The Senate Rules Committee on Thursday approved two nominees to the Coastal Zone Management Commission, bringing the St. Thomas membership to its full complement.
Austin "Babe" Monsanto was a reappointment, and Robert Mathes is a first-time appointee to the commission but no stranger to Virgin Islands government.
Mathes has had a 24-year career with local government beginning in 1973 as planning director of the then-Conservation and Cultural Affairs department, and including a term as Licensing and Consumer Affairs commissioner.
Committee Chairwoman Violet Anne Golden apologized to Mathes for not being invited with several other nominees last month through a lapse in scheduling.
Monsanto, a native St. Thomian, is a well-known figure in community activities as well as local government. He was marine manager for the V.I. Port Authority for 14 years, though many remember him as a teacher at Charlotte Amalie High School or as a National Park ranger where he served for eight years before moving to V.I. government. He has served on the CZM board since 1994.
Monsanto and Mathes both share a concern brought up at last month's CZM nominations by nominees J. Brion Morrisettte and Anthon Winston Adams.
All agree that current CZM laws which specify a tier 1 and tier 2 designation should be changed. Tier 1 applies to land seaward from a boundary, and tier 2 applies to landward.
As Morrissette put it last month, "Everything that happens in tier 2 applies to tier 1–it's the law of gravity."
Monsanto said zoning is the main problem.
"If we eliminated the two tiers it would ensure fair zoning regulations and serve the entire community," he explained. Sen. Gregory Bennerson mentioned a land and water use plan that may be in Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus' office. Bennerson said it could go a long way toward resolving zoning disputes, and Monsanto agreed.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole mentioned getting a CZM permit for work that needs to be done immediately in the Nadir area–the subject of a hearing Wednesday evening–and Monsanto said he'd go out and take a look at the area tomorrow.
The CZM consists of 15 members: five from each island, plus two officials who serve ex-officio, without votes.
In April, the governor reappointed Monsanto to a two-year term on the commission and appointed Mathes. Their nominations were approved unanimously, and will now go the full Senate for final confirmation. Voting were Golden, Bennerson and Sens. Vargrave Richards, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Judy Gomez and Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg.

The Senate Rules Committee on Thursday approved two nominees to the Coastal Zone Management Commission, bringing the St. Thomas committee to its full complement.
Austin "Babe" Monsanto was a reappointment, and Robert Mathes is a first-time appointee to the commission but no stranger to Virgin Islands government.
Mathes has had a 24-year career with local government beginning in 1973 as planning director of the then-Conservation and Cultural Affairs department, and including a term as Licensing and Consumer Affairs commissioner.
Committee Chairwoman Violet Anne Golden apologized to Mathes for not being invited with several other nominees last month through a lapse in scheduling.
Monsanto, a native St. Thomian, is a well-known figure in community activities as well as local government. He was marine manager for the V.I. Port Authority for 14 years, though many remember him as a teacher at Charlotte Amalie High School or as a National Park ranger where he served for eight years before moving to V.I. government. He has served on the CZM board since 1994.
Monsanto and Mathes both share a concern brought up at last month's CZM nominations by nominees J. Brion Morrisettte and Anthon Winston Adams.
All agree that current CZM laws which specify a tier 1 and tier 2 designation should be changed. Tier 1 applies to land seaward from a boundary, and tier 2 applies to landward.
As Morrissette put it last month, "Everything that happens in tier 2 applies to tier 1–it's the law of gravity."
Monsanto said zoning is the main problem.
"If we eliminated the two tiers it would ensure fair zoning regulations and serve the entire community," he explained. Sen. Gregory Bennerson mentioned a land and water use plan that may be in Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus' office. Bennerson said it could go a long way toward resolving zoning disputes, and Monsanto agreed.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole mentioned getting a CZM permit for work that needs to be done immediately in the Nadir area–the subject of a hearing Wednesday evening–and Monsanto said he'd go out and take a look at the area tomorrow.
The CZM consists of 15 members: five from each island, plus two officials who serve ex-officio, without votes.
In April, the governor reappointed Monsanto to a two-year term on the commission and appointed Mathes. Their nominations were approved unanimously, and will now go the full Senate for final confirmation. Voting were Golden, Bennerson and Sens. Vargrave Richards, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Judy Gomez and Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg.

