{"id":218234,"date":"2016-01-08T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=218234"},"modified":"2016-01-08T06:00:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T20:00:04","slug":"nmsa-must-have-back-up-plan-for-oleai-oval-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmsa-must-have-back-up-plan-for-oleai-oval-project\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSA must have back-up plan for Oleai oval project"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Northern Marianas Sports Association vice president Dr. Kurt Barnes and contractors bidding for the resurfacing of the Oleai track oval inspect the facility. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Northern Marianas Sports Association must have a back-up plan in order to complete the resurfacing of the track oval inside the Oleai Sports Complex in case the funds approved for the project is insufficient.<\/p>\n

This was what Northern Marianas Housing Corp. deputy corporate director Zenie P. Mafnas suggested when she and NMHC planner and environmental officer Jacob Muna met with NMSA vice president Kurt Barnes and NMSA executive director Tony Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

They met last Wednesday afternoon following the site inspection they made together with the representatives of the 10 interested contractors, which will be bidding to land the project.<\/p>\n

Muna said that they are extending the submission of the bids from Jan. 22 to Jan. 29 to give the contractors more time to come up with a respectable offer.<\/p>\n

Once the contract is awarded to a winning bidder, NMHC and NMSA are expecting the project\u2014if no more problems arise\u2014 to be completed by the end of June or just before the start of the rainy season.<\/p>\n

The contractor must have 10 years of experience in doing similar projects is one of the requirements that are written on the bid packets given by NMHC.<\/p>\n

Mafnas said they don\u2019t want the resurfacing to be stopped in case the money that they will be providing would not be enough to finish the entire project.<\/p>\n

She added that they are just thinking of possible scenarios that might happen since they don\u2019t want to fund a project that would be stopped and won\u2019t be completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to start a project that would be stopped midway after we learned that there will be shortage of funds. We just don\u2019t want to fund a project that would be half-baked,\u201d said Mafnas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track must be in excellent condition since that\u2019s the reason why we\u2019re funding the project and to prepare it for public use and for future events.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMHC is funding the project after NMSA became eligible to receive $965,000 through the Community Development Block Grant. Eighty percent of the money is allocated for the resurfacing of the track while the remaining 20 percent or $193,000 is reserved for administrative work.<\/p>\n

Barnes said if in case the project would not yet push through, they have no choice but to temporarily close the track facility for the public\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s no project, then we have to close down the track because it has a lot of cracks and bubbles. It is not safe for public use and people might trip or get hurt if they continue to use it,\u201d added Barnes.<\/p>\n

One solution that could be done is to ask the Governor\u2019s Office for additional funding and NMSA must do this before the project start.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi said they welcome Mafnas\u2019 suggestion since it would really nice to finally see and use the new track oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they [NMHC] are asking us to do. To have a back-up, what if there\u2019s a lack of funds. We must be prepared for this,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

\u201c[NMHC] is just reminding us that, what if the winning bidder is over the budget. That\u2019s why we need to look for additional funding. That is just our main concern for now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi said that they would ask for a meeting with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to ask for additional funds from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll wait for the funeral of the late governor Eloy S. Inos, and then we\u2019re going to ask Gov. Torres. We\u2019re sure we can get a positive response since the track is one of the most used facilities here,\u201d added Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

NMSA is in the process of having the track resurfaced after black patches, bubbles, and cracks could be seen on the rubber surface of the decade-old facility. The resurfacing is part of their project to prepare Saipan\u2019s sports facilities in time for the island\u2019s hosting of the 2021 Pacific Mini Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northern Marianas Sports Association must have a back-up plan in order to complete the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":218254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1900,1120,1162,2820],"class_list":["post-218234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-kurt-barnes","tag-nmhc","tag-nmsa","tag-pacific-mini-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218234","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}