{"id":174859,"date":"2014-01-02T20:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T20:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c2884a45-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e"},"modified":"2014-01-02T20:26:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T20:26:00","slug":"c2884a59-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/c2884a59-1dfb-11e4-aedf-250bc8c9958e\/","title":{"rendered":"Blanco elected zoning board chair for 3rd time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Saipan Zoning Board affirmed once again their trust and confidence in their chairman, Diego C. Blanco, who was re-elected to the position during a regular meeting Friday night. This marks Blanco\u2019s third time to take the helm of the board since being first appointed to the post.<\/p>\n<p>Besides Blanco, Gus Kaipat was elected as the new vice board chairman while Bruce Bateman and Natalie Mabel Ayuyu won the seats of secretary and treasurer, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The Commonwealth Zoning Board is composed of seven members, four of whom are officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel so honored that my colleagues re-elected me back to continue leading the board. The past several years have been so difficult and challenging for the zoning program and I am proud to have been part of its governing board to ensure that improvements to the program are continuously updated and implemented accordingly to cater to our island&#8217;s economy,\u201d Blanco told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the office\u2019s many progresses and accomplishments, Blanco said many challenges still face the zoning program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s still a long way to go, but with optimism and a hardworking staff, I&#8217;m sure that the benefits of zoning on our communities will far outweigh the cons in no time&#8230;please take a tour around our islands and witness the many positive changes that have already begun taking effect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Blanco\u2019s priorities include continuing finding ways to improve the zoning law and program \u201cto help our businesses, property owners, visitors, and overall economy; and to appeal to our lawmakers, governor, and lieutenant governor to help the program with its operational and financial needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blanco also commended Zoning administrator Therese Ogumoro and her staff for their dedication and efforts to keep beautifying the island, and particularly for the creation of the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Saipan Zoning Board affirmed once again their trust and confidence in their chairman, Diego C. Blanco, who was re-elected to the position during a regular meeting Friday night. This marks Blanco\u2019s third time to take the helm of the board since being first appointed to the post.<\/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-174859","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\/174859","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=174859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}