wednesday's meeting that Thomas had told her he would not attend a VIPA meeting until and unless he had receive a letter stating that VIPA had canceled its agreement with the cruise lines. Richards said she would send Thomas a copy of the letter the Port Authority board had sent to the cruise lines.
On a motion by Attorney General Iver Stridiron, the board unanimously voted to write a letter to Thomas inviting him to a special board meeting on Tuesday, April 2 at 10 a.m. Stridiron said the letter should state that no postponement for any reason would be acceptable, due to the importance of the matter at hand.
VIPA's executive director, Gordon Finch, who is on vacation, came to the meeting Wednesday to be present for the board's meeting with Thomas. When the WICO president didn't appear, Finch left, saying he would be back for the Tuesday meeting.
On Wednesday afternoon, Radio One news carried a statement by Stridiron that the VIPA board would discuss with Thomas at the Tuesday meeting "what, if any, role his organization may wish to play" in the Crown Bay development project.
Stridiron added, "We have determined that VIPA has the wherewithal, the financial strength, to develop Crown Bay without another entity. But we will honor the governor's request that we met and discuss" the development with WICO officials. He added that while the Port Authority has the funds for Crown Bay, "we also have numerous other projects we want to move forward. If we had found an entity to put up $31 million (as the cruise lines had proposed to do), we would have used our own funds for these [other] projects."
Now, with the governor's directive, he said, "what will happen is we will develop Crown Bay with or without WICO, but with no guarantees the cruise lines will be calling for the next 30 years." The letter of agreement with the cruise lines involved a 30-year lease of the property for the retail development. "We would have had a contract in black and white guaranteeing they would be here for 30 years," the attorney general continued. Referring to the planned dock expansion, he added, "We didn't want to have a white elephant in Crown Bay."
Stridiron said he doesn't believe the governor's decision will negatively impact the relationship between VIPA and the cruise lines. He said he spoke with cruise executives at the annual Seatrade cruise industry convention that he, Turnbull, Thomas and other government officials attended two weeks ago in Miami.
"They accept that VIPA has always been fully in favor of the Crown Bay project, and they have expressed a desire to continue to call on St. Thomas, what they called the 'premier port in the world,'" Stridiron said.

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March 27, 2002 – Although the proposed Crown Bay development was moved to the top of the agenda for Wednesday's Port Authority board meeting, discussion on the matter was postponed because Edward E. Thomas, chief executive of The West Indian Co., didn't appear.
Thomas, according to board chair Pamela Richards, had been invited to take part in discussing Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's recent directive that the Port Authority cancel its agreement with Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean International to undertake the expansion of the Crown Bay dock and the development of an adjacent retail facility.
The governor further said he wanted VIPA and WICO, two semi-autonomous agencies that have a historically acrimonious relationship, to work together on the project.
In a release issued last week, Thomas said that "WICO has accepted the governor's position and directive and is ready to begin immediately working with the V.I. Port Authority to move forward speedily to construct the facilities in consultation with the cruise lines whose vessels will use the facilities."
However, Richards said at Wednesday's meeting that Thomas had told her he would not attend a VIPA meeting until and unless he had receive a letter stating that VIPA had canceled its agreement with the cruise lines. Richards said she would send Thomas a copy of the letter the Port Authority board had sent to the cruise lines.
On a motion by Attorney General Iver Stridiron, the board unanimously voted to write a letter to Thomas inviting him to a special board meeting on Tuesday, April 2 at 10 a.m. Stridiron said the letter should state that no postponement for any reason would be acceptable, due to the importance of the matter at hand.
VIPA's executive director, Gordon Finch, who is on vacation, came to the meeting Wednesday to be present for the board's meeting with Thomas. When the WICO president didn't appear, Finch left, saying he would be back for the Tuesday meeting.
On Wednesday afternoon, Radio One news carried a statement by Stridiron that the VIPA board would discuss with Thomas at the Tuesday meeting "what, if any, role his organization may wish to play" in the Crown Bay development project.
Stridiron added, "We have determined that VIPA has the wherewithal, the financial strength, to develop Crown Bay without another entity. But we will honor the governor's request that we met and discuss" the development with WICO officials. He added that while the Port Authority has the funds for Crown Bay, "we also have numerous other projects we want to move forward. If we had found an entity to put up $31 million (as the cruise lines had proposed to do), we would have used our own funds for these [other] projects."
Now, with the governor's directive, he said, "what will happen is we will develop Crown Bay with or without WICO, but with no guarantees the cruise lines will be calling for the next 30 years." The letter of agreement with the cruise lines involved a 30-year lease of the property for the retail development. "We would have had a contract in black and white guaranteeing they would be here for 30 years," the attorney general continued. Referring to the planned dock expansion, he added, "We didn't want to have a white elephant in Crown Bay."
Stridiron said he doesn't believe the governor's decision will negatively impact the relationship between VIPA and the cruise lines. He said he spoke with cruise executives at the annual Seatrade cruise industry convention that he, Turnbull, Thomas and other government officials attended two weeks ago in Miami.
"They accept that VIPA has always been fully in favor of the Crown Bay project, and they have expressed a desire to continue to call on St. Thomas, what they called the 'premier port in the world,'" Stridiron said.

