Dec. 18, 2001 – Police Commissioner Franz Christian and newly appointed Police Chief Novelle Francis Jr. met with Tutu-area residents on Tuesday as part of an effort to improve police community relations.
Earlier this month, Christian met with residents at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, and the commissioner said Tuesday he expected such meetings to continue.
"We have a whole slew of new initiatives planned," the commissioner said. He acknowledged that relations between the police and residents needs to improve if law-enforcement officials are to meet a mandate from Gov. Charles W. Turnbull to reduce crime in the territory by 20 percent.
Francis, who replaced Jose Garcia as police chief last month, said he believes a 20 percent reduction in crime is a realistic goal, but that it will take the support of Virgin Islands residents.
"Crime is everybody's problem," Francis told about 15 residents at Joseph Gomez Elementary School. "Whenever a crime is committed, two or three or more people know what happened. We need them to help, without fear of retaliation."
Several residents and police officials at the meeting said they believe the police need to do a better job of letting people know about programs available to help reduce crime.
The police officials encouraged people to take part in Neighborhood Watch programs, to register cars in a program intended to prevent auto theft, and to take advantage of other services available through the Crime Prevention Bureau.
The area residents in turn encouraged the officers to get to know young people — especially children — on a one-to-one basis as a way of building trust between the police and civilians. They also suggested that police reach out to groups such as parent-teacher associations as a way of working together to reduce crime.
Christian said he is working to build up the numbers of officers patrolling on the streets. He said nearly 20 new police cars arrived on St. Thomas this month and more are on order. He also said he hopes recently implemented salary increases and improvements in equipment will improve morale among officers, and that he is looking at the possibility of opening more police substations as a means to reduce response times.
Police officials acknowledged a great discrepancy between the number of criminal incidents reported and the number of arrests made in those cases. The main way of solving more crimes is to increase the cooperation of the public, Christian said, and that is one of the purpose of the current series of meetings with residents.
"What we're lacking at this time is community participation," Christian said. "Crime is a societal problem, and all of us have to get involved."

Dec. 18, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands hopes to raise upwards of $30,000 in scholarship money when nationally syndicated radio talk show host Tom Joyner spotlights the school next May.
Joyner announced Tuesday on St. Thomas that he would spotlight UVI on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" in May as part of his ongoing efforts to help raise scholarship money for institutions that have been designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Each month he picks a different school to benefit from fundraising on his show, in which donations are solicited from alumni and corporate sponsorship is directed toward the institution scholarship programs.
Joyner visited St. Thomas while on a cruise with his entourage aboard the Explorer of the Seas and announced his plans to help UVI. He has been on the island about 10 times, he said, and has twice beamed live radio shows from the territory.
His talk show is carried on more than 120 stations nationwide, including WWKS-FM 101.3 (Kiss-FM) locally. The program reaches about 7 million listeners, he said.
That means UVI will get some great exposure to many people who have probably never even heard of the small university, and that can only bode well for fundraising efforts, said Gwen-Marie Moolenaar, UVI's vice president for institutional advancement.
"This is a great birthday president for UVI," Moolenaar said, noting that next year will mark the university's 40th anniversary. "For the young people of the Virgin Islands, this is a great opportunity."
The funds raised through the Tom Joyner Foundation will go toward scholarships for deserving and needy students to attend UVI. The large majority will go to local young people, but some could help students from the mainland attend UVI, Moolenaar said, as the administration recognizes the benefits of diversifying the student body.
Joyner has been a long-time supporter of historically black universities, and for good reason: four generations of his own family attended those schools.
He himself went to Tuskegee University in his hometown of Tuskegee, Ala. One of his sons graduated from Howard University while the other went to Florida A&M. His dad went to the Florida school, soo, and his mother and grandmother went to Tennessee State. One of his grandfathers went to Meharry Medical School in Tennessee and the other also went to Tuskegee.
"Historically black colleges are really a part of me," Joyner said. "For us, there's nothing else. We're going to be there for students — and parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who run out of money for college. We're going to help them out."
Moolenaar said the amount of money that raised for scholarships through Joyner's program has varied widely, as the older historically black universities have a much wider alumni base. Some of those schools have raised close to $500,000 when Joyner spotlighted them, she said, but the smaller and younger schools, such as UVI, would do well to raise $30,000 to $40,000.

