V.I. Republicans on Saturday guaranteed George W. Bush four delegates at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia.
Bush emerged the winner in the closed primary where only Republican could cast their vote for party candidates. While residents of the territory’s can’t vote for president, they can vote in primaries.
A coalition of other territories, including Guam and American Samoa, will deliver Bush 26 delegates. To win the GOP nomination for the presidency, the leading candidate needs 134 delegates.
"Considering how close things are, 26 delegates can mean a lot," said Republican V.I. Sen. Gregory Bennerson, referring to the race between Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain.
According to Holland Redfield, Republican V.I committeman, the elected delegates are Samuel J. Baptiste, Humberto O’Neal from St. Croix and April Newland and Lawrence Boschulte from the St. Thomas/St. John district.
Alternates include Ruben Fenton and Herbert Schoenbohm from St. Croix and Elissa Runyon and Molly Mills Fuchalt from St. Thomas/St. John.
"Virgin Islanders are 100 percent behind George W. Bush. At the very beginning the governor of Texas reached out to the people of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico," Redfield said, adding that Bush’s sensitivity to minorities makes him a strong candidate. "That’s why there is a feeling of comfort."

V.I. Republicans on Saturday guaranteed George W. Bush four delegates at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia.
Bush emerged the winner in the closed primary where only Republicans could cast their vote for party candidates. While residents of the territories can’t vote for president, they do send delegates to the party conventions.
A coalition of other territories, including Guam and American Samoa, will deliver 26 delegates to Bush. To win the GOP nomination for the presidency, the leading candidate needs 134 delegates.
"Considering how close things are, 26 delegates can mean a lot," said Republican V.I. Sen. Gregory Bennerson, referring to the race between Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain.
According to Holland Redfield, the territory's Republican national committeeman, the elected delegates are Samuel J. Baptiste and Humberto O’Neal from St. Croix and April Newland and Lawrence Boschulte from the St. Thomas/St. John district.
Alternates include Ruben Fenton and Herbert Schoenbohm from St. Croix and Elissa Runyon and Molly Mills Fuchalt from St. Thomas/St. John.
"Virgin Islanders are 100 percent behind George W. Bush," Redfield said. "At the very beginning the governor of Texas reached out to the people of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico." He added that Bush’s sensitivity to minorities makes him a strong candidate. "That’s why there is a feeling of comfort."

As the Anguilla Landfill on St. Croix smoulders and the Bovoni Landfill on St. Thomas sits atop a powder keg of methane gas, the Department of Public Works is preparing to put out requests for the design of a new, state-of-the-art solid-waste facility.
Depending on the winning bid, there could be either one or two new facilities to handle the approximately 150,000 tons of garbage – or more, depending on who is doing the estimating – produced each year in the territory.
How much is 150,000 tons? Carnival Cruise Lines’ megaship Destiny tips the scales at 100,000 tons. A 1993 study done by Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. estimated the per capita solid-waste generation rates for St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John at 8.6, 11.1, and 12.4 pounds per person per day, respectively. That amount is twice that of people on the mainland.
To handle the constant flow of waste at what are in effect dumps and not federally approved landfills, Public Works’ RFP, set to be advertised this week, seeks to identify a private contractor to build and operate a solid-waste management facility on either St. Thomas or St. Croix, or one on each island. Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson Jr. did not return several calls regarding this story, but past estimates for a single waste-management facility place it in the neighborhood of $100 million.
"In general, it is envisioned that the solid waste management facility (SWMF) may consist of a material recycling facility (MRF), followed by a process to destroy solid waste, followed by landfilling of unusable/unprocessable materials and byproducts of the destruction process," states the draft RFP. "It is also envisioned that the waste destruction process could also produce marketable products such as energy and perhaps potable water."
According to the draft RFP, bidders may opt to build one facility on St. Thomas and one on St. Croix, on 10 acres adjacent to each island’s existing landfill, or to build a single facility at either existing landfill.
If a single facility is chosen, 20 acres will be made available for it on the designated island. On the other island, 10 acres will be made available for siting a transfer station.
