Newly sworn-in Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang has outlined several priorities for his office on what they would focus on during his term.<\/p>\n
In an interview on his first day in office, Apatang said he already has several priorities for what the Mayor\u2019s Office would do for the betterment of the community.<\/p>\n
Apatang said that met with the community service workers and came up with the idea of splitting them into two groups\u2014one for the south side of the island and the other for the north. The Mayor\u2019s Office has about 23 employees that perform community services.<\/p>\n
Another thing on Apatang\u2019s list is to get their old grader fixed and procure more heavy equipment so they could start fixing secondary roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, we will start with just maintenance of the roads for Kagman 3 and then we will move on to other secondary roads so that it could stay maintained because the heavy equipment is needed, so that\u2019s our focus,\u201d Apatang said.<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s Office will be receiving new heavy equipment this month and in February that includes a dump truck and two backhoes. They just procured a second bucket truck last year.<\/p>\n
Apatang also plans on working closely with the Humane Society International for the dog control program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met with HSI already and they gave us their survey and we went over it so we will be working with them and I am excited about this program because we need a big public education on this matter and help the community be more responsible,\u201d Apatang said.<\/p>\n
He plans to further engage in the cultural exchange program to strengthen the bond between Japan and Saipan.<\/p>\n
Apatang said he will also work closely with the new Legislature and the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they are organized, I will meet with the local delegation and work with them closely and find more funding for the office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Apatang also wants to work closely with the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance office and their board and the Division of Parks and Recreation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will work with Parks and Recreation because both our agencies share a common goal and that\u2019s to clean up Saipan,\u201d Apatang said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for now we will focus on these and we\u2019ve got enough programs to get situated, then after we can then start adding more programs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Former mayor\u2019s recommendation<\/strong> Tudela urges the new Legislature to work with Apatang for better funding.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is really needed most at the Mayor\u2019s Office are community workers because everything we do is for the community and when we are called to do something, sometimes we are short on our community workers and I urge the Legislature to provide that to the Mayor\u2019s Office so it can continue doing its duties and responsibilities,\u201d Tudela said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newly sworn-in Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang has outlined several priorities for his office on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[37,170],"class_list":["post-189567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-education-2","tag-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189567","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn an earlier interview, former mayor Marian DLG Tudela said she believes Apatang already knows what to do with the office due to his experience as a lawmaker in the past.<\/p>\n