In a courtroom decorated in bright blue and white bows and overflowing with judges, lawyers, other legal system personnel, family, friends and at least a quorum of senators, attorney Rhys S. Hodge was sworn in Friday as a judge of the Territorial Court.
Hodge, the first naturalized citizen to sit on the bench in the territory, credited the late Judge Almeric L. Christian, for whom he clerked in the late '70s, as his role model, saying, "I have learned more from him than any other man."
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, Judge Ishmael A. Meyers, Senate President Vargrave Richards and former Lt. Gov. Derek Hodge spoke at the ceremony, offering advice "now that you're on the other side of the bench" and many kinds words.
Derek Hodge, noting Rhys Hodge's Anguilla birthplace, said he had to tell a story. "Anguilla used to be a simple island," the former lieutenant governor said, with "none of the big hotels like now." He said Rhys as a boy "was given a bike, and he traded it in for a donkey!" Rhys' thinking, he said, was that on the donkey, as the animal knew its way, he could read while he rode.
Presiding Judge Maria M. Cabret administered the swearing-in oath with assistance by the new judge's wife, Jean, who presented him with his gown, and his son Jerome, who handed him his gavel. As Hodge is the father of four young children, Richards suggested he might like to take the gavel home with him. The other three children, Regine, Joseph and Larise Joasil, sat in the front row of the courtroom.
Hodge moved from Anguilla to St. Thomas in the '60s and attended the then-College of the Virgin Islands. He went on to get his bachelor's degree from Kansas State University, then returned to St. Thomas, where he managed the Besabe Bakery and managed to marry co-worker Jean Dalmida. They moved to New Jersey where Hodge got his law degree at Rutgers in 1977. He returned to St. Thomas, began clerking for Judge Christian and went into private practice in 1979.
He will assume his judicial duties immediately. Territorial Court on St. Thomas has been functioning in recent weeks with only three judges, Meyers, Brenda Hollar and Ive A. Swan, with two vacancies on the bench. Hodge's nomination was approved by the Senate in March. Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey Thomas-Francis, approved by the Senate last week, is expected to be sworn in soon to fill the other vacancy.
Hodge is a past president of the V.I. Bar Association and a member of the National Bar Association. He has long been active in community affairs, serving for many years on the boards of the local councils of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America and of the Montessori School on St. Thomas.

Airport moved on and WAPA went home as the two teams battled for their playoff lives Friday evening in the Government and Industrial Coed Slowpitch Softball League’s Farrington division first round action.
Airport cleared their way to the second round by defeating the Water and Power Authority 4-3.
Airport pitcher Dale Rhymer took a ball off his hand in the top of the first inning that split his fingernail and delayed the game for several minutes as he got first-aid. WAPA scored two unearned runs to take an early lead. Rhymer settled down in keeping WAPA scoreless for the next four innings.
Airport quickly answered, as center fielder Kenneth Smith homered off the left field light pole in the bottom of the first inning to tie the score at two. WAPA pitcher Anson Larcheveaux also kept his opponents scoreless but for the next five innings.
WAPA scored another unearned run in the top of the sixth inning to take the lead 3-2. Aaron Shelford doubled and then scored on an error by Airport’s Laura Isaac.
In the seventh inning, Airport rallied when Ashton "Minus" Frett singled to lead off the inning. Isaac then walked with one out. The next batter, Parker Drew, grounded out to second for the second out of the inning. Clemille Gibbs then singled Frett in to tie the ball game at three.
Remembering his home run in the first inning, Larcheveaux intentionally walked Smith to load the bases. The next hitter, Terry Browne, drilled a 2-1 pitch just out of the reach of first baseman Akima Samuel to drive in Isaac and end the game.
Airport won the series 2-1 and advanced to round-two, where they will face Innovative Communication Corp. on Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Of their next opponent, Airport, the defending champs, believe they can beat ICC. "We had them 5-1 and let them get away," said Airport’s Smith.

The Blue Jays and the Padres battled into extra innings before the Jays squeaked by with a 5-4 victory Friday afternoon in St. Thomas Pee Wee League action at the Emile Griffith Ballpark.
The Blue Jays took the early lead by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Shaquille Petersen hit a two-run home run into the right-center field gap to put his team ahead. Anthony Pippen and Wayne Bastian continued the hitting barrage with back-to-back singles. Pippen scored the third run of the inning when Alexander Joseph singled. The Blue Jays added another run in the top of the second inning.
The Padres kept the Blue Jays within scoring sight, singling in runs in each of the first three innings to close the margin to one, 4-3. They tied the score at four in the fifth inning thanks to a triple of the bat of Leo Sibilly III that drove home Jarred Mason, who got on with a single. Sibilly was out at home on the next play, a line drive that the Blue Jays second baseman caught. The second baseman then threw the ball home and Sibilly was tagged out.
The Blue Jays were held scoreless in the third, fourth and fifth innings. However, as the game when into extra innings they mounted an attack. Petersen singled to lead off the inning. He was later forced out at third base for the second out of the inning. With the bases loaded Tyler Rice singled Bastian home to give the Blue Jays a slim one run lead, 5-4.
Rice then used his glove to do the rest. He first caught a pop-up in the infield to retire the Padres lead off hitter, Olanyan Garnett. Rice then gloved a ground ball off the bat of Kyle Richardson to record the second out of the inning. Teammate Nick Schmidt then went to his knees to catch a line drive to end the game.

