‘Blue Ridge’ crew to help clean up Sugar King

For the second time this year, Saipan Mayor Juan Borja Tudela will welcome over 1,000 men and women in uniform from the USS Blue Ridge at the Port of Saipan, where sailors will be feted to an island-style cookout at the Sugar King Estate on Friday, Nov. 12, 2004.

The flagship of the 7th Fleet, the USS Blue Ridge, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, is under the command of Captain. J. Steven Maynard.

While on Saipan, the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs will engage the visiting sailors in a community relations project at the Sugar King Estate in Garapan on Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 from 9am to 4pm, with lunch at the estate grounds.

Maynard will also be the keynote speaker at the Veterans Memorial Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2004.

The one-day community volunteer event will enable the men and women in uniform of the USS Blue Ridge to provide relief at the estate ground in various areas such as tree trimming, raking, water blasting around the slab pavements and vehicle parking, repainting of the historic building under the Mayor’s care, planting of trees, flowers, shrubs, and other plants, drainage cleaning, among others.

The project will start at 9am and will end at 4pm tomorrow.

The Office of the Mayor will treat the volunteers at the Sugar King Estate to Saipan’s favorite cuisine, with Tudela joining the sailors over lunch. He will also preside over the presentation of plaques of appreciation to the USS Blue Ridge volunteers and command.

Other activities by the Blue Ridge include a concert by the 7th Fleet Navy Band at the Man’Amko Center adjacent to the Sugar King fairground from 9am to 1:30pm, and a free concert for the public on Friday at the American Memorial Park from 5pm to 7pm.

The community relations activity comes on the heels of rehabilitation work being done on the historic Sugar King Estate by the Saipan Mayor’s Office. The rehabilitative project at the fairground is an added feature of a community plan led by Tudela to erect a Saipan multi-functional cultural and performing center at the estate, one equipped with a locomotive rendition of the sugar industry on Saipan at its peak in the mid-1930s to early 1940s.

The task force, led by Tudela, will also integrate a proposed cable cart that will either run through or begin at the Sugar King, winding its way through a marvel of attractions.

The task force consists of the Secretary of Public Works, the Secretary of Community and Cultural Affairs, the executive director of Marianas Public Land Authority, a representative from the Office of the Governor, the former executive director of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Japan’s Honorary Ambassador of Goodwill for Saipan, government permitting agencies, and other affiliate members in Japan in partnership with the local government.

For more information, call Ms. Florence Stephen at 235-7444 regarding the event at the Sugar King Estate or Ruth Coleman at the Military and Veteran Affairs Office at 664-2650/51. (PR)