Sports and Rec to overcome shortcomings

While he has not officially been named as the director of the Division of Sports and Recreation, Joe Lizama has been filling the void left by Tony Rogolifoi when he retired last month in an acting role.

The 27-year veteran of public service has not been wasting any time for the word to come down the pipeline, as Lizama has been chasing down funding that will help prepare the Oleai Sports Complex for the 2006 Micronesian Games.

“My main priority is to find money to fix the leaking roof at the Ada Gym (Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium) and to fix the lights of (Francisco M. Palacios) baseball field,” he said.

Lizama said that work on the field actually began months ago following typhoons Tingting and Chaba, but that the work was delayed due to problems with the original contractor.

“What happened was that they awarded the contract but the company defaulted because they couldn’t fix the lights so FEMA cancelled the contracts. Right now we are getting a survey from [Department of] Public Works so we can submit another contract for the Ada Gym,” he said.

The delay actually came at a good time for everyone involved with local baseball. Since they were forced to play during the day, the players of the Saipan Major League have moved to the Kan Pacific Baseball Field in Marpi in order to allow for the grass to grow on Tan Ko’s infield.

Lizama said that it is only a matter of time before the local ballers get to play on the newly styled diamond, and that the finishing touches have recently been pushed back due to weather.

“We were supposed to start putting out the dirt, but this weekend’s rain pushed that back,” he said.

While the lights and the field should be ready in time for the Games, Lizama said that the plans for the grandstand at the both the baseball and softball fields have been scrapped due to a lack of time.

“It’s too late now. They have the money, but the recommendation from DPW is that even though it’s an Executive Order, it’s too late now. We only have four and a half months now,” he said.

Spectators will not be left to their legs during the competition, as Lizama said that his boys will be placing additional bleachers allocated by Marianas High School behind the backstop.

While Tan Ge Softball Field will not be getting the fancy seating array originally drawn up by the organizing committee, Lizama said that the facility will be receiving a new scoreboard by the end of the month.

“We ordered it back in October, but there were problems with the money and verification of the check, but that’s all cleared up now,” he said.

The second major project on Lizama’s list is putting and end to the lingering leaking of the Ada Gym. The roof project was another one of the projects that fell into default by the winning contractor, and will be going through the bidding process once again.

“We have this foam on top of the tin that they put in back in 1981. Now all of that is cracking so the water goes in between the foam and the tin and that’s why it’s leaking,” he said.

Lizama said that now they have to take all of that out before the start of the Micro Games, but that there is no question that Saipan will play host the region this summer.

“I think we can host it. There’s no problem with that,” he said.

Other scheduled improvements on the table for the new year include the completion of the lighting project at the track and field facility. Currently, two of the large towers stand ready to illuminate the late night runners, hurlers, and leapers once the power lines are connected to them.

“The only hold up right there is the skeleton they found by the track, so they couldn’t run the line,” he said.

Lizama said that the cost to excavate and relocate the bones runs approximately $3,000, and that doesn’t include all of the time it takes to confer with all of the government agencies.

“Before we can start digging we need permission from HPO, DPW, MPLA, and all of those agencies,” he said.

The lights aren’t the only problem at the track, as Lizama pointed out that the grassy infield encompassed by the rubberized oval is unsafe for use by local football and soccer players due to last minute redesigns with the sprinkler system.

“Even when you take out the sprinklers there is still a six-inch base that remains. We have the soccer goal and the football goal, but we cannot use the field because of the sprinklers. It’s not safe,” he said.

Lizama said that Tom McKenzie of Laolao Bay Golf Resort originally took the time to map out the system that would have taken care of the field, but that his plans were scrapped by the contractor.

“He’s the one who did the sprinkler design, but when he saw this he was really upset. He spent three days doing all of the printouts and they changed it,” he said.

With contractors running short of funding and time running short for the Games, the irony of the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool falling six inches short of a full 50 meters almost seems par for the course.

The only thing that Lizama can’t figure out is how the pool “shrunk.”

“In 1990 we had the Micro Games here and everything was okay. I don’t know why we’re short—and Bill [Sakovich] was the one doing the swimming. He never mentioned that the pool was short by six inches,” he said.