St. Thomas Youth Soccer will hold its Fall 2000 Orientation Day at 9 a.m. Saturday at the UVI field. After the orientation, St. Thomas Women's Soccer will hold its annual general meeting and election of officers at 4 p.m. at the field. Every school that wants to field a team in the fall youth league must have a representative at the orientation, and all girls and boys of all skill levels who want to play must also attend.
If a school cannot field a team, players can compete on a St. Thomas Youth Soccer-sponsored team. Students should bring a copy of their birth certificate or passport, and 2 photographs.
The three age groups for the elementary division are:
– under 7: born on or after Sept. 1, 1993; minimum of 9 players, maximum 18 per team.
– Under 10: born on or after Sept. 1, 1990; minimum of 10 players, maximum 18 per team.
– Under 13: born on or after Sept. 1, 1987 and in the sixth grade or lower; minimum of 10 players, maximum 18 per team.
The under-14 division is made up of those born on or after Sept. 1, 1986 and those born after Sept. 1, 1987 but in the seventh grade or higher; minimum of 10 players, maximum 18 per team.
For more information on St. Thomas youth or women's soccer, call Tanya Ward Benjamin at 776-2105.

Book Review
"Open House"
Elizabeth Berg
Random House, 241 pp $23.95
No. 3 on the Sept. 3 New York Times Best Sellers Plus list for hardback fiction. It has been on the list for two weeks.
If this book were a Broadway play, it would be a monologue…and probably a hit. The fact that it is a book about a very sad subject, the break-up of a marriage , places the reader firmly in the personna of Samantha, the wife who has been jettisoned by her husband of a dozen years. It's tough work, putting yourself through what Sam is feeling and the jolts that are turning her life upside-down. It's almost impossible to feel sorry for her though, when in her telling of all her pain and suffering, she makes one laugh out loud. The employment agency, suggested to her by a friend, was a terrific organization; a local one would be a smash success.
When your loving husband (as you'd always believed) suddenly packs a bag and tells you that you aren't what he wants these days, the shock must be earth-moving. Samantha deals with it as best she can, with deeply sad lows and hilarious highs; one can get a bit weary traveling these extremes with her . There won't be many quitters though, how it all comes out keeps one reading, and laughing, until the end.
The cast of characters is small and somehow this is rather enjoyable. Each one becomes rounded and pretty much alive, contributing to the plot and to the complicated life Samantha is developing for herself as a single mother, one of the most popular roles in the world today. Sam's friends are fun to meet and get to know, just be prepared for your family to think you've popped your cork, laughing at a book.
Elizabeth Berg has a number of bestsellers under her belt, the latest one was "Talk Before Sleep." Add to that the prestige of a number of top awards, and the fact that "Open House" is an Oprah's Book Club novel, and here's another winner, for Mrs. Berg and her readers.
"Open House" is available at Dockside Bookshop at Havensight Mall. To check out other Dockside favorites click here.