Dec. 18, 2001 – The University of the Virgin Islands hopes to raise upwards of $30,000 in scholarship money when nationally syndicated radio talk show host Tom Joyner spotlights the school next May.
Joyner announced Tuesday on St. Thomas that he would spotlight UVI on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" in May as part of his ongoing efforts to help raise scholarship money for institutions that have been designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Each month he picks a different school to benefit from fundraising on his show, in which donations are solicited from alumni and corporate sponsorship is directed toward the institution scholarship programs.
Joyner visited St. Thomas while on a cruise with his entourage aboard the Explorer of the Seas and announced his plans to help UVI. He has been on the island about 10 times, he said, and has twice beamed live radio shows from the territory.
His talk show is carried on more than 120 stations nationwide, including WWKS-FM 101.3 (Kiss-FM) locally. The program reaches about 7 million listeners, he said.
That means UVI will get some great exposure to many people who have probably never even heard of the small university, and that can only bode well for fundraising efforts, said Gwen-Marie Moolenaar, UVI's vice president for institutional advancement.
"This is a great birthday president for UVI," Moolenaar said, noting that next year will mark the university's 40th anniversary. "For the young people of the Virgin Islands, this is a great opportunity."
The funds raised through the Tom Joyner Foundation will go toward scholarships for deserving and needy students to attend UVI. The large majority will go to local young people, but some could help students from the mainland attend UVI, Moolenaar said, as the administration recognizes the benefits of diversifying the student body.
Joyner has been a long-time supporter of historically black universities, and for good reason: four generations of his own family attended those schools.
He himself went to Tuskegee University in his hometown of Tuskegee, Ala. One of his sons graduated from Howard University while the other went to Florida A&M. His dad went to the Florida school, soo, and his mother and grandmother went to Tennessee State. One of his grandfathers went to Meharry Medical School in Tennessee and the other also went to Tuskegee.
"Historically black colleges are really a part of me," Joyner said. "For us, there's nothing else. We're going to be there for students — and parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who run out of money for college. We're going to help them out."
Moolenaar said the amount of money that raised for scholarships through Joyner's program has varied widely, as the older historically black universities have a much wider alumni base. Some of those schools have raised close to $500,000 when Joyner spotlighted them, she said, but the smaller and younger schools, such as UVI, would do well to raise $30,000 to $40,000.

Dec. 18, 2001 – The St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association has a plan to end some of the driving confusion tourists and many residents face: a directional signage system that's to start going up on St. Thomas next spring.
"People get lost. I get lost, especially at night," Jayne Hillner, association president, said at the group's monthly meeting Tuesday at Caneel Bay Resort on St. John.
The signs will feature green lettering on a white background with a starfish named Tommy as the recurring character. "We saw a starfish with an attitude," said Mary Gleason, who worked on the committee developing the signage program.
The signs will be put up only on St. Thomas because St. John already has its own new signage system in the works — a project of the island's Gateway Planning Committee.
Hillner envisions the design of the St. Thomas signs coming to represent hospitality in viewers' minds. "We want something that we can take to trade shows and say, 'This is us,'" she said.
Once the directional signs are up, she said, the starfish logo will be used on maps of the island. Eventually, she would like to see the logo adopted for advertising, promotion and other tourism-related uses such as hospitality training.
The concept for the signs came from a group of Ivanna Eudora Kean High School art students. Gleason said the ideas generated by the students were fine tuned by a professional artist. A hotel association fundraiser in July netted the organization $5,000 to get the sign program under way, Hillner said. Another fundraiser will be held in January — "and, hopefully, we'll get some government funding," she added.
As nearly 125 members finished their holiday luncheon at Caneel's Turtle Bay Restaurant, Hillner outlined accomplishments made by the association in the last year. Among the most satisfying, she said, was that 500 people attended "service excellence" training in May. "It's basically being nice to people," she said.
The hotel association also began surveying departing air passengers to find out how they liked their visit. "It's important to make sure we're doing our best," Hillner said.
Richard Doumeng, who resigned as president of the association on Dec. 5, urged his fellow hoteliers and allied members Tuesday to get involved. "People in this room have to be instigators of change," he said. "We live in a change-resistant town."
Among the reasons he had given for his resignation were difficulties in working with the local government.

