I have always believed that when a community is involved in planning its own development and future the final product is superior and embraced. During my 20 years in the US Virgin Islands I devoted countless hours to community organizations and projects that correlated with my twin passions of agriculture and wastewater reuse. Below are a number of the community planning projects in which I was a key player and helped nurture with my free time.

2007 - 2012 Virgin Islands Farmers' Cooperative (VIFC)

I served as the VIFC's secretary and grants writer for five years. In that time I wrote and won two major grants for the organization. The first was the Small Minority Producers grant from USDA ($179K). The second was a Conservation Innovations grant from USDA ($75K). The first grant funded the analysis and business plan development for three parcels of land totaling 750 acres and a farmers market all under cooperative management. The second grant was for a combined compost and biochar production operation also under VIFC management.  I donated GIS mapping and master palnning services for the redevelopment of the 500-acre Windsor Dairy Farm into a Agro-Toruism faility and two additional pieces of property that would be used for food and forage crop production.

2001-2006 Community Organizer  Natural Wastewater Treatment System for St. Croix

During the time I was employed by Caribbean Infra-Tech & Sustainable Systems & Design Int. I began an unfunded community organizing effort to build support for utilizing a natural wastewater treatment system to treat and reclaim, for agricultural & golf course irrigation, St. Croix’s 2MGD of wastewater that was being discharged to the sea with only primary treatment. Over a five year organizing effort I was able to build a coalition of 16 community groups supporting the natural treatment system approach that included the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix Environmental Association, St. Croix Foundation, St. Croix Board of Realtors, St. Croix Restaurant Association, and many others. The community coalition was in support of a plan for a $20M natural treatment system while the Waste Water Management Authority (WMMA) supported the plan for a $56M conventional sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The five year battle over which system woukd be installed ended in an unsuccessful court challenge to stop construction of the SBR.

2000- 2006 Secretary St. Croix Farmers In Action

As the secretary of the St. Croix Farmers in Action I worked primarily on producing the media campaign for the acquisition and redevelopment of the Bethlehem Sugar Factory. The factory was originally built in the early 1900's and operated on St. Croix until 1964. The site was completely overgrown by 2000 when we began by elisting students, seeking community service credits, and volunteers with machetes and chain saws to uncover the site's remaining structures from the bush. After two years of weekend work day the site finally emerged form the forest. I wrote and won a grant from the Virgin Island Council of the arts to shoot and produce a film about the sugar factory's  history and its proposed redevelopment into an agro-tourism attraction. The film and the many media presentations and materials I developed helped the project gain government support and funding for the initial phase of its redevelopment.