About 150 employees of the V.I. Water and Power Authority and their families turned out Sunday for a motorcade and rally to denounce a proposed deal between the government and Southern Energy Inc. that would sell 80 percent of the utility's assets.
A 30-car caravan made its way from WAPA's Krum Bay plant to downtown and Anna's Retreat before congregating at the Fort Christian parking lot for the rally. Among those addressing the gathering were union officials, employees, political aspirants and one member of the WAPA governing board.
The motorcade and rally came in response to a stepped-up advertising campaign by Southern on radio and in local newspapers in recent weeks urging legislative support for the deal.
American Federation of Teachers president Glen Smith said the joint venture is equivalent to the biblical story of David and Goliath.
"Remember that David was victorious. It took a small boy, like the employees, to slay the giant, Southern," Smith said, as the crowd chanted, "WAPA is not for sale, we will slay the giant!"
Smith chastised the Turnbull administration for reneging on a campaign promise not to sell WAPA during its term in office.
Gerald Hodge Jr., WAPA mechanic and co-chair of the employees buyout committee, spoke at length of the work with consultants retained by the employees to analyze the joint venture.
Hodge suggested three alternatives to the proposed deal: an employee stock-ownership plan, a restructuring of WAPA as a government entity or the development of an employee cooperative. "WAPA employees don't want it sold, we want to own it," Hodge repeated in his remarks.
Central Labor Council President Luis "Tito" Morales said the fight over WAPA is far from over.
"The fight is in that green building over there," he said, referring to the Legislature building. Asking why no senators were at the rally, he suggested that "the Southern Energy money has gotten to them."
Morales said unions would campaign against any senator who votes for passage of the Southern Energy pact.
Other speakers included WAPA governing board member Claude Molloy, former senator and candidate Celestino White, legislative researcher Angie Hodge-Sheen and activist K. Leba Ola-Niyi. A similar event is being planned on St. Croix, Hodge said at the end of the rally.

Meteorologists are keeping a close eye on a westward moving tropical wave that could form a tropical depression as it moves closer to the Eastern Caribbean later this week.
On Monday, the wave located at 12 degrees north latitude and 52 west longitude contained a well-developed low pressure center but no showers and thunderstorms to further propel its development. Knight Quality Stations meteorologist Alan Archer said Monday morning, “The showers associated with this wave are lacking, probably because of an intrusion of drier air into the low pressure center."
The wave could become more significant in the next four to five days as it approaches the region.
Another westward moving tropical wave, at 52 west longitude, remains very weak. The showers associated with it are on a line from 9 to 10 degrees north latitude. The wave, about 600 miles east of the Windward Islands, could bring increasing winds from the northeast to the Virgin Islands on Tuesday.
With high pressure in control of weather across the area, look for daytime highs in the upper 80's and overnight lows in the upper 70's. "There is a 20-30 percent chance of hit and miss showers at anytime from the east through Wednesday," Archer said.
The marine forecast calls for winds from the east at 10-15 knots with seas 2 to 3 feet near shore and 3 to 5 feet in offshore waters.
Archer's forecast can be heard at 774-4786. Clicking on the rainbow at the top of the Source menu will bring up a full forecast from Weather Underground.

An Estate Tutu man is back on St. Thomas to face murder and illegal weapons possession charges in connection with a 1997 murder.
Vance A. Monsanto Jr., 23, was formally charged Saturday afternoon with first-degree murder. Bail was set at $500,000.
It is unclear when he was returned to the territory.
Monsanto was arrested last month in Bridgeport, Conn., by FBI agents working with local police. He was charged in the July 27, 1997, shooting death of Wayne Christopher following an argument near the "wreck shop" in Mariendahl.
Police said earlier that Monsanto had been on the run since local homicide detectives secured a warrant for his arrest.
After his arrest on June 29, Monsanto appeared before a state Superior Court in Connecticut for hearings on his extradition to the Virgin Islands.
Additional details of the government's case against Monsanto will likely be revealed in an advice-of-rights hearing in Territorial Court on Monday or Tuesday.

