By next tourist season, visitors should have a safe overlook where they can photograph Charlotte Amalie, gaze at the harbor and buy T-shirts without blocking traffic on Skyline Drive.
Work is to commence later this month to expand Valdemar Hill overlook 60 feet outward, install benches, create about a dozen parking spaces and landscape the area, which is now little more than a wide spot in the road across from Louisenhoj Castle.
"The culmination of this long-awaited overlook is a welcome and long desired improvement to our infrastructure," Gov. Charles Turnbull said at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday. "It's one of the most beautiful sites on the planet.
On a clear day, you can see the large and beautiful island of St. Croix, which reminds us we are part of one Virgin Islands family."
The $950,000 project, which the government expects to complete in April 2000, is completely funded by the Federal Highway Administration. The new overlook will be 60 feet deep and 100 feet wide; it will jut out over the hillside 40 feet.
The overlook will be closed during construction. The Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation had to relocate the vendors who usually occupy it.
The government purchased the land in 1992 with the intent to construct an overlook.
"This is a shining spot on the island of St. Thomas," said Valdemar Hill Jr. The road and overlook are named for his father.
Assistant Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood said the new overlook would enhance tourists' visits to the island.
"This should put a shot in the arm of tourism. The project will show the world we are a competitive and marketable destination," Callwood said. "It's just one of the steps to help us raise our standards."
Acting Commissioner of Tourism Monique Sibilly-Hodge asked residents to be patient during the construction.
"It will provide us with a site to appreciate the splendor of Charlotte Amalie," she said. "But this project will no doubt task the patience and commitment to improve the island of those of us who travel this road daily."
"Remember," she said, "the road to progress is always under construction."

A bill allocating $2.19 million in federal block grants to over 40 community programs and projects was signed into law by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull Tuesday.
"The projects being funded by the block grants are considered vital to the economic well-being of our community and especially to the organizations that have been selected this year," Turnbull said Tuesday in a released statement.
The Community Development Block Grants bill was passed by the Senate last week during a session filled with attacks on the Turnbull administration and riddled with outbursts of rancorous inter-island fighting, causing some St. Croix senators to call for autonomy from St. Thomas.
Frustrated senators from both districts said they felt slighted by the administration because they were not consulted about which projects should be funded.
"I personally didn't come to none of these block grant hearings because standard operating procedure around here . . . is all governors wait until the last minute to submit these things here and rush these things without anybody having any real input or questions," Sen. M. "Bert"Adelbert Bryan said at the session.
The funding for some of St. Thomas projects: $200,000 to continue construction on the Savan Community Center, $28,160 for Downstreet People's after school program, $20,000 for the V.I. Resource Center for the Disabled's after school program, and $19,000 for the Family Resource Center to lease its shelter and counseling office, $10,000 for Kidscope's crisis intervention programs, and $8,000 for a scuba diving training program.
St. Croix projects include: , $125,135 in grants and low interest loans to rehabilitate home in Frederiksted, over $110,000 for various projects for the Women's Coalition of St. Croix, approximately $50,000 for a pair of substance abuse rehabilitation programs, $50,000 for Camp Arawak's job training program, and renovations of several baseball parks.
Projects on St. John: $40,000 to renovate a building for the John's Folly Learning Institute's computer training program, $25,000 for the St. John Community Foundation's after school program and $15,000 for the V.I. Resource Center for the Disabled's after school program.

Environmental sensitivity maps of the U.S. Virgin Islands are now under final review by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
The maps contain information about coastal shoreline sensitivity and biological and human-use resources. They are used to identify environmentally sensitive areas so they can be protected from oil or hazardous-substance spills, and to help authorities develop clean-up plans in case of a spill.
The color-coded maps are published in bound atlases that include the coastal and inland zones of a state or territory. NOAA will also publish the information in CD-ROM form.
The maps will be reviewed at DPNR's office in Wheatley Center on St. Thomas on Thursday, and at the Christiansted National Park Service headquarters on St. Croix on Friday. Reviewers will accept new information and updates until August 31.
For more information, contact DPNR, Leonard Reed, 777-4577; U.S. Coast Guard, Lt. Mario Mercado, (787) 729-2364; or NOAA, Brad Benggio, (305) 530-7931.

Public outcry against the V.I. Port Authority's decision to increase wharfage fees for St. Thomas-St. John ferry and barge operators has apparently convinced the agency to hold a public hearing.
VIPA discussed the new rate structure in executive session during a board meeting on St. John last week.
The agency had proposed to charge operators an additional 25 cents per passenger ferried between St. Thomas and St. John; an additional $2.50 for each vehicle transported between the islands, and a 15 cent per-foot berthing fee for certain vessels docked at VIPA facilities between 7 p.m.-5 a.m. that are not engaged in loading or unloading passengers or cargo.
The hearing, however, is yet to be scheduled.

Police have confirmed that the man shot and killed early Wednesday morning was 48-year-old Adolph Hyndman of 3BB Norre Gade.
Hyndman had been shot several times by an unknown gunman shortly before police found him lying face down at the intersection of General and Rejerrings Gade, at 12:04 a.m. Wednesday.
Police also confirmed Hyndman was the father of Leslie Hyndman, who was shot and wounded while walking in the same area only 48 hours earlier.
The shootings give the appearance of a "street-type justice tactic," said a statement released Wednesday afternoon by the V.I. Police Department.
Hyndman's shooting is the third in a week, though the only fatal one. Abijah Brown, 17, of Donoe Apartments, was walking toward the basketball court at the housing project Saturday around 9:15 p.m. when he was shot in the shoulder and the side of the neck.

