Dr. Catherine Milligan-Terrell, president of the St. Patrick’s Catholic School Alumni Association, has announced plans to honor seven alumni. These are elders whose individual and collective careers are outstanding and exemplary of the well-rounded education they received at the century-old institution. St. Patrick’s Catholic School has been an institution of higher learning in the town of Frederiksted for 136 years. St. Patrick’s School continues to celebrate more than 100 years in the territory and it has delivered high-quality education, driven by high Christian principles. The purpose of this appeal is to help make certain our outstanding Frederiksted community institution continues.The honorees will are retired Judge Alphonso A. Christian, Alma Doward, former Governor Alexander A. Farrelly, Regina Hewitt, Ethel McIntosh, Claris Mullgrav, and Veronica Ross.To help to achieve this goal, you are cordially invited to join us in the endeavor of paying tribute to these special individuals in support of our fund-raising efforts. The honorary dinner date is Friday, October 12, 2001 at 7 p.m. Please mark your calendar!
Dr. Terrell is urging the general public to respond to this appeal for financial assistance by means of tickets sales, booklet ads, donations, and long term investments in several endowments created to fund the St. Patrick’s school on a long-terms basis.

Aug. 30, 2001 – The Rules Committee meeting originally scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday has been rescheduled for 3 p.m.
On the docket are, consideration of governor's nominees for the Public Services Commission: and consideration of the animal rights bill which seeks to establish new penalties for cruelty to and neglect of animals.

Aug. 30, 2001 – The Virgin Islands is one of 14 jurisdictions to receive a supplemental federal grant to help fight HIV/AIDS. Delegate Donna Christian Christensen announced the award of $74,409 as part of the Ryan White CARE Act Amendments of 2000.
The Virgin Islands, deemed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be in severe need of funding, is required to provide a 25 percent match for the ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) assistance.
The grant is being made to the Sexually Transmitted Disease and HIV office of the V.I. Health Department. The funds are to be used to make medications and other treatment available to Virgin Islanders with HIV and AIDS.
In a release Wednesday, Christensen said, "For too long our hands have been tied by not having the financial ability to develop a sustained effort to fight HIV/AIDS in the territory."
In June, Christensen, a physician, was honored by ADAP at an educational forum for her contributions and leadership in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention, education and research.

Source staff
Aug. 30, 2001 – The Virgin Islands is one of 14 jurisdictions to receive a supplemental federal grant to help fight HIV/AIDS. Delegate Donna Christian Christensen announced the award of $74,409 as part of the Ryan White CARE Act Amendments of 2000.
The Virgin Islands, deemed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be in severe need of funding, is required to provide a 25 percent match for the ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) assistance.
The grant is being made to the Sexually Transmitted Disease and HIV office of the V.I. Health Department. The funds are to be used to make medications and other treatment available to Virgin Islanders with HIV and AIDS.
In a release Wednesday, Christensen said, "For too long our hands have been tied by not having the financial ability to develop a sustained effort to fight HIV/AIDS in the territory."
In June, Christensen, a physician, was honored by ADAP at an educational forum for her contributions and leadership in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention, education and research.

Aug. 29, 2001 — Members of both American Federation of Teachers locals in the territory overwhelmingly approved a new contract Wednesday evening.
In the St. Thomas-St. John chapter of the AFT, members voted 264-15 in favor of a new contract contract presented to them by president Glen Smith at the Charlotte Amalie High School auditorium. At the Education Complex on St. Croix, members voted 279 in favor and 37 against.
The three-year contract, retroactive to Sept. 1, 2001 through 2004, gives across-the-board increases of 8 percent the first year, 3 percent the second year and 2.5 percent the third year. After that a new contract will be negotiated.
The raises include certified and non-certified teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses and support staff for the approximately 2,300 AFT members throughout the territory.
The atmosphere on both islands was dramatically different than at last year's ratification meetings, which ended in an 18-day strike. On St. Thomas, AFT members appeared relaxed as they went into the auditorium and almost to a person, were all smiles as they greeted each other on the way out.
"This is the first time they have come to us first, before time to reopen negotiations," Patricia Hector, a 27-year remedial reading teacher at St. Thomas’ Evelyn Marcelli Elementary School said. "I'm pleased, very pleased."
Hector said the new contract doesn't do the steps diagonally, as the old contracts have. For example, she said, "I will be seeing a raise each year for three years, but I wont be moving diagonally to the next step, but that's OK; I'll get increases every year, and at the end of three years, we'll renegotiate. It's a new paradigm."
Hector said some people objected because they were still thinking in terms of step increases. And that worry will be addressed, said Tyrone Molyneaux, president of the St. Croix AFT. He said that generally, union officials were pleased with the contract, "but we have some mixed feelings . . . in the sense that we’re hoping to get back to the table with the administration and take a closer look at the salary schedule."
Smith agreed, saying it is "no longer feasible to extend the step schedule beyond 25 years. We want to shrink the pay schedule gradually. You reach a point where you max out."
Molyneaux said the increases work well for teachers who have been in the system for decades. But for those working for five or six years, the 25 to 26 steps in the salary schedule mean those people would "have to work 30 years to get a decent salary." Now he said, those teachers are on step two.
Molyneaux also said the starting salary – $25,788 – won’t do much in the way of attracting new teachers to the territory’s public schools.
"That’s not going to solve the problem of recruitment," he said.
Still, Molyneaux said, he is "looking at it positively that the government will continue talking to us about revamping the schedule, to bring more equilibrium."
Vernelle de Legard, who will replace Smith as the St. Thomas AFT president Saturday, said the vote was "very good."
"Now we can get to other issues," she said.
She said her three priorities are political awareness, professional development, and a new approach to organization.