One of four tropical waves heading toward the Caribbean on Sunday could develop into a tropical depression, according to a local meteorologist.
Knight Quality Stations meteorologist Alan Archer said Sunday that the wave, about 2,000 miles east of the Virgin Islands and containing a low-pressure center, “could slowly strengthen, but it would have to retain its present characteristics as it continues moving west at 10 to 15 miles an hour. It would not be before Wednesday or Thursday that it would move into waters which would promote development."
Archer said the wave probably has not developed any significant thunderstorm activity because it remains over relatively cool waters. On Sunday, it was located at 14 north latitude, 31 west longitude.
Three other lesser waves are located along 42 west, 65 west and 78 west.
"The wave at 65 west brought a few scattered showers to portions of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands early Sunday morning," Archer said, noting that Vieques and Culebra also received some showers. The other two waves are ill-defined and are moving off to the west at 10-15 miles per hour.
With high pressure in control of the local weather regime, partly cloudy skies are expected across the region through Tuesday with daily high temperatures in the upper 80s and overnight lows in the upper 70s. "Through mid-week we run about a 30 percent chance of showers at any time from the east," Archer said.
The marine forecast calls for easterly winds at 15 knots with seas averaging 4 to 6 feet Sunday.
Archer's forecast can be heard at 774-4786. Clicking on the rainbow at the top of the Source menu will also provide a full forecast from Weather Underground.

One of four tropical waves heading toward the Caribbean on Sunday could develop into a tropical depression, according to a local meteorologist.
Knight Quality Stations meteorologist Alan Archer said Sunday that the wave, about 2,000 miles east of the Virgin Islands and containing a low-pressure center, “could slowly strengthen, but it would have to retain its present characteristics as it continues moving west at 10 to 15 miles an hour. It would not be before Wednesday or Thursday that it would move into waters which would promote development."
Archer said the wave probably has not developed any significant thunderstorm activity because it remains over relatively cool waters. On Sunday, it was located at 14 north latitude, 31 west longitude.
Three other lesser waves are located along 42 west, 65 west and 78 west.
"The wave at 65 west brought a few scattered showers to portions of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands early Sunday morning," Archer said, noting that Vieques and Culebra also received some showers. The other two waves are ill-defined and are moving off to the west at 10-15 miles per hour.
With high pressure in control of the local weather regime, partly cloudy skies are expected across the region through Tuesday with daily high temperatures in the upper 80s and overnight lows in the upper 70s. "Through mid-week we run about a 30 percent chance of showers at any time from the east," Archer said.
The marine forecast calls for easterly winds at 15 knots with seas averaging 4 to 6 feet Sunday.
Archer's forecast can be heard at 774-4786. Clicking on the rainbow at the top of the Source menu will also provide a full forecast from Weather Underground.

Twenty undocumented Chinese nationals were picked up Saturday morning in Smith Bay after apparently coming ashore at nearby Lindqvist beach.
While it is not unusual to find groups of illegal Chinese nationals dropped off at secluded St. Thomas beaches and bays, police spokesperson Sgt. Annette Raimer said this group was odd because it included eight women and the entire group was wearing what looked like "designer clothing."
Raimer also said the latest arrivals looked like college students. Their average age was 21.
The group was escorted to the Muriel C. Newton Zone C Police Command in Tutu and held in the Four Winds Plaza courtyard until U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials arrived and took them to Sub Base for processing, according to a release from the V.I. Police Department.
The release pointed out that people can report illegal activity by calling the police confidential hotline at 777-8711.

A man identified by police as Rafael Callwood died at about 4 a.m. Friday at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital of gunshot wounds received Thursday.
Callwood had been found lying face down next to a parked vehicle near the Jane E. Tuitt Elementary School in Savan around 9:30 p.m. Thursday. He had been shot in the left and right shoulders and in the back. The bullet that went into his back lodged near his stomach, according to a Police Department statement late Friday afternoon.
At the hospital, the victim was reported in guarded condition in the intensive care unit Friday afternoon after being revived at the scene. According to police, he told investigators that he never saw his assailant.
Conflicting reports Saturday morning–one saying Callwood was alive, another saying he had died early Friday morning–led police information officer Sgt. Annette Raimer to explain that the Police Department had not been notified of the man's death.
"They should have someone assigned to notify the department," she said. "When I left my office at 5 p.m. (Friday), they said he was in ICU."
Callwood, a St. Thomas native, lived in the Nordsidevej area. His death is the seventh homicide on St. Thomas and the 11th in the territory this year.
As of July 18, 1999, there had been seven homicides on St. Thomas and 13 in the territory. The numbers jumped to nine on St. Thomas and 15 territorywide by the end of July 1999.
Police asked that anyone with information about the Callwood shooting call the confidential hotline at 777-8711. Raimer stressed that all calls are confidential. Other numbers to call to give the police information are 774-2211, 774-4050 and 911.
Editor's note: Conflicting information led the Source to report Callwood died on Saturday morning. He actually died early Friday morning.