Ownership of the land will remain with the government and a $1 per year lease will be provided the contractor to allow use of the land during the life of the contract providing all contractual conditions are met.
In return, the V.I. government would grant the winning bidder a long-term contract and the right to charge a tipping fee for disposal of solid waste brought to the new facility, a guarantee of a minimum quantity of solid waste to process and the right to market certain byproducts. In addition, the draft RFP states that the winning company will be eligible for Industrial Development Commission benefits.

TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN
Exactly what technology will be used to dispose of the islands’ garbage is not clear at this point. Public Works’ Thompson has previously stated that the dearth of available land on each island makes a new landfill highly unlikely. He has also said – although not directly — that incineration is not an option.
"Because of our present water collection methodology, via the utilization of cisterns, contaminating the roofs in our communities create other potential hazards," Thompson said at a recent Senate committee hearing on the territory’s landfills.
The draft RFP, however, also states that neither local law nor Public Works intends to stop a bidder from proposing other types of "thermochemical processes." That means other waste-destruction methods that use heat to cause chemical reactions, including gasification, could be put into place.
Last year Thompson visited places that use gasification to destroy their waste, including Germany. He has hinted that gasification is the government’s preferred method for curing the territory’s solid-waste woes, although he has not campaigned publicly for one process or another.
Like incineration, gasification uses heat to destroy garbage. Incineration burns the organic material in solid waste by introducing air during the process, producing high-temperature gases that must be cooled and cleaned before being released through a smokestack. The byproduct of the process, ash, which consists of metals and silica, must be disposed of in a landfill.
Gasification operates at temperatures almost twice as high as incineration. Because of the high temperatures, all organic compounds are destroyed. Gases produced in the process are then quickly cooled to prevent compounds such as dioxins from re-forming.
The high temperatures are also above the melting point of metal and mineral products found in solid waste. The metal byproduct is processed into pellets that can be used in a smelter.

RECYCLE, REUSE, REWHAT?
Last year, the St. Croix Environmental Association completed its Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan. SEA’s plan places a high priority on recycling, reuse, waste reduction and composting. SEA's researchers found that more than 50 percent of what is going into the territory’s landfills is compostable material.
A gasification method has the ability to handle unsorted municipal solid waste, industrial waste, tires, medical waste, appliances and construction debris – basically, anything and everything. However, while that may sound like a panacea to some, it poses a problem for others.
Yvonne Petersen, director of SEA, said that while methods like gasification have become more environmentally sound over the years, the message sent to the community is that it doesn’t need to reduce the amount of waste it produces.
"Source reduction is an important part of an integrated waste-management plan," Petersen said, adding that the draft RFP only gives cursory attention to recycling. "The language is not really very strong. There’s no discussion about educating the community on recycling.
"We have a long way to go to educate. We’re talking about gasification, but there is no educational component to it."
To the extent feasible, the draft RFP states, Public Works’ preference is to promote recycling and/or reuse of solid waste.
"Thus, although not an absolute requirement, it is strongly preferred by the government that the contractor include a Materials Recycling facility (MRF) in the contractor’s SWMF and marketing of the materials recovered."
To promote recycling in the territory, Public Works states that it wants to establish recycling bins at its solid-waste transfer stations "for those materials the contractor deems recyclable or reusable."
"Recycling or reuse by composting does not appear to be feasible at the sites provided by the government on either island because of the proximity of residential neighborhoods, limited land area, or the potential to attract birds which could jeopardize airport operations (St. Croix)," the draft RFP states. "However, it may be possible to work with (local) groups . . . to implement smaller, dispersed composting operations."
But SEA’s Petersen said Public Works needs to make the recycling provisions in the RFP an absolute requirement, not just an aside.
"Based on past history with the government, we feel that if recycling is not part of the initial program, it’s not going to happen," Petersen said. "We need to get the dump fire under control, but we need to do it outside the crisis mode with long-range thinking."