A four-hour hearing Wednesday night finally got the "bridge to nowhere" somewhere, as the Senate Committee on Planning and Environmental Protection heard testimony from the public and from officials of the departments of Public Works and Planning and Natural Resources.
At an August hearing, DPW was a no-show. Senators then voted to subpoena Wayne Callwood, acting DPW commissioner, to appear at the next hearing.
Callwood declared the Nadir project a "top priority" of his department, an assertion which committee Chairman Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg took issue with.
Donastorg said progress on the Nadir project has been "unacceptable." He noted it is hurricane season and the gut hasn't even been cleaned, let alone work done on the bridge itself.
Callwood and DPNR officials swapped blame and cited a litany of bureaucratic delays that have held up the project and the permit process. Also, land must be acquired in the area for work to continue.
Aloy Nielsen, PWD director of highway engineering, noted the bridge was built before the necessary rights-of-way were obtained, the reverse of the usual process. He said the government still needs to purchase land to connect roads to the bridge.
So far the federally funded Nadir project has cost $2.3 million, and new work, including a channel and culvert to reduce area flooding, will run more than $8 million, officials said. Some of that will be covered by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the government must come up with about half the funds.
Donastorg said he would call for a federal audit of spending on the project. Calling the beleaguered bridge an "atrocity," Donastorg demanded that DPW get together with DPNR and get the proper permits to start a clean up and widening of the mouth of the gut, if nothing else, in the next two weeks.
Testifiers presented several ideas, including using prisoners to clean the gut. Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole and Donastorg jumped on that as an excellent idea,
but Callwood said he couldn't allow prisoners to do that kind of work, saying a grove of pineapples, or pond-apples, could be destroyed in the process.
"Pineapples are more important than residents, than people?" Cole asked.

"It's me," Chuck Mangione said this week. "The man with the horn, and the hat, is headed for St. Thomas."
The popular trumpeter returns to St. Thomas on Oct. 7 to perform at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, and is looking forward to it.
"It's been too long," he said. "I vacationed there and played St. Thomas a few times. It's everything anyone could possibly want—beautiful scenery, beautiful weather and beautiful people."
Mangione has been performing for 50 years and his new CD, "Everything for Love," is being released at the end of September.
Mangione said he was blessed to have been born in the 1940s when he could see the legendary big bands perform live. Bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie is one of his heroes. "Dizzy was a brilliant trumpet player, composer and arranger," he said. "He always let the audience know he enjoyed what he was doing and always introduced the members of his band."
At the age of ten, Chuck took a music aptitude test in school and scored very well. When asked to pick an instrument he chose the trumpet because he had just seen the movie "Young Man With A Horn." He entered amateur hour contests, visited veterans's hospitals and played at weddings and bar mitzvahs, eventually turning to the larger flugelhorn, with its big, mellow sound. "I was hooked," he said.
It was his father who introduced both Mangione and his brother, Gap Mangione, to music. When Gillespie was performing in Rochester, N.Y., they went to matinee performances. "My father introduced us to Dizzy and told him his sons were good jazz performers," he said. "Dizzy invited Gap and me to play, and then Papa invited Dizzy to our home for dinner. I grew up thinking every kid had Dizzy Gillespie or Sarah Vaughan over to the house for spaghetti and homemade wine."
Mangione said his father encouraged him. "Papa always traveled with the band, selling records, T-shirts and booklets. More people knew Papa than knew me," he said. His father is now 90 years old and too frail to travel, but his fans still ask for him.
His brother went on the teach at Syracuse University and Mangione to wide acclaim, beginning in the 1970s. But in 1989, after two new albums were released, Mangione said he needed time to himself.
"I didn't do much," he said. "Just fishing, reading paperbacks and didn't even listen to music."
The one good thing that happened to him that year was meeting and marrying his wife, Rosemarie, the inspiration behind the passionate "Slo Ro" cut on his latest CD. He won a Grammy award for "Bellavia," song he wrote for his mother for Mother's Day.
"I ran out of ideas for a gift so I wrote her a song," he said. Bellavia is his mother's maiden name.
Mangione was also nominated for a Grammy for the soundtrack to "Children of Sanchez." He will perform on Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Reichhold Center on the UVI St. Thomas campus.
For ticket information, call 693-1559, or you can buy tickets online at www.reichholdcenter.com

