The public is invited to browse through Mongoose Junction and take a look at the merchants participating in the shopping complex?s Holiday Decoration Contest. Cast a vote, or more than one, for any of the stores before the December 23 drawing. 

Get ready for one of the most hotly anticipated events of the year where guests support one of the most worthy causes on St. John; education.

The 17th Annual Julius E. Sprauve School Gala is Saturday, January 18, at Caneel Bay Resort?s Terrace Grill. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. with cocktails followed by dinner and dancing.

This year?s theme is ?Colors of the Rainbow Flowing Together, Growing Together, Celebrating Diversity and Unity.?

Tickets, which often sell out quickly, are for sale for $100 each. There are also $10 and $25 raffle tickets for the chance to win gift certificates to local restaurants and shops, hotel stays and more. The night will also feature both a live and silent auction for guests to bid on an array of exciting prizes.

?Our raffle drawings are responsible for a large portion of the funds raised each year,? said JESS Principal Dionne Wells. ?The exciting, high energy atmosphere that is generated during this part of the evening?s events has always provided great entertainment and fun to all our attendees. They will be on sale at various locations in Cruz Bay as well as the school office until January 17, 2014.?

Stop by Coral Bay Garden Center during the month of December where owner Josephine Roller, above, is collecting money and donating a portion of the garden sales to a Philippines relief fund.

When Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines on November 8, it was 300 miles across and was recorded as one of the most intense tropical storms to ever make landfall anywhere.

As new information of the suffering, loss of life, and forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, continues to emerge, St. John farmer and owner of Coral Bay Garden Center Josephine Roller has launched a local fundraising campaign.

Roller, a native of the Philippines, is donating 20 percent of all garden sales during the month of December to the Filipino American Association of St. Thomas/St. John. She is also accepting outright donations of cash and checks for the organization.

The new logo for the new organization dedicated to solving wider issues facing St. John.

As the Island Green Building Association approaches its 10th anniversary in 2014, the local non-profit that works to promote sustainable and environmentally responsible development and construction in the Virgin Islands has decided to expand its mission and broaden its membership.

IGBA is proud to announce the creation of the Island Green Living Association, which will act as a larger umbrella organization, allowing the non-profit to focus on wider solutions for the issues facing St. John, including loss of natural resources, mounting waste and recycling challenges, crippling energy costs and economic uncertainty.

With the creation of IGLA, the group hopes to brand St. John as a ?green tourism retreat? and tackle other issues by joining forces with the public and other organizations to develop sustainable living programs.

 A section of Centerline Road near the Estate Upper Carolina subdivision, left, initially damaged more than three years ago, has been passable in only one lane for more than six months.

More than three years after a portion of Centerline Road was undermined ­? and following months of promises from the Department of Public Works ? nothing has been done to stop the island?s sole road connecting Cruz Bay and Coral Bay from continuing to crumble.

As heavy rains lashed St. John last week many residents feared Centerline Road would be washed out completely.

?The work was supposed to be started in October and the funds were supposedly in place,? said one resident who commutes from Coral Bay to Cruz Bay on Centerline Road. ?I feel enraged and lied to. And it?s really scary especially with all the rain we?ve been having.?

Several sections of Centerline Road and at least one section of Fish Bay Road were undermined by heavy rains during Tropical Storm Otto in October 2010. DPW crews on St. John placed orange cones near the worst sections of Centerline Road and Fish Bay Road as officials applied for Federal Highway Administration funds to fix the roadway.

Two years of delays were blamed on the lengthy FHA applications process, according to DPW Commissioner Darryl Smalls.

Heavy rains this past May sent a section of Centerline Road near the Estate Upper Carolina subdivision tumbling down the Carolina Valley hillside. Since then, the partially blind corner has been passable only in one lane.

Following months of pleas and petitions, in July DPW officials installed signage and speed bumps on either side of the compromised roadway and erected a berm around the crumbling section of Centerline Road.

DPW?s plans, specifications and estimates for the road repair project were finally approved by FHA on May 23. Bid packages for the estimated $1 million project were issued in mid-June and initially due by July 16. That deadline was extended an extra 60 days and DPW finally chose Island Roads as the contractor in August.