STOKING THE FIRE
Paying for a system that could cost approximately $100 million means the territory would have to start doing what every other jurisdiction in the United States does: charging individuals and companies tipping fees to dispose of garbage. Various studies commissioned by the government have placed the cost at $40 to $50 a ton.
The company building and operating a new facility would keep the revenue to cover
costs associated with debt repayment or for operating, managing and maintaining the facilities.
"Tipping fees have never been charged for landfilling solid waste in the territory nor have residential customers been charged directly for government pickup and disposal of their solid waste," the draft RFP states. "It is thus difficult to predict what effect the advent of solid waste disposal fees would have on the amount of solid waste requiring future disposal."
And that could be key in the long-term operation of a facility. To make a gasification unit economically feasible, a large amount of garbage must be run through. Because of that, Public Works has guaranteed a future contractor a certain tonnage of trash per year. That opens the door for trash to be imported not only from within the territory, but from outside as well.
Public Works is only interested in proposals for technologies and facilities that can not only process, at minimum, 75,000 tons of solid waste per year, but also up to 150,000 tons, according to the draft RFP.
"There is one exception to this 75,000 tons per year lower end requirement. Since 75,000 tons per year of solid waste may be beneath the economic threshold of some technologies, the government may allow the contractor to bring into the territory additional solid waste providing it is not violating any regulation in doing so, it is demonstrated to be beneficial to the territory to do so, and it is approved in writing at least six months in advance of any actual physical transfer."

SAME OLD SONG?
Meanwhile, Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection, on Friday petitioned Gov. Charles Turnbull to declare a state of emergency concerning the solid-waste situation in the territory. Donastorg noted that such a declaration may have been put in place by the previous administration following Hurricane Marilyn in 1995 and never rescinded.
Whatever the case, the situation at the government’s landfills is not new. Dozens of methane-fueled fires have ignited at the Bovoni Landfill over the last 20 years. And there have been almost the same amount of studies done concerning landfill and solid waste management – all for naught.
"I think the situation . . . has become dangerous," Donastorg said, regarding the latest fires at the St. Croix landfill and the subsequent backup of trash around the island. "I don’t see any significant effort to solve this problem."
Commissioner Thompson, however, told Donastorg’s committee that Public Works’ efforts were for real this time.
"We can’t afford to mess up this time because the landfills of the Virgin Islands have a lifespan alarm clock ticking, which will sound off in a little over four years," Thompson said. The Federal Aviation Administration, he noted, has ordered that the St. Croix landfill be closed by the end of 2002.
A completed RFP is scheduled to go out to bid next week, with a notice to proceed at the end of August. Construction permitting and startup of the St. Croix facility is estimated to take two and a half years, with St. Thomas following six months later, according to Thompson.
"Based on need, the St. Croix plant will be built first and I don’t think that there would be much dispute on that subject," he said. "Overall, we are moving in the areas of disposal in a timely manner from a financial and practical point of view."

V.I. Republicans on Saturday guaranteed George W. Bush four delegates at the party’s July convention in Philadelphia.
Bush emerged the winner in the closed primary where only Republican could cast their vote for party candidates. While residents of the territory’s can’t vote for president, they can vote in primaries.
A coalition of other territories, including Guam and American Samoa, will deliver Bush 26 delegates. To win the GOP nomination for the presidency, the leading candidate needs 134 delegates.
"Considering how close things are, 26 delegates can mean a lot," said Republican V.I. Sen. Gregory Bennerson, referring to the race between Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain.
According to Holland Redfield, Republican V.I committeman, the elected delegates are Samuel J. Baptiste, Humberto O’Neal from St. Croix and April Newland and Lawrence Boschulte from the St. Thomas/St. John district.
Alternates include Ruben Fenton and Herbert Schoenbohm from St. Croix and Elissa Runyon and Molly Mills Fuchalt from St. Thomas/St. John.
"Virgin Islanders are 100 percent behind George W. Bush. At the very beginning the governor of Texas reached out to the people of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico," Redfield said, adding that Bush’s sensitivity to minorities makes him a strong candidate. "That’s why there is a feeling of comfort."