Despite assurances by Government House officials that Gov. Charles W. Turnbull would hold a full-scale news conference this week—in the wake of U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's visit and other developments—the governor and members of the administration's fiscal team made a 90-minute television presentation Wednesday night that offered very little new information.
Talking about the financial health of the Virgin Islands on WTJX-TV Channel were Turnbull, Chief Negotiator Karen Andrews, Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds, Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull and Director of Management and Budget Ira Mills.
The governor restated his administration's commitment to fiscal recovery and cited provisions within the Memorandum of Understanding entered into with the Interior Department toward that goal.
On union negotiations and payment of retroactive wages, the governor repeated that he "has put the teachers first." He said the administration is committed to settling the contract dispute with the American Federation of Teachers union and entering new talks with other unions representing law enforcement, emergency medical workers and firefighters.
Simmonds recapped the $15 million renovations carried out at schools in the territory over the summer and noted that construction work is nearing completion.
Andrews provided a detailed history of contract talks with the teachers' union, dating back to June 12 when the governor directed her to commence talks with the AFT. Reacting to the strike vote taken last week by teachers in the St. Thomas-St. John district, Andrews said the impasse should be addressed by the Public Employees Relations Board rather than invoking a job action or work stoppage.
But she admitted that "salaries for teachers in the Virgin Islands are below national standards."
The finance commissioner noted a slowly improving fiscal condition. She credited the $16 million grant for computer Y2K conversion, the $300 million bond issue and more than $5 million in revenues from Foreign Sales Corporations with helping stabilize the territory's finances. But she admitted these sources of revenue won't be around this year.
Commissioner Turnbull said the government is keeping current with vendor payments. "We are paying vendors within 30 days of invoices being received at the Finance Department," she said. In the last fiscal year, Turnbull estimated, some $21 million has been paid to the V.I. Water and Power Authority on past due bills and $5 million to the V.I. Telephone Corp. for outstanding bills.
Budget director Ira Mills provided an overview of the Fiscal Year 2001 budget before analyzing the state of the territory's fiscal health. "Our fiscal situation is grave and will not improve until we decide to live with difficult choices," Mills said.
The governor ended the presentation by again declaring his commitment to fiscal recovery and to unionized workers, vowing to make good on the negotiated salary increases and retroactive monies owed them. He insisted, however, that "the teachers' pay issue must be resolved because this administration has placed the children first."
The TV presentation Wednesday night followed a last-minute postponement of a news conference called by Andrews to discuss the impasse with the teachers union.

Dear Source:

We have read with interest your news story of Sept. 9. 2000 in which you published the following statements: In describing a gasification process you stated, "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 last word in your concluding statement destroys the premise upon which you based your technical statements about gasification. The word is "reforming." In order for the deadly toxic chemical compound dioxin to "reform," the process you describe as "gasification" must have created this toxic chemical in the first place. The killer chemical you are dealing with is DIOXIN, more familiarly known as the Vietnam-era chemical called Agent Orange.
The process you described must utilize some a form of incineration or burning. True gasification does not make DIOXINS in the process. Dioxin is a chemical compound that is created when lignin is burned with chlorine. There are 75 polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDD's) and 22 tetra chlorinated dibenzodioxins (TCDD's) plus the polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF's ) All of these deadly toxic chemical compounds are created by incinerating garbage.
In true gasification, dioxins and furans are never created. In fact, when dibenzofurans and dibenzodioxins are subjected to true gasification these deadly compounds are destroyed and never created. This makes gasification safer than incineration. It is that simple.
According to the US EPA, all trash incinerators ever tested have been found to produce "dioxins and furans". Therefore it is logical to conclude that in the process you are describing, some incineration must occur if dioxin is to have the ability to reform. The process you are describing must first create dioxin for it to "reform."
This is the reason why the people in the USVI should be alarmed by what your publication may believe to be a trivial word: "reformation" of dioxin. Dioxin is not "reformed" in gasification. It is formed in incineration.
Dioxin is the most deadly substance known to man. Take a box the size of a football field, 500-feet high and fill it with ping-pong balls, then add just one ping-pong ball of DIOXIN. The resulting toxicity can cause miscarriages and malformed fetuses in pregnant women. This has been proven in tests carried out with monkeys. (National Geographic Magazine)
In the Aug. 10, 2000 edition of Caribbean Business, there was a front page story that describes, "Squeaky Clean Thermoselect." We ask: Is thermoselect the technical source for your article? If so, please refer to page 26 of that publication and the chart showing the amount of Dioxin being emitted into the atmosphere by their technology. They are producing dioxin!
There must be a zero tolerance of dioxin emissions in the USVI. Fallout of this deadly toxic chemical will contaminate our roofs. We drink water from our roofs. It gets to the roofs through the air we breathe! The USVI needs a solid waste technology that does not produce toxic airborne chemicals.
Sincerely,
Athniel "Addie" C. Ottley
President, Ottley Communications Corp.