Dec. 18, 2001 — St. Croix resident Chuck Ulrich may not look like Santa Claus to most people, but to more than two dozen New York City firefighters and their families he sure does.
Ulrich is the driving force behind the effort to bring firefighters who grappled with the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center to St. Croix for a little rest and relaxation. But if Ulrich is Santa, he now needs the help of many, many elves.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, five firefighters and their families — a total of 22 people — were the guests of Ulrich, owner of Blue Water Travel, a St. Croix-based villa-brokering firm, and a host of other island businesses and residents. During their visit, the firefighters were feted at a Jump-up Street Festival in Christiansted and were treated to boat trips to Buck Island and dinners around the island.
The idea to offer some R&R to the men came to Ulrich after he watched the events of Sept. 11 and the subsequent rescue efforts unfold on television. He took it upon himself to put together a vacation package of a donated villa and other perks for a firefighter and spouse. He told Marti Gotts of Vacation St. Croix, another villa broker, about his plans, and she got several more villas donated.
Ulrich then let the Family Crisis Center of the New York City Fire Department know about the available packages. Response was immediate, and the Thanksgiving visit was a unqualified success.
But there's more — more firefighters and their families who want to accept the invitation to come to St. Croix. Ulrich said Monday he has 25 firefighters set to visit between now and next November. With their families, that comes to some 85 people.
As was the case with the first group at Thanksgiving, airfares are proving to be the most difficult obstacle to overcome, Ulrich said. "We raised the funds to bring down the first group," he said. "Now, we need to do it again. The only expense is airfare and American Airlines came through for us with a deep discounted fare of $300 per person for the firefighters and their families."
Carl Gotts, Marti’s husband and owner of Gotts Insurance, donated the airfares for the first group of families, which even at the discounted rate, were too much for a family of five to afford. The Tourism Department is covering the airfare for the 25 firefighters themselves, but there is a need for donations for family members. And that is why Santa Ulrich is looking for the help of some elves.
"We have the villas ready to accept guests," Marti Gotts, owner of Vacation St. Croix, said. "We just need to get them here."
Anyone interested in contributing toward airfare costs can send or take donations to the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development, 202 Chandlers Wharf Building, Gallows Bay, St. Croix VI 00820. Checks should be payable to St. Croix Foundation, with "firemen's visit" wrottem on the memo line.
"With the first group down here, the family thing is what really made it," Ulrich said. "Because they have been so busy, you could see it was really nice for them to get together with their family members."
To see some photographs of firefighters visiting St. Croix in November and to learn more about the project, click on www.st-croix.net/firemen.html.

Dec. 18, 2001 — St. Croix resident Chuck Ulrich may not look like Santa Claus, but to more than two dozen New York City firefighters and their families he sure does.
Ulrich is the driving force behind the effort to bring firefighters who grappled with the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center to St. Croix for a little rest and relaxation. But if Ulrich is Santa, he now needs the help of many, many elves.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, five firefighters and their families — a total of 22 people — were guests of Ulrich, owner of Blue Water Travel, a St. Croix-based villa-brokering firm, and a host of other island businesses and residents. Among a bevy of activities, the firefighters were feted at a Jump-up Street Festival in Christiansted, boat trips to Buck Island and dinners around the island.
The idea to offer some R-and-R to the men came after Ulrich watched the events of Sept. 11 and the subsequent rescue efforts unfold on television. Ulrich decided to put together a vacation package of a donated villa and other perks for a firefighter and spouse. He told Marti Gotts of Vacation St. Croix, another villa broker, about his plans and she got several more villas donated.
Ulrich then contacted the Family Crisis Center of the New York City Fire Department and told them about the available packages. Response was immediate, and the Thanksgiving visit was a unqualified success.
But the list of firefighters who want to come to the island didn't’t end there. Ulrich said Monday that he has 25 firefighters set to visit St. Croix between now and next November. Counting family members, there will be some 85 people visiting.
As with the first group during Thanksgiving, airfares are proving to be the most difficult obstacle to over come.
"We raised the funds to bring down the first group," Ulrich said. "Now we need to do it again. The only expense is airfare and American Airlines came through for us with a deep discounted fare of $300 per person for the firefighters and their families."
Carl Gotts, Marti’s husband and owner of Gotts Insurance, donated the airfares for the first group of families, which even at the discounted rate, were too much for a family of five to afford. While the V.I. Department of Tourism is covering the airfare for the 25 firefighters coming down over the next several months, there is still a need for donations for family members. And that is were Santa Ulrich is looking for the help of some elves.
"We have the villas ready to accept guests," Marti Gotts, owner of Vacation St. Croix, said. "We just need to get them here."
Anyone interested in contributing toward airfare costs can send or take donations to the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development, 202 Chandlers Wharf Building, Gallows Bay, St. Croix VI 00820. Checks can be made payable to St. Croix Foundation and write "firemen's visit" on the memo line.
"We just found that with the first group down here, the family thing is what really made it," Ulrich said. "Because they have been so busy, you could see it was really nice for them to get together with their family members."
For more information on the effort to bring the firefighters and their familes to St. Croix, click on www.st-croix.net/firemen.html.