While there’s pomp and circumstance for hundreds of bright and capable teenagers who march down the aisles at school graduation ceremonies in the Virgin Islands every year, there’s also a back door for underachievers who "age out" of the system simply by reaching their 16th birthday.
On St. John last week, the principal of Julius E. Sprauve School, which goes through eighth grade, told parents of underachievers that she will offer them an option: stay in school for more training in the basics, undergo hands-on job training and, if they wish, study for a high school equivalency diploma at night.
Principal Shirley Joseph says she wants to try the work-study approach as a pilot program because the students in question are bright but unmotivated. She noted that the nearest public alternative school is across the water on St. Thomas, a logistical challenge even for a willing child.
The scenario is varied for the territory’s other junior high and middle schools.
A record of poor grades and bad discipline is a sure ticket out by age 16, according to David Rossington, principal at Arthur A. Richards Junior High School on St. Croix. "When you’re 16, you can be put out of school by law," he says. But he adds there are options for continuing one’s education — alternative school, adult education and Job Corps. The principals say each of these has its strengths and faults.
Some educators say they will work with their older students as long as they’re making an effort. "There are all kinds of circumstances," says Ivy Williams, principal at Addelina Cancryn Junior High on St. Thomas. For example, she says, some older middle schoolers are recently arrived from other countries. Some have a tenuous grasp of English. Some have family circumstances that interfere with their education.
"We have a number of students who are 16," Williams says. She met with their parents at the start of February. With the support of parents and guidance counselors, she says, a number older Cancryn students have met the required academic standards and gone on to high school.
At John H. Woodson Junior High on St. Croix, assistant principal Doris Brodhurst says, a new bilingual class began recently. Where language is a barrier, "You may not know the potential of that student until you expose him or her to the education system," she notes.
The academic prospects for older students with average ability and adequate language skills but low motivation depend on the policy of the school they attend. At St. Thomas’ two intermediary schools, administrators say they’re willing to go the extra mile.
"Our aim is to reduce the failure rate," says Carver Farrow, principal at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School. "We do everything we can to see that the children have an opportunity to succeed, before they become behavior problems."
Boschulte has adopted in-house alternative education and cooperative learning programs. In cooperative learning, succeeding students work with their at-risk peers to help them improve their grades. In a directed study program, failing students are re-taught and retested. "We used to have teachers tutor free of charge, but they weren’t going to continue giving up their time like that," Farrow notes.
At Cancryn last year, Williams set a goal of having 85 percent of seventh and eighth graders meet the standards for promotion. Remediation through summer school is available for borderline promotees and those who fail multiple subjects.
Elena Christian Junior High on St. Croix pioneered alternative education for at-risk students in 1979. Instead of waiting until eighth grade to reach out to troubled students, principal Carolyn Brown says, a program was recently instituted to help seventh graders. Although "when you get to junior high, there is no social promotion," Brown says, social promotions from grade school can place children in junior high who are not academically ready for the work.
Despite the outreach efforts in the public schools, Brodhurst says, some youngsters prefer to go into an alternative program. "We have 16-year-old kids, and they stay," she says. "But some elect to go to adult ed. because they feel so big around the 11- and 12-year olds. Surprisingly, a lot of kids turn around when they get to alternative school, because there are smaller classes."
For students who move to the two alternative schools in the public school system, job training becomes part of their studies.
Both Eric Blake, Jr., principal of New Horizons School on St. Thomas, and Corine Williams, principal at Positive Connections on St. Croix, say their students receive coaching on resume writing and interviewing skills through a program run by the Labor Department. But Williams acknowledges that her underachievers sometimes get lost in a student population that also includes juvenile delinquents, students with emotional problems and special education candidates who have been mis-evaluated. And although the goal of alternative school is to prepare intermediate students for high school, both principals says they are having only partial success.