Britian Bryant, of the law firm Bryant, Barnes and Simpson, and attorney Felice Quigley, are now certified civil mediators.
The two St. Croix lawyers were sworn in by District Court Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Resnick on July 14, announced the American Mediation Institute, Inc.
In addition, attorney George Eltman, former St. Croix Territorial Court judge, has been inducted into the American College of Civil Trial Mediators. He joins attorney Gary Canner, who is certified in Florida and the V.I. as a fellow in the AMI.
For a list of certified civil and family mediators, call 777-9500.

As local politicians try to staunch the Virgin Islands’ financial hemorrhaging, some are looking at a potential transfusion from part of the $60 million-plus collected in taxes on products produced by HOVENSA every year.
The federal government collects tens of millions of dollars in taxes each year on V.I. petroleum and petroleum products shipped into and sold on the mainland. A rebate on a percentage of petroleum taxes, similar to what the territory receives on rum produced on St. Croix, could translate into millions of dollars annually for the V.I’s ailing treasury.
Last week, St. Thomas Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole called on the V.I. government, Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen and local civic organizations to start putting together a lobbying plan and a proposal to take to Congress.
"I believe everything should be on the table at this time," Cole said at a Rotary meeting on St. Thomas. "A return of a percentage of the gas tax will be a boost to the economy, a new revenue stream, a chance to start paying vendors, income taxes, retro pay, WAPA bills and money to provide the other needed services."
Trying to tap into the petroleum tax isn’t a new concept. In 1976, former Gov. Juan Luis’ administration sued the federal government. It contended that the taxes and customs duties on petroleum products should be placed into the V.I. Treasury.
The V.I. won in in District Court, but the federal government appealed the decision in a higher court. Meanwhile, President Jimmy Carter offered the V.I. a $30 million-a-year settlement, which, according to former Delegate to Congress Ron de Lugo, included a cost-of-living escalator clause.
However, the V.I. turned down the offer from the White House. Today, it would be bringing in tens of millions a year to the territory. Then the V.I. lost the appeal.
"I didn’t feel we should have taken it all the way through the legal system," de Lugo said. "I wanted to take it through the political system. This was a political problem, not a legal one."
De Lugo said that is still the case. But after losing the appeal, the V.I. now doesn’t have solid ground to stand on while lobbying Congress or the White House.
"We lost the case in federal court," de Lugo said. "You’re starting from zero politically. There isn’t any leverage."
The former 10-term delegate, who retired in 1995, said he agrees with current Delegate to Congress Christensen that efforts to win a percentage of the petroleum tax should be placed on the back burner.
Christensen is on record saying that she doesn’t disagree with Cole’s proposal, but that pursuing the petroleum tax now could be "fatal" to other initiatives. Rather, she says, the focus should be on recovering the full amount of excise taxes on rum, which would bring in an additional $10 million to $12 million annually.
Going after the gas tax could also jeopardize the territory’s effort to have the federal government forgive the V.I.’s $200 million FEMA Community Disaster Loan, she said. If the loan isn’t forgiven, the territory will have to start making annual payments of $25 million beginning in 2001.
Also, there is an effort underway in the White House and in Congress to provide the V.I. with a multi-year construction grant worth more than $50 million.
In her July 19 report from Washington, Christensen said that since none of the above efforts are done deals, and in part accomplish "what we would seek to do through a request to return a portion of taxes collected on gasoline, we should not run the risk of jeopardizing them by raising another controversial and difficult issue to Congress and the President at this time."
De Lugo, who said Turnbull approached him early on in the administration about the issue but hasn’t made contact since, called Christensen’s position "very wise."
"In my judgment, you put everything at risk" by going after the gas tax, he said. "I think the Delegate is absolutely correct."

The two members of the V.I. Casino Control Commission may soon be able to make decisions again, now that Gov. Charles Turnbull has nominated Lloyd McAlpin to the commission.
Since July 16, when Commissioner Dennis Brow’s term ended, the CCC has been one member shy of a quorum. Until a third member is approved — McAlpin must be investigated and his nomination ratified by the Legislature — the CCC is prohibited from granting licenses to casino applicants or companies wishing to do business with casinos, or approving individuals to teach in gaming schools.
The commission granted a two-year license to the Department of Tourism-run casino gaming school before Brow departed, but the V.I. Casino and Resort Control Act stipulates that the commission must also license the school's faculty. Monique Sibilly Hodge, acting tourism commissioner, has said the school will open on August 2. Mississippi-based Treasure Bay Casino is set to open in the Divi Carina Bay Resort in December.
As called for in the Casino Act, the governor has requested V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron to conduct a background check on McAlpin’s financial stability, responsibility and integrity. Based on the attorney general's findings, Turnbull will decide whether to forward McAlpin’s nomination to the Senate for approval.
McAlpin is currently the assistant executive director of the Legislature on St. Croix. He is a former assistant labor commissioner.
The only two current CCC members are Eileen Petersen, chairwoman, and Imelda Dizon. Commission positions are full-time for two to four years, and pay $80,000 a year.

Academics Enhanced Inc. is now accepting registration for the 1999-2000 school year. Academics Enhance Inc. tutors students with learning difficulties from k-12.
For more information call 776-4494 or 772-8003.

Academics Enhanded Inc., continues with registration for the Summer Academics Program for children with learning and reading difficulties until August 20.
For more information call 776-4494.