Susupe Beach Park gets a new children’s playground

Community members who visit the Susupe Regional Beach Park will have another reason to have more fun at the park with its latest feature—a children’s playground.

The playground—which includes a slide, a see-saw, swing set, and monkey bars—was unveiled Friday in a ceremony organized by Tan Holdings, which adopted the park and placed it under its care three years ago.

Tan Holdings president Jerry Tan led government officials and guests in the ribbon cutting, marking the completion of the second phase of the company’s efforts to rehabilitate the park.

Prior to the ceremony, some 30 executives of Tan Holdings were already at the park as early as 7am to take part in the general cleaning of the grounds and painting of the concrete slabs.

In an interview, Tan emphasized that the corporation’s adoption of the Susupe Regional Beach Park in 2008 was not a one-time deal.

“Our message is that we at Tan Holdings have a long-term commitment to helping the Division of Parks and Recreation in the upkeep of the Susupe Regional Beach Park so that the community can continue to enjoy it,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Tan disclosed that the park’s rehabilitation, which has a project cost of about $40,000 actually involved three phases.

The first phase was the overall improvement of the park—major repairs on all pavilions and installing a roof on the stage—which was in poor shape when it was first adopted by Tan Holdings.

Tan said most of the work for the first phase was carried out by a contractor, Reliance Construction, although volunteers regularly came in to do cleanup and paint jobs.

The second phase, Tan said, was to provide lighting for people who use the park at night. The project was close to completion when they found out that all copper wires were stolen one night.

“That phase was abandoned because we cannot find a solution to how we can still provide the lighting without worrying about people stealing them,” said Tan.

Tan said the third phase is the children’s playground.

According to Tan, the primary reason why the Susupe Regional Beach Park was chosen among other parks on island is its premier location.

“We have some other beach parks but the location is a little bit out of the way. This park is at the heart of the village of Susupe so it’s very accessible to the public,” he explained.

Tan said the Susupe Regional Beach Park has other salient features such as abundant trees as well as seven pavilions and a stage that can be utilized by families or organizations for special events.

Even with the completion of the project, Tan said Tan Holdings will be doing evaluation and assessment every year or two to check if there is any additional repair work that needs to be done. “This is not a one-time adoption.”

The Tan Holdings management executives were joined by 11 members of Teen Talk, a youth organization under the Public School System Youth Development Program, at Friday’s cleanup.

Adviser Sharleen Crisostimo said the group, which meets whenever and wherever they can, helps encourage students to have good, clean fun.

Some of their members, Crisostimo said, are now off-island as they are in military duty or studying college.

Crisostimo, who joined the students along with advisers Monica Pangelinan and Freddy Salavaria, said they agreed to participate in the rehabilitation efforts for the Susupe Beach Regional Park when they were approached by Tan Holdings.

“We’re willing to assist in anything that can help the community and give our kids fun without using drugs or alcohol. It’s about youth-friendly fun,” she said.

Rep. Ray Palacios and Rep. Rafael Demapan Jr. attended the ceremony and expressed their appreciation to Tan Holdings for what it has done for the park on behalf of Precinct II residents.

“It makes me very proud and very fortunate that at least Tan Holdings is here to help us with our area,” said Palacios.

“I appreciate the continued support of Tan Holdings in rehabilitating the Susupe Beach Park. I hope that this good relationship between the private sector and the government will continue,” said Demapan.

Manny Pangelinan of the Division of Agriculture said the end users of the playground “will be very happy.”

“This park belongs to all of us. Tan Holdings’ contribution makes a big difference,” he said.

For his part, Parks & Recreation director Anthony Benavente said they are very grateful to Tan Holdings. “We can’t do so much because the budget is really going down. With the assistance from any of these companies to go and help out in terms of repair or little bit of renovation, it will be very helpful for the community and the government,” he said.