Positive Connection’s Williams says her administrators are tracking the outcomes of the class that enrolled in 1997. While the results are not complete, she says, the initial findings show some students made it to high school, and some dropped out. Others enrolled in Job Corps, which Williams considers a good option for those who can demonstrate self-discipline. "For a lot of them," she says, Job Corps works "in terms of providing a lot of technical skills," but many young Virgin Islanders run into problems with their behavior. "Job Corps is very strict about behavior," she says. "They feel you have come there for a purpose."
Other alternative education students have moved out of the territory with their families or drifted away, Corine Williams says. And, both she and Blake note, some of those enrolled in what many see as a last-ditch attempt at public school education at New Horizons and Positive Connections have lost their lives to crime.

Self-management is working for the territory's hospitals, according to Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen. Since semi-autonomy was granted the V.I. Hospitals Corp. last year, she told members of the St. John Rotary Club on Friday at the Westin Resort, revenues have risen, vendors are receiving more timely payment, and most medications are in stock.
Christensen, who is also a physician, said she has held several meetings with hospital officials on St. Thomas and St. Croix since the conversion from government operation. Overall, "they have done well," she said.
On the legislative agenda she presented at the meeting, Christensen included the collection of Medicaid payments due from Washington to the hospitals corporation and the Health Department. The securing of these funds, she said, would contribute greatly to the delivery of quality health care.
Because of a federal cap on Medicaid for the Virgin Islands and the failure of the V.I. government to make required matching payments, $25 million in uncollected funds has piled up in the last five years, she said.
Medicaid patients and uninsured patients make up 60 percent of the people treated at the territory's hospitals, Christensen said, leaving hospitals unable to collect for services in some cases and getting fifty cents on the dollar for services rendered because of the Medicaid cap.
But in spite of this fiscal handicap, Christiansen said, hospital executives have streamlined the delivery of medical care under semi-autonomy. "A lot of times we don't have faith in ourselves to be able to make the necessary changes, to govern, to manage, to administer programs," she said. "But I think the hospitals are a good example of what can happen when we are given the tools to do the job."

In February, St. John food handlers and restaurateurs had their day in the public eye. Come March, the operators of establishments where groups of people congregate indoors will be under scrutiny.
Brian Chapman, deputy chief of V.I. Fire Services for St. John, says he and a fire safety supervisor will be paying calls on such businesses in the first two weeks of March to assess their "occupancy load" capacities. Again restaurants and bars, but also nightclubs and other performance venues will be included in the site visits, he said.
Laws are on the books governing the "capacity crowd" allowed into a given space at a given time, Chapman said, but they haven't been enforced anytime lately. "It needs to be done," he said. "St. John's growing like crazy. Many places used to be outdoors; now, everybody's enclosing and going to air conditioning. There are even rumors of a cinema."
The space required for "dancehall-type businesses" is seven square feet per person, he said, and that for restaurant-type businesses is 15 square feet per person. But he said he will be looking at the number and type of exits, as well as the floor size of the facilities. "Exits here have been a problem," he said.
While the ability of people to exit a facility in case of fire, smoke and other emergency conditions is a concern, he said, so, too, are volatile situations in which people pose the threat — "such as if some guy shows up at a dance and gets into a fight over a girl or pulls a weapon."
He said the space ratios are approximations and it is up to owners and operators of establishments to make their own assessments "until we determine the exact amount." Once that is done, he added, the maximum number of persons to be allowed inside at a time will be posted in public view on the premises and will be subject to enforcement by Fire Services and/or Police Department authorities.
Restricting the size of crowds indoors is a fundamental requirement of the National Fire Protection Association "that has always been effect, but not enforced as it should have been," Chapman noted. He said the coming inspections are a St. John initiative and are not linked to the unannounced site visits at six St. John food-service establishments on Feb. 4 by Health Department inspectors from St. Thomas.
As a result of those visits, five of the businesses were shut down on a Friday afternoon and could not reopen until they were reinspected the following Monday, thus losing a weekend's business at the height of the tourist season. In the following week, the Myrah Keating-Smith Clinic was inundated with applications for 163 food-handler permits.
Since he's announcing the fire safety visits in advance, Chapman doesn't anticipate any resistance. "Anyone who needs more information, please feel free to contact me at the station," he said. The telephone number is 776-6333.

