{"id":185946,"date":"2014-11-26T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=185946"},"modified":"2014-11-26T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T18:00:13","slug":"mva-board-oks-51k-mt-tapochau-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mva-board-oks-51k-mt-tapochau-road\/","title":{"rendered":"MVA board OKs $51K for Mt. Tapochau road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_185950\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-185950\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a attid=\"185950\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Perry-Tenorio.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Perry-Tenorio-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Tenorio\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-185950\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-185950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tenorio<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe Marianas Visitors Authority board approved yesterday to set aside $51,000 that will be used to recondition an area of the Mt. Tapochau road.<\/p>\n<p>The area to be reconditioned comprises some 350 feet of the road near the housing area.<\/p>\n<p>MVA board vice chair James Nelson said he has visited the affected area and described it as treacherous, especially during rainy season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy primary concern first and foremost is the safety of the residents there and also the tourists,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>MVA board member Jerry Tan inquired whether there is any long-term solution to fixing the road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI support this. My only question is that if we fix this, are there any long-term solutions to fixing the road because in my experience the entire road is a problem,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n<p>MVA managing director Perry Tenorio told Tan that the Department of Public Works is working on it but there are right of way issues that is preventing DPW from taking any action on the road at once.<\/p>\n<p>Tan pointed out that they can\u2019t keep pulling funds from the MVA budget to fix the road if something happens to it again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy don\u2019t we just fix the budget and fix the road and come up with maybe $3 million funding for the project if it is going to fix the entire road,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n<p>Tenorio said he will work with DPW and see if there are any long term solutions to fixing the entire Mt. Tapochau road and come up with some figures.<\/p>\n<p>Tan said that Mt. Tapochau is a major site that tourists do visit when they come to Saipan to get a view of the whole island. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf DPW would at least provide some ways or means of fixing the road, then a possible funding from MVA would maybe push through if MVA board members discuss it further,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>The board approved the  $51,000 funding with the understanding that this will only be a part of a multi- agency collaboration to fix the Mt. Tapochau road. The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office and DPW will also be providing support, while Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan) will seek additional funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Marianas Visitors Authority board approved yesterday to set aside $51,000 that will be used&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1114,603,212,216],"class_list":["post-185946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-dpw","tag-jerry-tan","tag-mva","tag-perry-tenorio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185946","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=185946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}