House lawmakers on Tuesday sought an update from Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang and Department of Public Works Secretary James Ada on reported delays in the islandwide cleanup, some four months after Typhoon Soudelor laid shambles to Saipan.<\/p>\n
Some lawmakers asked why a private contract needed to be issued for this cleanup, but Ada tossed that hot potato to federal officials for denying a contract that was signed since August.<\/p>\n
Apatang said he gets calls everyday about uncollected debris such as roofing tin, wood, green waste, and others.<\/p>\n
Employees of the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office have been moving debris to the side of roads \u201cfor pick up later,\u201d according to Apatang, in advance of more comprehensive cleanups.<\/p>\n
Apatang says they need more equipment like dump trucks, backhoes, and payloads.<\/p>\n
Considering the handful of other typhoons that hit the Marianas this year, lawmakers are concerned that an approaching storm could wash these piles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to hit those roads,\u201d Ada assured.<\/p>\n
Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan) also questioned why they needed to award a contract for the island cleanup. He said they have two government agencies ready to keep the community safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a reason why everything needs to stop because of the contract?\u201d He noted the immediate \u201cmobilization\u201d after the storm, even with \u201cno contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan asked for a definite response on how the issue is being approached, so they could \u201cget beyond this stalemate\u201d over \u201ca paper to be signed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apatang said they \u201cwere told to halt [the cleanup] because a contract was going to be issued\u201d by the secretary of the Department of Public Works.<\/p>\n
He said they are just waiting for the \u201cgo ahead\u201d and are \u201cready to march.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to this contract, Ada said they are \u201cback to square one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s main office in Washington, D.C. was giving them the \u201crun around.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I can be quoted on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the contract was signed in August but was not approved by FEMA officials.<\/p>\n
Joan Aquino, the mayor\u2019s field operations director, said that FEMA had said at the beginning that about $1.9 million was available for the cleanup but in a meeting last week, they were informed that only $625,000 is available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is all they are willing to reimburse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ada also blasted FEMA\u2019s estimate that there were 10,000 tons of debris on island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more\u2026 You are going to come here and tell us what to do?\u201d he asked, noting that official inspectors didn\u2019t even know where Judge Kenneth Govendo\u2019s house was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are guesstimating,\u201d Rep. Joseph Leepan Guerrero (R-Saipan) said.<\/p>\n
Rep. Edwin Propst (Ind-Saipan) also noted that during his community cleanup efforts, he\u2019s noticed \u201ceverybody is waiting for our government to step in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am waiting for constituents to step in\u201d as well, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
House lawmakers on Tuesday sought an update from Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang and Department…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[493,8416,8417,6333],"class_list":["post-215445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-fema","tag-joan-aquino","tag-judge-kenneth-govendo","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215445","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}