{"id":221138,"date":"2016-02-18T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=221138"},"modified":"2016-02-18T06:00:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T20:00:47","slug":"no-conclusions-have-been-drawn-on-divert-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/no-conclusions-have-been-drawn-on-divert-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No Conclusions have been drawn on divert plans\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
From left, Tinian and Aguiguan Legislative Delegation chair Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian), Sen. Francisco Cruz (R-Tinian), Senate President Francisco Borja (Ind-Tinian), Rep. Edwin Aldan (Ind-Tinian), and Tinian and Aguiguan Mayor Joey Patrick San Nicolas pose for a group photo. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tinian and Aguiguan Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas and the Tinian leadership welcome continued open lines of communication with the Department of Defense with regards to the Air Force\u2019s proposed plans to conduct \u201cdivert\u201d training activities and exercises exclusively on the island of Tinian. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it is premature to say that we fully welcome divert training exercises and activities when at this point, we do not know what these plans fully entail given that DOD has only announced that Tinian is now its \u2018preferred alternative,\u2019\u201d said San Nicolas.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the Tinian and Aguiguan Legislative Delegation passed a resolution welcoming divert training activities to Tinian with the understanding that the plans will be complimentary to Tinian\u2019s desire to enhance the infrastructure at the air and sea commercial ports for its tourism and gaming industry. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2012 when the Tinian delegation gave its full support to divert training activities and exercises, it was our belief that the airport would be benefited by the infrastructure that would be built as it could be jointly used for commercial activities. We believed then that this would allow us to welcome international flights that would ultimately benefit our economy,\u201d said TALD chair Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2012 plans, the plans being presented today and the opportunity for Tinian\u2019s economic development are substantially different from when we gave our blessing to these plans four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tinian leadership has not yet had the opportunity to fully engage in dialogue with the DOD to discuss what the actual proposed plans are and how the plans would ultimately impact the community of Tinian. \u201cWe believe that the announcement that Tinian is the \u2018preferred alternative\u2019 is only the beginning of preliminary discussions between the people of the CNMI, DOD and most importantly, the community of Tinian who will ultimately be most impacted either negatively or positively, by the divert plans,\u201d said Senate President Francisco Borja (Ind-Tinian). \u201cThe leadership and the community must be given the opportunity to assess the proposal, determine what the actual benefits and burdens are to the community and determine whether these plans can co-exist with our tourism and gaming industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Nicolas also expresses his concerns over the potential overlap and connection between the divert training exercises, the CNMI Joint Military Training exercises (CJMT), the Marianas Islands Training and Testing (MITT) exercises and the Marianas Islands Range Complex (MIRC) exercises. \u201cWhile the proponents of the divert would like us to believe that these different planned exercises do not overlap, we must do our own due diligence to look at these plans for ourselves and ensure that our community is protected,\u201d said Tinian Municipal Council chair Reynaldo M. Cing. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tinian and Aguiguan Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas and the Tinian leadership welcome continued open…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":221145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1173,1339,9375,1957],"class_list":["post-221138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-dod","tag-san-nicolas","tag-tald","tag-tinian-municipal-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221138","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}