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March 27, 2002 – Although the proposed Crown Bay development was moved to the top of the agenda for Wednesday's Port Authority board meeting, discussion on the matter was postponed because Edward E. Thomas, chief executive of The West Indian Co., didn't appear.
Thomas, according to board chair Pamela Richards, had been invited to take part in discussing Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's recent directive that the Port Authority cancel its agreement with Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean International to undertake the expansion of the Crown Bay dock and the development of an adjacent retail facility.
The governor further said he wanted VIPA and WICO, two semi-autonomous agencies that have a historically acrimonious relationship, to work together on the project. (See "Turnbull halts cruise lines-Crown Bay deal".)
In a release issued last week, Thomas said that "WICO has accepted the governor's position and directive and is ready to begin immediately working with the V.I. Port Authority to move forward speedily to construct the facilities in consultation with the cruise lines whose vessels will use the facilities."
However, Richards said at Wednesday's meeting that Thomas had told her he would not attend a VIPA meeting until and unless he had receive a letter stating that VIPA had canceled its agreement with the cruise lines. Richards said she would send Thomas a copy of the Port Authority board's letter to the cruise lines.
On a motion by Attorney General Iver Stridiron, the board unanimously voted to write a letter to Thomas inviting him to a special board meeting on Tuesday, April 2 at 10 a.m. Stridiron said the letter should state that no postponement for any reason would be acceptable, due to the importance of the matter at hand.
VIPA's executive director, Gordon Finch, who is on vacation, came to the meeting Wednesday to be present for the board's meeting with Thomas. When the WICO president didn't appear, Finch left, saying he would be back for the Tuesday meeting.
On Wednesday afternoon, Radio One news carried a statement by Stridiron that the VIPA board would discuss with Thomas at the Tuesday meeting "what, if any, role his organization may wish to play" in the Crown Bay development project.
Stridiron added, "We have determined that VIPA has the wherewithal, the financial strength, to develop Crown Bay without another entity. But we will honor the governor's request that we meet and discuss" the development with WICO officials. He added that while the Port Authority has the funds for Crown Bay, "we also have numerous other projects we want to move forward. If we had found an entity to put up $31 million (as the cruise lines had proposed to do), we would have used our own funds for these [other] projects."
Now, with the governor's directive, he said, "what will happen is we will develop Crown Bay with or without WICO, but with no guarantees the cruise lines will be calling for the next 30 years." The letter of agreement with the cruise lines involved a 30-year lease of the property for the retail development. "We would have had a contract in black and white guaranteeing they would be here for 30 years," the attorney general continued. Referring to the planned dock expansion, he added, "We didn't want to have a white elephant in Crown Bay."
Stridiron said he doesn't believe the governor's decision will negatively impact the relationship between VIPA and the cruise lines. He said he spoke with cruise executives at the annual Seatrade cruise industry convention that he, Turnbull, Thomas and other government officials attended two weeks ago in Miami.
"They accept that VIPA has always been fully in favor of the Crown Bay project, and they have expressed a desire to continue to call on St. Thomas, what they called the 'premier port in the world,'" Stridiron said.

Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.