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Law designates Marpi as new public cemetery
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Posted on Jan 28 2000
With 103 deaths recorded each year on the island, the government will open a new cemetery in Marpi in efforts to ease overcrowding in existing burial sites as well as to provide “ecologically suitable and aesthetically fitting final resting place,” according to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio.
Under the law he has signed, the site will encompass the lots surrounding the proposed Veterans Cemetery, with total land area equivalent to nearly 70,000 square meters.
This will complement the three cemeteries — in Chalan Kanoa and Tanapag as well as Wireless Hill Public Cemetery in Capitol Hills — which are already full to capacity and pose an environmental hazard to underground water sources.
“Consequently, a new public cemetery is needed on Saipan and perhaps on the other islands in the future to meet the growing demand for burial sites and to provide en ecologically suitable and aesthetically fitting final resting place for the dead,” said Mr. Tenorio in signing House Bill 11-512.
Offered by Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider, the measure grants sole authority to the Department of Public Health the administration of the new Marpi public cemetery.
It will also be responsible for the design and development of the site based on acceptable standards, including construction of interment, crypts and crematorium, in coordination with other government agencies.
The Department of Lands and Natural Resources will handle oversee ground maintenance, coordination of burial activities and further improvements of the site.
Aside from Public Law 11-117, the governor has also approved three other legislation, two of them appropriation bills for various projects on the island.
About $260,619 from the collection generated from the Developer Infrastructure Tax on Saipan will finance road projects in Dandan, San Vicente and Garapan.
Another $12,000 will be reprogrammed for the construction of basketball and tennis courts, and a Headstart facility in San Vicente.
Mr. Tenorio also signed a Senate bill clarifying that time on parole is included as time serving a sentence for a felony in the context of qualification to vote. (BS)