Among all the wonders below the waves, a deep-water basin off St. Croix may hold an exception stash of the greatest of them all. And researchers at a couple of the nation's top scientific laboratories might be interested in setting up shop here to study the tiny but mighty interesting particles.
According to University of the Virgin Islands professor Roy Watlington, a geological basin at the bottom of the ocean just off of St. Croix is a repository for the sub-atomic particles from outer space.
They're called neutrinos – a name familiar to kids who watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons a few years back. Those "Neutrinos" (with a capital N) were three playful, squeaky-voiced aliens from Dimension X who joined the turtles in fending off the forces of evil.
The real neutrinos "are small, uncharged particles that go ripping through the atmosphere and go ripping through the ocean," Watlington said.
These are among the fundamental particles that make up the universe, and since they are not charged electically, they do not encounter the resistance of electrons, for example. Some researchers theorize that they change their identities as they travel through time and space.
The subject of neutrinos came up in a discussion of the latest expedition of the Anegada Climatic Tracers Study, a three-and-a-half year exploration of the intermingling of waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. UVI students, faculty and staff have been involved from the start in the study, which is designed to identify characteristics of the sea at varying depths.
The latest expedition got under way in late June on board the research vessel Seward Johnson, which is working its way up from Barbados to the Virgin Islands. Watlington will be the principal researcher for the third and final phase of the trip, a two-day sampling of the waters in the Virgin Islands basin.
He said it will take weeks for researchers to analyze the measurements taken during the trip and to check for any surprising details within the data sample. But at this phase of the study, he said, scientists who are not directly involved in the study are expressing interest in some of the information being collected.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., both of which are operated for the U.S. Department of Energy, have reportedly designed a Neutrino Burst Experiment study. Watlington says the St. Croix basin is considered an ideal site in which to carry it out.
One of the characteristics of the deep water basin, he explained, is its natural ability to shelter and preserve the things that land in it.
"By putting a detector at the bottom of the Virgin Islands basin – that's at a depth of some 2.8 miles – they're able to measure the neutrinos' signal indirectly without the interference of all the other signals if they measured it without the filter of all that water," he said.
The designers of the experiment have reportedly indicated a willingness to set up a land-based research station on St. Croix which Watlington said could bring economic as well as academic benefits to the big island.
In addition, he said, scientists from Sweden and Denmark have expressed interest in the mysteries of the St. Croix basin. In fact, an increasing number of international scientists are joining the ranks of deep-ocean explorers headed this way, he said, and that could result in a wealth of educational opportunities for UVI and its students.
For an easy-to-understand introduction to neutrinos, visit this web site: /www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/neutrino.html.

