Inspired by our new Virgin Islands Quarter, there’s the new “2009 CENTsational Sale.” Here’s the deal:

Book a three-night, hotel and airfare package and you will get three additional nights for only 25 cents per night, before tax.
And
Twenty five dollar per person dining credit
Twenty five dollar per person activities credit
One Virgin Islands commemorative quarter coin set from the US Mint

You’ll need to book by November 2, for travel through December 15

Participating hotels: Bolongo Bay Beach Resort, Carambola Beach Resort & Spa, Hibiscus Beach Resort, Hotel Caravelle, Marriott Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Beach Resort, Secret Harbour Beach Resort, the Palms at Pelican Cove, Windward Passage, Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa

Virgin Islands Quarters

US Virgin Islands Quarter Bags & Rolls
By CoinNews.net on Sep 28th, 2009

The United States Min began selling U.S. Virgin Islands quarter bags and rolls on Monday, Sept. 28, at noon ET. On the same day, the quarter-dollars officially entered circulation.
The US Mint’s two-roll set offering includes 40 commemorative coins with the “P” mint mark for Philadelphia and a roll of 40 coins with the “D” mint mark for Denver. The set price is $32.95.
Each is wrapped in specially designed paper coin wrap,” the Mint states. “The packaging is marked with a “P” or “D” representing the mint of origin, “$10″ representing its dollar value and “VI,” the United States Postal Code for the United States Virgin Islands.

Also available are 100-coin and 1,000-coin bags from each US Mint facility for $32.95 and $309.95, respectively.

Virgin Islands Quarters Rolls & Bags

The US Virgin Islands Quarter design, sculpted by Joseph Menna, features a Tyre Palm Tree, Bananaquit bird, and Yellow Elder flowers all in front of an outline of the three islands and the territory’s motto “United in Pride and Hope.”

The coins are the fifth in a series of six from the 2009 DC and US Territories Quarters Program, which honors the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The quarter products may be ordered by visiting http://usmint.gov, or by calling the Mint’s toll-free number 1-800-USA-MINT (872-321-MINT (6468).
Production figures for US Virgin Islands are not yet available. The prior American Samoa quarter-dollars are the scarcest design, with the lowest mintages in years. 42.6 million were struck in Philadelphia and 39.6 million in Denver. Bags and rolls of these coins went on sale July 27,2009, and were taken off sale Monday morning prior to the new quarter release.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) _ A U.S. Virgin Islands resident drifted in the Atlantic overnight on his disabled watercraft before being rescued by Coast Guard searchers some 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of St. Thomas.

The islands’ Department of Natural Resources identified the man as Junior Estrella, 32, a native of the Dominican Republic who lives in the U.S. territory. He was riding off St. Thomas beaches when the personal watercraft’s engine gave out Monday evening.

A Coast Guard statement says rescuers found him Tuesday aboard the drifting craft. He was flown by helicopter to a St. Thomas hospital.

Sam Topp, spokesman at Schneider Regional Medical Center, said Estrella was in stable condition, but was being held for observation.

Steve Simon Presents

The 1st Annual St. Thomas Blues Festival

Friday – January 22, 2010 – 8:00 PM -At The Reichhold Center
The magnificent amphitheater on the grounds of the University of the Virgin Islands

STARRING

Blues Music Award Nominee – Curtis Salgado

International Blues Challenge Winners – Trampled Under Foot

Two Time Blues Music Award Winner -Eden Brent

TICKETS GO ON SALE AUGUST 14, 2009
AT THE REICHHOLD CENTER AND AT SELECT TICKET OUTLETS

Contact The Reichhold Center at
http://www.reichholdcenter.com

or call the Box Office at 340-693-1559

$50 For covered seats in Zone “A”

$30 For uncovered seats in Zone “B”  &  Zone “C”

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Go to stthomasbluesfestival.com

Or Contact Steve Simon at

STEVESIMONLIVE@YAHOO.COM

Or call Steve at
340-643-6475

The 1st Annual St. Thomas Blues Festival is brought to you by Johnnie Walker – The U.S.V.I  Department of Tourism – Merchants Commercial Bank – Metro Motors – Blues Revue – XM Satellite Radio – Pirate Radio – Sunny FM – Isle 95 – Mongoose – Theodore Tunick & Company – Mafolie Hotel and The Steve & Helen Simon Foundation

U.S. Virgin Islands Tap Alpine to Build First Alt-Energy Plants
Cleantech Group

Colorado developer plans to spend $440 million to build 49 MW of waste-to-energy capacity on St. Croix and St. Thomas that could eventually lead to the closure of landfills.

Englewood, Colo.-based Alpine Energy Group said it plans to build two waste-to-energy plants in the U.S. Virgin Islands at a total cost of $440 million.

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John deJongh said in a news release that the plants would be the first in the territory to use a source other than fossil fuels to generate energy or to purify water. DeJongh said the facilities could also help the islands solve problems of excess solid waste that have prompted fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Alpine signed two 20-year power-purchase agreements with the nonprofit Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) to supply electricity to residents of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, in addition to two 20-year deals to manage the solid waste for the government-run Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority (WMA).

Alpine plans to begin construction in May 2010 in St. Thomas and St. Croix, with expected completion in the fourth quarter of 2012. The 33-megawatt plant in Long Point, St. Thomas, is expected to serve residents of that island as well as St. John. St. Croix is expected to have a dedicated 16-MW plant in the Anguilla area near the Krause Lagoon.

