The Hassel Island Preservation Trust announced its decision to close and settle its affairs over the next two months in a prepared statement released Friday.

Van Rensselaer said that the agreement signed in July between the St. Thomas Historical Trust and the V.I. National Park, which owns much of Hassel Island, sparked the move. In the agreement, the trust pledged to take the lead in generating funds and providing volunteers to help preserve the historically-significant island in St. Thomas Harbor.

Friday's statement said The Hassel Island Preservation Trust saw this development as "the catalyst to make Hassel Island come alive again and we are completely committed to work in and with 'The Trust' to make the revival of Hassel Island a reality."

Both Van Rensselaer and Edward Killebrew, founder of The Hassel Island Preservation Trust, are also members of St. Thomas Historical Trust.

"It doesn't make sense to have two things going," Killebrew said. "Let's get on with the work ... and bring the community together in a big way."

Philip Sturm, president of St. Thomas Historical Trust, said he sees the support from The Hassel Island Preservation Trust as a tremendous thing. "We are in this together. We are all pulling in the same direction. This is what we want.

"Mr. Killebrew - I admire him for his love of Hassel Island and the positive thoughts he has. It's a win-win thing."

In recent years, some of the means used by those seeking to restore the island's historical sites have sparked controversy - including a rejected plan for Atlantic Tele-Network to erect a communications tower on the island's Signal Hill in return for funding some historic preservation work and the re-cutting of a dirt road that had overgrown to hiking-trail condition.

Killebrew, who is leasing a piece of V.I. Port Authority land that includes an old Danish battery and a 1940s U.S. military barracks on the island, has been conducting tours to Hassel Island for the last year and a half.

He organized the road re-cutting and had backed the tower proposal, although he later withdrew his support.

Killebrew and Van Rensselaer say they hope to put the controversy behind them.

"We just want to move on with the restoration work. My original idea was to get funds together to make that happen. I am still in that mode," Killebrew said.

Van Rensselaer said The Hassel Island Preservation Trust had hoped to bring the island's history and culture back to life while working with disadvantaged local youth. The move to close the trust and throw its resources behind the St. Thomas Historical Trust seemed the best way to accomplish the goals it had set out in the first place, he said on Monday.

The resources The Hassel Island Preservation Trust plans to transfer to the St. Thomas Historical Trust include permits to perform a cleanup of debris and wrecks left on the island by hurricanes and the mitigation plan for the road, Van Rensselaer said. Any funds left over after the organization settles its affairs also will be transferred, he said.

Ronald Lockhart, vice president of the St. Thomas Historical Trust, said the organization was "elated" with the news. Representatives from the organization's Hassel Island committee met with V.I. National Park Superintendent Art Frederick last week and are awaiting a list of projects on the island that the park sees as a priority, he said.