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Guests toured Hassel Island harbor aboard the m/v Harbor Cat, kindly donated for the evening by Trudie and Cornelius Prior. Historical commentary was provided by Alton A. Adams, Jr. and Charles Consalvo.
Noted historian George F. Tyson, as the guest speaker, emphasized that throughout the restoration process the contributions made by local residents must be highlighted. Their role in sustaining the economy has the same historical significance as the sites targeted for preservation.
Senator Basil Ottley remarked on the importance of making Hassel Island available to our youth; Hassel Island is significant to us locally as well as globally. Delegate Donna Christensen extended her full support to the Trust and its members in taking on the task of saving Hassel Island. Christensen stated that although Hassel Island sits in the St. Thomas harbor, its history is joined to our history---as Hassel Island was once physically joined to St. Thomas---the history of all the Virgin Islands.
Executive Director of the Trust, Luanne Melchior, estimates that the Hassel Island Initiative will cost upwards of $7,000,000. The current condition of the sites necessitates the immediacy of raising funds, Melchior said. All community members are encouraged to join. Membership makes these events possible.
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A nonprofit organization that sought to restore and revitalize Hassel Island's historical sites has announced it will dissolve and throw its support behind the St. Thomas Historical Trust, which also has a goal of helping preserve the island's rich history.
"It seemed to make sense to me: Let's all come together and work to make Hassel Island what it should be," said Rik Van Rensselaer, president of The Hassel Island Preservation Trust.
]]> 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.
]]>ST. THOMAS - A St. Thomas civic group has pledged to take the lead in raising funds and providing volunteers to preserve the historically significant Hassel Island in St. Thomas Harbor.
On a balcony of a private home with a majestic view across the island, St. Thomas Historical Trust president Philip Sturm and Virgin Islands National Park Superintendent Art Frederick on Thursday evening signed an agreement between the two entities.
]]> The memorandum of understanding outlines how they will work together during the next five years. Most of the land on Hassel Island belongs to the National Park, with other parts owned privately or by the V.I. Port Authority."This is a new chapter in the history of Hassel Island," Frederick said. "It's a gem over there. All it needs is a little dusting off to bring it back to its brilliance again."
He promised to attend the monthly board meetings of the trust, a nonprofit organization that numbers about 125 members.
The next step likely will be to clear away debris from the island's shores and vegetation from its historic structures, which are overgrown with brush, Frederick told The Daily News after the signing. Park officials and trust leaders will begin in August to decide which areas to tackle first.
Hassel Island's history is rich, particularly in marine, military and commercial activity.
During the 1800s, when St. Thomas already was among the busiest ports in the Caribbean, Hassel Island's Creque Marine Railway contained a bustling ship repair business that used a steam boiler and chains to draw ships out of the water and onto rails for fixing.
The marine railway is considered one of the territory's most significant historical artifacts, but decades of neglect, battering storms and overgrown plants have left it crumbling.
Elsewhere on the island, the stone remnants of Fort Willoughby, built by the Danes in 1779; the Cowell's Battery gun platform, built by the British Army in 1801; and the Garrison House magazine, built during the second British occupation of St. Thomas in 1840, attest to the land's significance. Hassel Island is believed to contain at least 11 important archaeological sites.
In recent years, however, the island has been the subject of controversy and never-fully-realized attempts to make it attractive and accessible to tourists and locals.
Communications company Atlantic Tele-Network requested permission in 2003 to install a 93-foot-high cell phone tower on Signal Hill, the site of a 1940s U.S. Army barracks. ATN offered in return to sponsor historic preservation work at the site.
That portion of the island that belongs to the Port Authority, which allowed a dirt road that had overgrown to hiking-trail condition to be re-cut into the hillside.
Both the highly visible road and and prospect of the communications tower prompted public criticism, which led to Port Authority Executive Director Darlan Brin's decision not to bring the second request before the agency's governing board for consideration.
Community activist Edward Harmon Killebrew, who told The Daily News this week that he has been fascinated by Hassel Island since living there in the 1970s, had organized the road-cutting and pitched the communications tower idea to several companies as a means of funding historic restoration work.
Killebrew has been conducting historic tours of Hassel Island for the past year and a half, but he said Thursday that business has been sporadic.
A member of both the St. Thomas Historical Trust and the Friends of the V.I. National Park, he noted that the Friends tried several years ago to begin restoration on the island - but they ultimately were unable to keep up momentum before brush grew back over the exposed historic sites.
The Friends in 2002 received more than $60,000 in donations of goods and services from the territory for restoration on the Creque Marine Railway, for instance, and organized volunteers to clear weeds and small trees from its steam house and other structures.
The Friends found Hassel Island's needs too monumental to handle alone, development director Karen Brady acknowledged Wednesday, but the group would still like to participate in projects there.
"There's just too much work over there for the Friends of the Park," Brady said. "We don't want to take it on ourselves. We'd love if another group were to take the lead, but we certainly want a seat at the table. We'd love to be part of a team that opens up Hassel Island to tourists and to the local public."
The historic trust's memorandum of understanding specifies that it will be the lead organization on island projects. Local developer Alton Adams Jr. has chaired the trust's Hassel Island committee for three years and has been meeting with V.I. National Park officials for more than a year on the issue.
The trust's fundraising committee will be developing creative ideas on how to garner money for Hassel Island, the trust's education co-chair, Felipe Ayala, said. For now, the license plate sales and donations that generally support the organization will go toward work there as well.
Killebrew expressed cautious optimism.
"I'm excited, don't get me wrong. If that's what it takes, a big publicity push, to make it happen, that's fine," he said. "But you've got to watch that you don't put yourself out there and then don't get it accomplished. There's been a lot of talk and I just hope they're ready to meet not only the physical goals but also the financial goals."
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Vice President: Joanne Bozzuto
Secretary:Carol Fava
Treasurer: Trevor Milner
]]>Felipe Ayala, Jr.
School Outreach Project Director
Church History Project Director
Elders' Roundtable Project Director
Lawrence Boschulte
Chair Hassel Island Project
Joann Bozzuto
Vice President
Edouard DeLargarde
Fraser Drummond
Chair, Membership Committee
Carol Fava
Secretary
Public Relations
Mary Ann Hickey
Chair, Mission Development
Cynthia Jerry
Sean L. Krigger
License Plate Project Manager
Ronald S. Lockhart
President
Website Coordinator
Trevor Milner
Treasurer
James O'Bryan
Michael Sheen
Chair, Building Development
Treganza Roach
Jacob Spell
John P.Woods
Chair, Fundraising Committee