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Underscoring the fact that investing in the present and future of the territory’s students remain a top priority for his administration, Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. on Saturday signed into law a bill that will establish an e-book program in the territory’s schools in the 2012-2013 school year. “We cannot let our children fall any further behind in the digital divide and as this program seeks to bridge that gap, it has my full support.”
The governor’s approval on legislation to establish the e-book program was one in a series of actions taken by the Chief Executive on Saturday on various measures passed in a two-day session of the 29th Legislature last month. The bills were due back to the Senate yesterday.
De Jongh approved Bills 29-0002 and 29-0053 honoring two stalwarts of the community, the late Elmo D. Roebuck, Sr. and Justino R. Colon. “I am pleased to see a portion of Route 30 being dedicated to the memory of the Virgin Islands’ longest serving Senate President. Additionally, I join the Legislature in saluting another kind of public servant, Mr. Justino Colon, whose barber shop for more than four decades was not just a fine place to get a haircut, but also both a forum and a classroom for frank and open discussion of the important civic and cultural topics of the day.” Despite public controversy, de Jongh approved Bill 29-0012 recognizing the long public service of its honoree, former Governor Charles W. Turnbull.
In other action, de Jongh approved legislation that would correct a deficiency in the Plant Closing Act law. Despite the approval, the governor pointed out that there remain provisions which require further amendments. He urged the Senate to work with the Department of Labor to address these provisions in the future.
Rezoning measures in three bills were approved but the governor nixed one rezoning in Estate Neltjberg on St. Thomas. He shared the concerns of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources with the development of the site given the steep slope and great opposition from owners of the neighboring parcels.
Two resolutions to enact Major Coastal Zone permits and three other resolutions adopted by the Senate were acknowledged by the governor. De Jongh said he was pleased to join the Legislature in applauding Ian Barrows, a tenth grade student at Antilles School on St. Thomas who is an honor roll student, a sailing coach and an avid and accomplished sailor in his own right. “Among his accomplishments, recently Mr. Barrows received a gold medal in the first Youth Olympics in Singapore,” de Jongh noted. The governor said there are few things more rewarding to him as governor than to praise and honor the territory’s young people in their broad and many accomplishments.
Finally, Bill 29-0017 fell victim to the governor’s veto for several reasons. “Section 4 of the bill seeks to remove funds from the Department of Housing Parks and Recreation. Such removal of funds jeopardizes the funding which the Department has identified and used to secure the pre-construction phase of the multi-purpose sports complex that is proposed to be built at the Paul E. Joseph Stadium.” De Jongh said the department will soon be executing an agreement to secure such pre-construction services and relies on this funding source to meet those obligations. “Additionally, while I support the Summer Employment Program for the students throughout our territory, Sections 1 and 2 of Bill 29-0017 were vetoed because the Department of Labor finds that its present budget of $1 million dollars to administer the program to be sufficient at this time.”
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