While there's pomp and circumstance for hundreds of bright and capable teenagers who march down the aisles at school graduation ceremonies in the Virgin Islands every year, there's also a back door for underachievers who "age out" of the system simply by reaching their 16th birthday.
On St. John last week, the principal of Julius E. Sprauve School, which goes through eighth grade, told parents of underachievers that she will offer them an option: stay in school for more training in the basics, undergo hands-on job training and, if they wish, study for a high school equivalency diploma at night.
Principal Shirley Joseph says she wants to try the work-study approach as a pilot program because the students in question are bright but unmotivated. She noted that the nearest public alternative school is across the water on St. Thomas, a logistical challenge even for a willing child.
The scenario is varied for the territory's other junior high and middle schools.
A record of poor grades and bad discipline is a sure ticket out by age 16, according to David Rossington, principal at Arthur A. Richards Junior High School on St. Croix. "When you're 16, you can be put out of school by law," he says. But he adds there are options for continuing one's education — alternative school, adult education and Job Corps. The principals say each of these has its strengths and faults.
Some educators say they will work with their older students as long as they're making an effort. "There are all kinds of circumstances," says Ivy Williams, principal at Addelina Cancryn Junior High on St. Thomas. For example, she says, some older middle schoolers are recently arrived from other countries. Some have a tenuous grasp of English. Some have family circumstances that interfere with their education.
"We have a number of students who are 16," Williams says. She met with their parents at the start of February. With the support of parents and guidance counselors, she says, a number older Cancryn students have met the required academic standards and gone on to high school.
At John H. Woodson Junior High on St. Croix, assistant principal Doris Brodhurst says, a new bilingual class began recently. Where language is a barrier, "You may not know the potential of that student until you expose him or her to the education system," she notes.
The academic prospects for older students with average ability and adequate language skills but low motivation depend on the policy of the school they attend. At St. Thomas' two intermediary schools, administrators say they're willing to go the extra mile.
"Our aim is to reduce the failure rate," says Carver Farrow, principal at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School. "We do everything we can to see that the children have an opportunity to succeed, before they become behavior problems."
Boschulte has adopted in-house alternative education and cooperative learning programs. In cooperative learning, succeeding students work with their at-risk peers to help them improve their grades. In a directed study program, failing students are re-taught and retested. "We used to have teachers tutor free of charge, but they weren't going to continue giving up their time like that," Farrow notes.
At Cancryn last year, Williams set a goal of having 85 percent of seventh and eighth graders meet the standards for promotion. Remediation through summer school is available for borderline promotees and those who fail multiple subjects.
Elena Christian Junior High on St. Croix pioneered alternative education for at-risk students in 1979. Instead of waiting until eighth grade to reach out to troubled students, principal Carolyn Brown says, a program was recently instituted to help seventh graders. Although "when you get to junior high, there is no social promotion," Brown says, social promotions from grade school can place children in junior high who are not academically ready for the work.
Despite the outreach efforts in the public schools, Brodhurst says, some youngsters prefer to go into an alternative program. "We have 16-year-old kids, and they stay," she says. "But some elect to go to adult ed. because they feel so big around the 11- and 12-year olds. Surprisingly, a lot of kids turn around when they get to alternative school, because there are smaller classes."
For students who move to the two alternative schools in the public school system, job training becomes part of their studies.
Both Eric Blake, Jr., principal of New Horizons School on St. Thomas, and Corine Williams, principal at Positive Connections on St. Croix, say their students receive coaching on resume writing and interviewing skills through a program run by the Labor Department. But Williams acknowledges that her underachievers sometimes get lost in a student population that also includes juvenile delinquents, students with emotional problems and special education candidates who have been mis-evaluated. And although the goal of alternative school is to prepare intermediate students for high school, both principals says they are having only partial success.