Among all the wonders below the waves, a deep-water basin off the island of St. Croix may hold an exception stash of the greatest of them all. And researchers at a couple of the nation's top scientific laboratories might be interested in setting up shop here to study the tiny but mighty interesting particles.
According to University of the Virgin Islands professor Roy Watlington, a geological basin at the bottom of the ocean just off of St. Croix is a repository for the sub-atomic particles from outer space.
They're called neutrinos – a name familiar to kids who watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons a few years back. Those "Neutrinos" (with a capital N) were three playful, squeaky-voiced aliens from Dimension X who joined the turtles in fending off the forces of evil.
The real neutrinos "are small, uncharged particles that go ripping through the atmosphere and go ripping through the ocean," Watlington said.
These are among the fundamental particles that make up the universe, and since they are not charged electically, they do not encounter the resistance of electrons, for example. Some researchers theorize that they change their identities as they travel through time and space.
The subject of neutrinos came up in a discussion of the latest expedition of the Anegada Climatic Tracers Study, a three-and-a-half year exploration of the intermingling of waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. UVI students, faculty and staff have been involved from the start in the study, which is designed to identify characteristics of the sea at varying depths.
The latest expedition got under way in late June on board the research vessel Seward Johnson, which is working its way up from Barbados to the Virgin Islands. Watlington will be the principal researcher for the third and final phase of the trip, a two-day sampling of the waters in the Virgin Islands basin.
He said it will take weeks for researchers to analyze the measurements taken during the trip and to check for any surprising details within the data sample. But at this phase of the study, he said, scientists who are not directly involved in the study are expressing interest in some of the information being collected.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., both of which are operated for the U.S. Department of Energy, have reportedly designed a Neutrino Burst Experiment study. Watlington says the St. Croix basin is considered an ideal site in which to carry it out.
One of the characteristics of the deep water basin, he explained, is its natural ability to shelter and preserve the things that land in it.
"By putting a detector at the bottom of the Virgin Islands basin – that's at a depth of some 2.8 miles – they're able to measure the neutrinos' signal indirectly without the interference of all the other signals if they measured it without the filter of all that water," he said.
The designers of the experiment have reportedly indicated a willingness to set up a land-based research station on St. Croix which Watlington said could bring economic as well as academic benefits to the big island.
In addition, he said, scientists from Sweden and Denmark have expressed interest in the mysteries of the St. Croix basin. In fact, an increasing number of international scientists are joining the ranks of deep-ocean explorers headed this way, he said, and that could result in a wealth of educational opportunities for UVI and its students.
For an easy-to-understand introduction to neutrinos, visit this web site: /www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/neutrino.html.

Among all the wonders below the waves, a deep-water basin off the island of St. Croix may hold an exception stash of the greatest of them all. And researchers at a couple of the nation's top scientific laboratories might be interested in setting up shop here to study the tiny but mighty interesting particles.
According to University of the Virgin Islands professor Roy Watlington, a geological basin at the bottom of the ocean just off of St. Croix is a repository for the sub-atomic particles from outer space.
They're called neutrinos – a name familiar to kids who watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons a few years back. Those "Neutrinos" (with a capital N) were three playful, squeaky-voiced aliens from Dimension X who joined the turtles in fending off the forces of evil.
The real neutrinos "are small, uncharged particles that go ripping through the atmosphere and go ripping through the ocean," Watlington said.
These are among the fundamental particles that make up the universe, and since they are not charged electically, they do not encounter the resistance of electrons, for example. Some researchers theorize that they change their identities as they travel through time and space.
The subject of neutrinos came up in a discussion of the latest expedition of the Anegada Climatic Tracers Study, a three-and-a-half year exploration of the intermingling of waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. UVI students, faculty and staff have been involved from the start in the study, which is designed to identify characteristics of the sea at varying depths.
The latest expedition got under way in late June on board the research vessel Seward Johnson, which is working its way up from Barbados to the Virgin Islands. Watlington will be the principal researcher for the third and final phase of the trip, a two-day sampling of the waters in the Virgin Islands basin.
He said it will take weeks for researchers to analyze the measurements taken during the trip and to check for any surprising details within the data sample. But at this phase of the study, he said, scientists who are not directly involved in the study are expressing interest in some of the information being collected.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., both of which are operated for the U.S. Department of Energy, have reportedly designed a Neutrino Burst Experiment study. Watlington says the St. Croix basin is considered an ideal site in which to carry it out.
One of the characteristics of the deep water basin, he explained, is its natural ability to shelter and preserve the things that land in it.
"By putting a detector at the bottom of the Virgin Islands basin – that's at a depth of some 2.8 miles – they're able to measure the neutrinos' signal indirectly without the interference of all the other signals if they measured it without the filter of all that water," he said.
The designers of the experiment have reportedly indicated a willingness to set up a land-based research station on St. Croix which Watlington said could bring economic as well as academic benefits to the big island.
In addition, he said, scientists from Sweden and Denmark have expressed interest in the mysteries of the St. Croix basin. In fact, an increasing number of international scientists are joining the ranks of deep-ocean explorers headed this way, he said, and that could result in a wealth of educational opportunities for UVI and its students.
For an easy-to-understand introduction to neutrinos, visit this web site: /www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/neutrino.html.