The Saipan and Northern Islands Local Delegation opened its doors to two groups seeking funding during their session last Thursday but was not quite ready to open its checkbook just yet.<\/p>\n
Saipan Southern High School Manta Ray Band went up to Capital Hill to ask for help in financing their trip to next year\u2019s 2012 London Olympics. <\/p>\n
SSHS principal Jesse Tudela said the 50-member band would need about $300,000 to finance their trip, set from July 24 to Aug. 8 in the United Kingdom capital.<\/p>\n
Broken down, each band member would need to fundraise $6,000: $2,000 for airfare, $2,000 for accommodations, and $2,000 for food.<\/p>\n
Besides the Summer Olympics, the band has also been invited to several other occasions, including an event that will be attended by no less than Queen Elizabeth II, according to Manta Ray Band musical director James Dewitt, who also attended the hearing with two band members. <\/p>\n
Tudela said the band had already paid the initial deposit of $20,000 last month, but would need to come up with $25,000 by February 2012 to keep up with payment increments.<\/p>\n
He said SSHS would have to forfeit the $20,000 advance in the event it fails to pay future increments. Tudela said, however, that that is not an option.<\/p>\n
So far, $2,000 has already been raised by band members and their parents, Tudela said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever you give will not go waste. It will contribute to the band members\u2019 educational and musical experience,\u201d said Tudela.<\/p>\n
Rep. Ramon Basa (Cov-Saipan) described the $300,000 the band needs as \u201chumongous,\u201d saying it would be a \u201cchallenge for the local delegation to come up with that [amount]!\u201d<\/p>\n
House floor leader George Camacho (Ind-Saipan) said the amount the band is asking for will not come from SNILD\u2019s \u201cpetty cash\u201d but promised that \u201cthey will try to figure things out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) said that government finances are really hard up and asked the band if the flight packages they\u2019ve chosen are the most economical.<\/p>\n
[B]$44K for judgments[\/B]<\/p>\n
The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office, meanwhile, approached SNILD for expenditure authority so the municipality could finally settle judgments involving the Liberation Day fireworks accident in 2007 and another with regards to money it owes Guangdong Hardware. <\/p>\n
Saipan Mayor Donald Flores\u2019 special assistant Henry Hofschneider said it needs the delegation\u2019s approval to appropriate money raised from \u201cbatu,\u201d cockfighting, and bingo activities to pay $44,000 for the two judgments.<\/p>\n
Hofschneider said in the case of the fireworks judgment, the municipality hasn\u2019t paid the three plaintiffs involved in the case in the past three years and this has resulted in awards ballooning from $16,000 to $24,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principal will only continue to accrue interest\u201d if the mayor\u2019s office doesn\u2019t settle the judgment,\u201d Hofschneider said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Saipan and Northern Islands Local Delegation opened its doors to two groups seeking funding during their session last Thursday but was not quite ready to open its checkbook just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}