Mayor’s office vows to hasten road repair • Lack of funds, wakes blamed for delay

Responding to complaints that it has been slow in the delivery of public services, the Saipan Mayor’s Office yesterday assured the people that it would try to address immediately concerns of the community, particularly repair of secondary roads on the island.

Kimo M. Rosario, special assistant to the mayor, blamed budgetary crunch and lack of necessary equipment as well as priority given to community wakes to the delay in the road repair projects.

“As much as the Mayor would like to assist the community at large at any given time, it is near impossible,” he said in a statement released yesterday.

Rosario urged the public to be patient as Mayor Jose C. Sablan assured his office would respond to various job requests gradually, although not as soon as they expect it.

Sablan came under fire last week during the session of the Saipan and the Northern Islands Legislative Delegation over apparent inability of his office to address various needs of the community.

House Majority Floor Leader Ana S. Teregeyo called on the mayor to speed up response to job requests, like immediate repair of secondary roads which have worsened in recent weeks due to the onset of the typhoon season.

After the session last Friday, Sablan met with municipal officials to try to deal with the mounting complaints, instructing Rosario to inform the public of the current situation at the mayor’s office.

According to the special assistant, the office has traditionally prioritized requests for assistance from families for wakes or rosaries regardless of the date of submission for such a request.

Sablan has received “numerous job requests for wakes this past several weeks… which consequently impede daily operations,” said Rosario.

He also disclosed demands for road repair have “skyrocketed” in recent weeks, exceeding funding level appropriated by the central government and taxing limited resources of the cash-strapped agency.

“To make matters worse, our operational equipment is limited thus making it nearly impossible to fulfill all requests,” Rosario explained. “Therefore, the Mayor’s Office can only entertain a minimal number of job requests one at a time.”

The municipal government also screens each request before granting assistance based on public need and other technicalities such as permit, land survey and legality.