Positive Connection's Williams says her administrators are tracking the outcomes of the class that enrolled in 1997. While the results are not complete, she says, the initial findings show some students made it to high school, and some dropped out. Others enrolled in Job Corps, which Williams considers a good option for those who can demonstrate self-discipline. "For a lot of them," she says, Job Corps works "in terms of providing a lot of technical skills," but many young Virgin Islanders run into problems with their behavior. "Job Corps is very strict about behavior," she says. "They feel you have come there for a purpose."
Other alternative education students have moved out of the territory with their families or drifted away, Corine Williams says. And, both she and Blake note, some of those enrolled in what many see as a last-ditch attempt at public school education at New Horizons and Positive Connections have lost their lives to crime.

Self-management is working for the territory's hospitals, according to Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen. Since semi-autonomy was granted the V.I. Hospitals Corp. last year, she told members of the St. John Rotary Club on Friday at the Westin Resort, revenues have risen, vendors are receiving more timely payment, and most medications are in stock.
Christensen, who is also a physician, said she has held several meetings with hospital officials on St. Thomas and St. Croix since the conversion from government operation. Overall, "they have done well," she said.
On the legislative agenda she presented at the meeting, Christensen included the collection of Medicaid payments due from Washington to the hospitals corporation and the Health Department. The securing of these funds, she said, would contribute greatly to the delivery of quality health care.
Because of a federal cap on Medicaid for the Virgin Islands and the failure of the V.I. government to make required matching payments, $25 million in uncollected funds has piled up in the last five years, she said.
Medicaid patients and uninsured patients make up 60 percent of the people treated at the territory's hospitals, Christensen said, leaving hospitals unable to collect for services in some cases and getting fifty cents on the dollar for services rendered because of the Medicaid cap.
But in spite of this fiscal handicap, Christiansen said, hospital executives have streamlined the delivery of medical care under semi-autonomy. "A lot of times we don't have faith in ourselves to be able to make the necessary changes, to govern, to manage, to administer programs," she said. "But I think the hospitals are a good example of what can happen when we are given the tools to do the job."

Dear Source:
Elected officials, particularly those representing citizens in The United States and its territories, ought to be held accountable for their public dialog.
According to The Washington Post, V.I. Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen called radio personality Doug Tracht a "white supremacist". That is a filthy, slanderous lie. Smearing him with the "racist" label is likewise an ugly, un-truth, but Sen. Hansen's "white supremacist" is a baseless falsehood that further bruises a man who has spent the year trying to find his way after a terrible mistake.
I have known Doug Tracht for nearly 20 years. For over nine of those years, I produced "The Greaseman Show". Doug Tracht and I have been together in business, social and recreational situations of every kind. I have never known him to act anything but courteous and respectful of everyone he came in contact with. Aside from being the most talented broadcaster I've ever known, he's a great friend and kind and loving human being.
The people of the Virgin Islands should not be told lies about this man. They should have had the chance to make up their OWN minds about his radio program. The TRUTH is that is was an entertainment program! It's true, the comments Doug made around Martin Luther King Day in 1986, and last year's reference to Lauryn Hill were unfeeling, ill-timed and hurtful. They were not typical of the show, nor were they done intentionally. They WERE NOT the product of a "white supremacist".
Doug has spent the past year soul-searching and reacing out to African-American community. He has met with the Byrd family, spoken with ministers, etc.. He was truly sorry for what he did and now wants to move on with his life and career.
To hold a man accountable for his actions is expected, to deny a man his livelihood is evil. The truth is, Doug was well-known in the community. He was a volunteer sheriff, translating Spanish for Hispanics in court; he raised money and attention for the funding of The National Police Officer's Memorial here in Washington; Doug Tracht had friends and fans of EVERY race.
Doug Tracht would have been a positive person to have in The Virgin Islands community. The man who wanted to hire Doug for "The Mongoose" had every right to do that. To hold his decision hostage with threats of boycotts or worse is blackmail.
Radio listeners vote with their fingers, they can change the station or shut it off. Sen. Hansen should consider all the facts next time before she soils a man's reputation with a slanderous falsehood. She has done more than hurt Mr. Tracht's reputation, she has fouled her own.
Bill Scanlan
Washington, D.C.