The Antilles School annual auction will start at 6 p.m. on April 6, 2002, with a Champagn Reception at the Wyndaham Sugar Bay Hotel.
The theme will be Bella Italia. Dinner will follow at 7 p.m., then the Live Auction starts at 8.
This is the only major fund raiser and the proceeds support the school's financial aid budget.

Aug. 29, 2001 – The Humane Society of St. Thomas has just received a donation of almost two acres of land, and the timing couldn't be better, board member Richard H. Dollison told Rotary Club II Wednesday in his presentation on the animal rights bill scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Rules Committee on Thursday afternoon.
The land, pledged by an anonymous donor, is on Weymouth Rhymer Highway across from Market Square East, Dollison said.
In Nadir, where the Humane Society facilities are now located, "The V.I. government intends to take two of our buildings and about half of the land," he said. "We don't know when this will happen, but they assure us it will happen."
Government authorities say the land is needed for the flood-control project involving the infamous Nadir "bridge to nowhere," said Dollison, who is treasurer of the Humane Society.
Society members "are very excited" about relocating, and a campaign to raise funds for the new shelter will soon get under way, he said. Plans call for a facility that will accommodate three times the number of animals that the Nadir shelter can handle and that will allow the society to greatly expand its educational outreach programs.
Dollison, an attorney, spoke of the legal significance of the animal rights bill that is to go before the Senate Rules Committee at 3 p.m. Thursday on St. Thomas. Current law, he explained, makes animal abuse a misdemeanor, but it is such a weak law that it is largely ignored. To arrest someone on a misdemeanor charge, he said, an officer has to have witnessed the crime.
The new bill, sponsored by Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, makes first-degree animal cruelty a felony punishable by imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine of not less than $1,000. Second-degree animal cruelty would be a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment not exceeding one year and a fine of $500.
First-degree abuses include killing or torturing of an animal or causing a minor to do so, cropping of an animal's ears or tail by anyone other than a veterinarian, vehicular hit and run, and training dogs or other animals to fight, except for fighting cocks.
Second-degree abuses include intentional neglect. The bill would allow any person to enter property to tend to an animal who has been without food or water for more than 12 hours and not be liable for unauthorized entry.
The bill also establishes an Animal Abuse Fund in the amount of $100,000 annually that is to consist of collected fines, gifts and grants, to be administered by the Finance Department commissioner. The money is to be used solely to reimburse unpaid expenses by the animal shelters and veterinarians.
Dollison pleaded for his listeners to contact senators in support of the bill. He said passage of the measure is "one piece of the puzzle in addressing deviant, violent, anti-social behavior." He cited statistics on the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence. An important part of the shelter's job, he said, is to educate children as well as adults about caring for animals. For lack of funding, the shelter doesn't have the staff to operate as thorough an educational program as it would like to have.
Dollison said the Humane Society shelter is open every day and never refuses to take in an animal, and after hours there is a drop-off kennel. He said the shelter currently houses about 30 dogs and 25 cats. Last year, it took in just under 2,500 animals, about seven for each day of the year. About one-fourth of them were adopted.
It is the society's goal to eliminate the problem of unwanted animals, Dollison said. The society conducts a free neutering program each year in conjunction with local veterinarians.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull recently signed into law an appropriation to the V.I. Agriculture Department to contract for the services of the territory's animal care organizations. It specifies $75,000 each for the Humane Society of St. Thomas and the St. Croix Animal Shelter, and $10,000 for the Animal Care Center of St. John. Dollison said he was aware of the legislation but hadn't known the governor had signed it.
Hubert Brumant, the shelter manager, told the Source on Wednesday afternoon that he, too, was unaware the measure had been signed.
Brumant has been invited by the Rules Committee to testify at Thursday's hearing, along with Sgt. Elton Grant of the St. Thomas-St. John Police K-9 Corps, St. Thomas animal activist Rita Roth, Mary Edwards of the St. Croix Animal Shelter, V.I. National Park Supt. John H. King, and Laura Michalski of Family Resource Center on St. Thomas.

The annual Antilles School Auction will start at 6 p.m. on Apr. 6, 2002, with a Champagn Reception in the Ballroom of the Wyndham Sugar Bay Hotel,
Dinner is at 7 p.m., the Live Auction at 8 p.m.
The theme will be Bella Italia. All proceeds will support the school's financial aid budget.

The next scheduled insurance examination is from 10 a.m. until 12 noon on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs located at the Property and Procurement Building in Subbase.
The registration for the St. Thomas exam will take place at the Division of Banking and Insurance Office at Nisky Center and will end at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 25.
The registration fee is $25. Individuals reporting for testing are asked to be in the testing room by 9:45 a.m.
For more information contact Linda Scarbriel at 774-7166.

The next scheduled insurance examination is from 10 a.m. until 12 noon on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Department of Licensing & Consumer Affairs located at the Property and Procurement Building in Subbase. Registration for the St. Thomas exam will take place at the Division of Banking and Insurance Office at Nisky Center and will end at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 25.
The registration fee is $25. Individuals reporting for testing are asked to be in the testing rooms by 9:45 a.m.
For more information contact Linda Scarbriel on St. Thomas at 774-7166.