Under the agreements, Alpine plans to generate steam and electric power by disposing of 146,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste. Alpine’s WastAway Services technology combines the refuse-derived fuel with petroleum coke.

The WAPA and WMA both issued requests for proposals in 2007 to solve the problems caused by rising fuel costs and increasing demand for landfill space, deciding to collabrate in 2008. WAPA serves 66,000 customers in St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Water Island, and Hassel Island.

According the the U.S. Energy Information Adminsitration, the per capita energy consumption in the U.S. Virgin Islands was more than five times that of the United States in 2006.

Almost all the U.S. territory’s electricity comes from oil-fired generators, which source 80 percent of their fuel from Hovensa, a crude oil refinery in St. Croix that is among the 10 largest in the world. Hovensa has a capacity of 500,000 barrels per day. The island is also home to a facility that dehydrates ethanol from Brazil so that it can be shipped the U.S.

The EIA notes that the territory has potential for wind energy generation because of class 4 winds on its major islands, as well as class 3 on smaller islands. In addition, the government recently awarded a grant to install a 30-kilowatt photovoltaic system on a hospital.

St. Thomas Harbor (photo from Ron Lockhart collection)

The above photo is from the collection of Ron Lockhart of St. Thomas who has a veritable treasure chest of old post cards and photographs going back to the days when it wasn’t “St. Thomas USVI (United States Virgin Islands),” but rather, “St. Thomas, DWI “(Danish West Indies).”

If you look closely you can see that what is now Veterans Drive did not exist. It was built on fill in the 1950s. The long rectangular warehouses separated by narrow alleyways, now used as shops and pubs and restaurants, ran right into the harbor each with their own private wharf.

Charlotte Amalie Waterfront (Ron Lockhart collection)

The following is excerpted from the book “St. Thomas, USVI”

The Waterfront
As the importance of St. Thomas and its maritime economy grew, so did the town. Harbor frontage became very expensive and as a result, building lots tended to be long and narrow with just enough exposure to the harbor as would permit the implementation of piers and boat slips.

For the same reason, wide streets were not employed to connect the waterfront to Main Street. Instead there were a series of narrow alleyways, which is evident to this day.

Private residences were built on the other, less expensive, landward side of the street and eventually on the valleys and hillsides adjacent to the harbor.

The 20th century brought automobiles to the island and soon traffic on the steep, narrow streets of Charlotte Amalie became so congested that beginning in the 1940s, the harbor was filled in in front of the commercial warehouses, and by 1950, a new modern  road, Veterans Highway, was constructed south of Main Street running alongside the waterfront.

Charlotte Amalie has maintained much of its old character, as both a bustling Caribbean seaport, hosting cruise ships, pleasure yachts and cargo vessels from all around the world, and as a shopping Mecca, offering millions of visitors every year a treasure trove of duty-free shopping delights.

Here’s a list of blogs and sites about St. John that I like.
Please feel free to let me know if you have favorite sites that you’d like to add to the list. Send an e-mail or include them in the comment field.

Blogs
http://seestjohn.com/st_john_life/
http://barnako.typepad.com/
http://www.on-stjohn.com/
Luigi’s St. John Runners Blog
Using Sports for Social Change
http://www.bongobongostjohn.com/blog/index.html

News
St. John Sun Times
St. John Source
St. John Tradewinds

VI Government Sites
http://ltg.gov.vi/

WebCams
St. John and Virgin islands Webcams

Virgin Islands National Park
http://www.nps.gov/viis/

St. John Historical Society
http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/

Virgin Islands Public TV
http://www.wtjxtv.org/

View of St. Thomas from Lindholm overlook

You know you have a dusty day when you can barely see St. Thomas from St. John. For the last few days we here on St. John have experienced a heavier than usual occurance of Sahara Dust conditions. At first. I though that it might have something to do with volcanic dust from Montserrat, but according to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory website the volcanic activity on that Caribbean Island has been low.

The silver lining in the dust cloud is that the wind currents that cause them supposedly do not bring hurricanes, which are way worse, at least in the short term, than African dust.

Beginning December, and right on time for the next high tourist season, American and Delta Airlines plan to increase their flight service to the Virgin Islands.

American Airlines plans to add three flights a week  between St. Croix and Miami, bringing the total weekly flights up from seven to ten and Delta Air Lines plans to begin daily flights between St. Croix and Atlanta, up from two flights per week, and my favorite, the St. Thomas to JFK run, will now operate daily, up from the present two flights a week.

Good T’ing!

William W. Hastie was the first black governor of the Virgin Islands, appointed to the position by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in 1946. Hastie later went on to become a judge of the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals.

On a trip to Denmark, Hastie told of an incident that illustrated the sentiment of some of the Virgin Islanders toward the change of government from Danish to American. It seems that while he was governor of the Virgin Islands there was a change of electric power from direct current, DC, to alternating current, AC. News of the change brought about a barrage of resistance and complaints from the older residents of the Islands.

Hastie asked a friend of his with contacts in the black community to explain the reasons for this mysterious opposition. “Your Excellency,” said the friend, “the people don’t want any of the American Current. They want to keep the old Danish Current.”

Rape of the American Virgins, Edward A. O’Neill