The Sholine 50-Plus Hurricanes will be sponsoring the Forty-and-over Baseball League again this year. The league will be named the Joseph "Joemeat" Sprauve Men’s Senior Baseball League. The tentative starting date will be July 15, 2000. The league will conclude in September.
Because of the many individuals who did not get the opportunity to play last year the league is expected to add one or two new teams this year. Thus it has been recommended that anyone who will be making forty before the end of the year, and are sincere in wanting to play baseball, to sign up for the 2000 draft.
Anyone interested in playing for, or managing one of these teams is urged to attend the final meeting to be held on Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. at Emile Griffith Ballpark.
For more information contact Antonio Acevedo, league coordinator at 776-4327 daytime and 775-6435 in the evenings.

Following through on its threat to take over the primary role of enforcing federal solid waste laws in the territory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding hearings next week to decide the issue.
Tuesday on St. Thomas and Wednesday on St. Croix, the EPA will hold public hearings to discuss its preliminary decision to disapprove the territory’s landfill program and assume a greater role in enforcing federal solid waste laws in the islands.
According to an EPA statement, the agency is making the move because the V.I. government has not adopted the necessary solid-waste regulations or allocated enough funding and staff to deal with solid waste issues. After EPA officials considered the comments of those testifying at the two hearings, they will decide whether formally to disapprove the territory’s program and assume a greater role in enforcing landfill regulations.
The action reflects statements made by its V.I. coordinator, Jim Casey, at a Senate committee meeting in February. Casey told members of the Planning and Environmental Protection Committee that after years of the local government failing to manage solid-waste facilities according to agreements with the federal government, the EPA was set to declare the V.I. landfill program unsatisfactory. The preliminary decision was made May 8.
The problems are not new. In 1993, the V.I. government applied to the EPA for approval of a solid-waste program. According to the EPA, the territory was advised that to receive full approval, the Virgin Islands would have to have regulations comparable to or stricter than federal guidelines in place by May 1996. Additionally, EPA called for the local government to commit staff and financial resources to operate the territory’s two main landfills in accordance with federal standards.
Seven years later, the Planning and Natural Resources Department has yet to submit an acceptable proposal.
Meanwhile, because of threats to human health and the environment, the EPA in April ordered the cleanup of the Bovoni landfill on St. Thomas. The order, issued with the consent of the local government, was one step short of the agency taking unilateral action to force compliance.
The St. Thomas hearing will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Curriculum Center in Anna's Retreat. The St. Croix session Wednesday will begin at 7 p.m. at the St. Croix Curriculum Center.

Following through on its threat to take over the primary role of enforcing federal solid waste laws in the territory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding hearings next week to decide the issue.
On June 27 on St. Thomas and June 28 on St. Croix, the EPA will hold public hearings to discuss its preliminary decision to disapprove the territory’s landfill program and assume a greater role in enforcing federal solid waste laws in the islands.
According to an EPA statement, the agency is taking the approach because the V.I. government has not adopted necessary solid waste regulations or allocated enough funding and staff to deal with solid waste issues. Once the hearings have been held and EPA officials have considered comments from the public, a decision will be made on whether to formally disapprove the territory’s program and assume a greater role in enforcing landfill regulations.
EPA’s move echoes statements made by its V.I. coordinator, Jim Casey, at a Senate committee meeting in February. Casey told members of the Planning and Environmental Protection Committee that after years of failing to manage solid-waste facilities according to agreements with the federal government, the EPA was set to declare the V.I. government’s landfill program unsatisfactory. The preliminary decision was made May 8.
The problems, however, are not new. In 1993, the V.I. government applied to the EPA for approval of a solid waste program. According to the EPA, the territory was advised that to receive full approval, regulations comparable to or stricter than federal guidelines would have to be in place by May 1996. Additionally, EPA called for the local government to commit staff and financial resources to operate the territory’s two main landfills in accordance with federal standards.
Seven years later, the V.I. Planning and Natural Resources Department has yet to submit an acceptable plan.
Meanwhile, because of the threat to human health and the environment, the EPA in April ordered the cleanup of the Bovoni landfill on St. Thomas. While the order was issued with the consent of the local government, the action was one step short of the agency taking unilateral action to force compliance.
The first hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Curriculum Center in Tutu on St. Thomas. Wednesday's hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the Curriculum Center on St. Croix.