Dec. 17, 2001 – The Emancipation Garden Christmas Card, Inc. announces its final meeting today to plan the 25th Challenge of Carols. The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. in Emancipation Garden Tuesday, Dec. 18.
For further information call Glenn Davis at 775-6380 during normal school hours or evenings at 774-6361.

The Emancipation Garden Christmas Card, Inc. announces the final meeting to plan the 25th Challenge of Carols, to be held in Emancipation Garden.
For further information call Glenn Davis at 775-6380 during normal school hours or evenings at 774-6361.

Dec. 18, 2001 – The V.I. National Park is hosting an open house at the Visitor Center in Cruz Bay from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday to celebrate the opening of its new exhibits.
Paul Thomas, who heads the park's Interpretive Division, said that the exhibits provide information about the natural and cultural history of St. John. They include displays about the sea, the land and the people who formerly inhabited St. John — amerindians, early European settlers and Africans brought to the island as slaves. The timeline covered concludes with material on the subsistence economy that existed until the 1950s.
"It tells the whole story," Thomas said of the series of exhibits, which were designed by the National Park Service Design Center in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and built by Color Ad in Manassas, Virginia. Thomas said the project was put out to bid and that he did not know the cost.
After the open house, the exhibits will be open to public viewing during normal Visitor Center hours — 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. A park ranger always is on duty at the center to provide information and answer questions, and there is a small gift shop area with books and other park-related items.

Editor's note: This is a copy sent to the Source of another letter sent to the governor regarding the rezoning of Botany Bay.
Dear Source,
I urge you [Gov. Turnbull] to veto No. 24-0199 and to consider the recommendations given by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and by the many who testified, non-profit civic associations and professional biologists, during recent public hearings about Estate Botany Bay. The recommendation of a variance with conditions was met with some satisfaction by the parties involved , including a review by the developers. However, the Senate with a single vote decided the fate of this culturally rich and environmentally pristine area for development without adequate safeguards.
Your decision in favor of a variance with conditions is a true balance of preserving irreplaceable natural and cultural Virgin Islands resources with development.
Botany Bay contains two archeological sites which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with other important sites that are known yet to be discovered. Without a complete comprehensive archaeological study, which should include a Phase 1 up to a Phase 3 study, we might do irreversible damage to the few remnants of our ancestors.
I implore you as a historian to follow the recommendations of the State Historic Preservation Office and National Trust/Historic Preservation Southern Region Office. An Archaeological and Historic Sites Management Plan must be a prerequisite before any development is to take place. As stated to you by the National Historic Trust in a letter dated Dec. 6, 2001, "We believe that resources of this quality and scarcity demand active cultural resource management. We further believe that areas to [be] managed should be delineated with boundaries concurrent with existing National Register boundaries that define areas on or eligible for the National Register in cases of unlisted properties or areas where existing boundaries could be expanded."
I again urge you to reject the rezoning bill No. 24-0199 for a more constructive and balanced approach in this Area of Particular Concern of Botany Bay for future generations.
Jason Budsan
Board member, St. Thomas Historic Trust
St. Thomas

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.