Calvin "Bush" Clarke, 42, known as "Bush Tea/Tea Bush" of Estate Whim, died Friday, Sept. 8, at the Juan F. Luis Hospital.
The viewing will be at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick’s Church on Monday, Sept. 18, with funeral services at 11 a.m. Interment will follow in the Kingshill Cemetery.
Mr. Clarke is survived by his mother, Grace Ann Charles, daughters: Icilma Clarke, Christa Clarke, and Sharifa Clark; sons, Trevor Clarke, Michael Clarke, and Curtis Clarke. He is also survived by his sisters, Shirley Clarke, Calara Webster, Linda Clarke, Jennifer Clarke, and Rosita Roberts, along with brothers, Alan "King Herring" Clarke and Norris "King Kabuki" Ests; aunts, Mazie Christian and Armanda; brothers-in-law, Gilbert Webster, Louis Blair, and Anthony White; 13 nieces, 10 nephews and 14 great nieces and nephews, along with numerous other relatives and special friends, including Mr. and Mrs. James Collins, Pastor Maranda, Ruben, Pin, Mrs. Melody Francis, Mr. and Mrs, Melville Lawrence, Charlo Christian, and Clevee.

Though the Public Safety Coalition has only about 20 days left to collect some 13,000 signatures to oust Gov. Charles Turnbull in a recall effort, the group’s leaders are confident they will succeed.
Naomi Joseph, president of the St. Croix Police Benevolent Association, said at a press conference Wednesday that the coalition had gathered about 5,000 signatures since mid-August. That’s far less than the 18,000 needed in order to force a special election to replace Turnbull.
The Public Safety Coalition consists of the St. Croix PBA, the Law Enforcement Supervisors Union, officers from the Bureau of Corrections, Planning and Natural Resources, firefighters and emergency medical technicians. It was formed in mid-July to protest contract and pay issues, working conditions and lack of equipment.
Arthur Hector, president of the LESU, said coalition members plan to step up their petition drive by going house to house in the Welcome and Watergut areas and then Christiansted and Frederiksted.
"We’re asking the people to come out and sign the petition," Hector said. Hector and Joseph blasted the U.S. Interior Department’s recent announcement that it was providing a $50 million aid package to the Turnbull administration. They said the package of reprogrammed funds and hurricane-debt forgiveness was a ploy by the feds to prop up Turnbull’s failing administration.
"The $50 million can’t do nothing for the Virgin Islands in a $1 billion debt," Joseph said. "It’s to back up the governor."
Hector said some of the money has been recycled from funds the administration didn’t tap into over the last fiscal year, a sign that Turnbull isn’t up to the job of pulling the territory out of its economic quagmire.
"It’s time for the governor to step down. Obviously he can’t do the job," Hector said, adding that when Washington, D.C., had serious economic problems, the federal government intervened with a control board to run the local government. "It might be that’s what we need . . . to take over the whole operation and get us back on our feet."
In the meantime, the coalition will continue on its quest to gather the signatures of at least 16,750 registered voters. That’s half the votes cast in the 1998 gubernatorial and the amount required by law in order to recall the governor — so said Elections Supervisor John Abramson Jr. last month.
The entire recall process could take several months, including the 50 days the coalition has to collect signatures, about two weeks for Abramson’s office to determine whether each signee is a registered voter, and another 30 to 60 days to determine whether a special election will need to be held and, if so, when.
Of the 33,499 total votes cast in the gubernatorial election in 1998, Turnbull walked away with 19,795. He garnered 11,114 votes on St. Croix compared to Schneider’s 5,236. On St. Thomas the race was close, with Turnbull collecting 8,681 to Schneider’s 8,440.