The suspect wanted by police in connection with the April 10 drive-by shooting death of Ellis Blyden Jr. near the Hometown Convenience Store in Anna's Retreat has been arrested on Tortola by British Virgin Islands police on unrelated charges.
Apprehended on drug and weapons possession charges, Jermaine Hall, 23, must face court proceedings in Tortola before being returned to the U.S. Virgin Islands to face murder and weapons charges in connection with the April killing.
If Hall is convicted of the BVI charges, it is unclear whether he will be returned to St. Thomas to face the murder counts before serving the sentence for the BVI offenses. V.I. Justice Department officials have not said whether they will seek his immediate return to the territory to face charges that could bring life imprisonment.
BVI authorities were unavailable for comment on the circumstances that led to Hall's arrest several days ago.
Territorial Court Judge Ishmael Meyers recently signed a warrant for Hall's arrest in connection with the drive-by shooting that fatally wounded Blyden. Meantime, police major crime detectives are pursuing other suspects in the case.
Hall's arrest is the third by St. Thomas police in homicide cases this year. Since January there have been five murders on St. Thomas and two on St. Croix.

The westbound lanes of Veterans Drive/Moravian Highway between the rear of the Sub Base Pueblo supermarket and the Nisky intersection will be closed Saturday and Sunday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. while work proceeds on installing the duct bank that will carry electrical lines underground between the Water and Power Authority plant in Krum Bay and the Roy L. Schneider Hospital.
Westbound traffic on the highway is being detoured during those hours from the One Stop through Sub Base and cross-traffic patterns are also being modified. WAPA asks that drivers proceed with caution in the area and follow signs and the directions of flag personnel.
Meantime, WAPA also announced a water interruption Saturday in the Hospital Ground and Bergs Home area between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Service is being taken down so that workers can connect two water lines as part of a Hospital Ground water rehabilitation project.

Construction on the stalled $18-million runway extension at St. Croix’s Henry E. Rohlsen Airport will resume on July 5, according to the V.I. Port Authority.
The project will start again after a delay of over three months. It was halted after drifting dust affected the health of nearby residents of Yellow Cedar.
Many of the same residents are scheduled to be relocated at the expense of the Port Authority.
"We had hoped to resume the runway extension project by the end of this month, but we wanted to give the residents in the Yellow Cedar community, who live adjacent to the runway, more time to temporarily locate," said Port Authority Director Gordon Finch in a release.
He said no further delays were anticipated and that the project contractor, V.I. Cement and Building Products Inc., will be ready on July 5.
Finch said the Port Authority will, for 90 days, pay to temporarily relocate 40 families that are close to where heavy earthwork will be done.
Relocating the residents permanently was always a part of the Port Authority’s overall plan for the runway project because the day-night sound level produced by increased air traffic would exceed federal standards. In total, there are 31 properties that must be purchased by the Port Authority, 25 of which have dwellings that house 65 families.
The Port Authority’s buyout plan has two phases, the first being two appraisals for each property. The appraisals have been completed and the Port Authority is in the process of negotiating with property owners and residents in an effort to permanently relocate them.
Ninety percent of the buyout – and a large portion of the expansion construction –will be paid for using federal discretionary funds. Port Authority officials had worried that the delay would affect funding for the project.
The $18-million project is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2002. The current phase, the first, is expected to be completed in November, Finch said.

The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to sell the Christiansted Post Office building for $1.2 million is being opposed by Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen.
Two years ago the Postal Service announced it was leaving the historic, 250-year-old Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building in order to find a larger downtown location. The National Park Service, the owner of the Christiansted National Historic Site in which the building sits, wants to turn the structure into a museum dedicated to the African slave trade.
But the Postal Service’s decision to place the property on the open market for $1.2 million rather than make a straight title transfer to a sister federal agency has complicated matters.
Christensen met with Postal Service officials on Friday to discuss her opposition to the sale of the building for commercial purposes. She said she asked the Postal Service to consider turning the property over to the Virgin Islands government or the Park Service instead.
Tom Pino, an asset manager with the Postal Service, could not be reached for comment.
"We really oppose the building going into private hands. We want to make sure that building is retained as a historic landmark," Christensen said.
Joel Tutein, Park Service superintendent on St. Croix, said the management plan for the Christiansted National Historic Site, which includes Fort Christiansvaern, the Scale House, Customs House and Steeple Building, calls for the Park Service to tell the story of St. Croix between 1735 and 1917, when the Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark.
So far, military, religious and trade histories have been interpreted, but not that of the 50,000 enslaved Africans imported to St. Croix and sold on the stairs of the Danish West Indies & Guinea Co. warehouse building.
"This post office is the cornerstone and last segment of a quadrangle of buildings, used during the colonial period and the slave trade, located in the historic district area which is currently being restored on St. Croix," Christensen said. "It is very much a part of the legacy of these islands and should be retained for public use. As we look at ways to improve our tourism product we cannot afford to remove the remaining remnants of our heritage."
In a subsequent interview, Tutein said the Park Service stands ready to invest as much as $10 million to renovate the building, including an immediate $350,000 needed to stabilize the elderly structure.
Christensen said the Postal Service would not make a final decision overnight.
"It will take a while and it will take some negotiations," she said.