A non-profit organization headed by Marianas Counseling Services counselor Chris Sablan is planning to open the CNMI\u2019s first drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in As Perdido, Saipan. <\/p>\n
CNMI Zoning Office administrator Therese T. Ogumoro in an interview said the Marianas Behavioral Health International Inc.\u2019s request for conditional use permit will be entertained by the Zoning Board at a public hearing on Thursday, Aug. 11, at 5pm.<\/p>\n
Ogumoro said if the project pushes through, it will be the first drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
In its application for zoning conditional use permit, Marianas Behavioral is proposing to develop the former Cultural Center in lower As Perdido into a recovery residence center for drug and alcohol counseling for a maximum of eight patients.<\/p>\n
The site area containing 1,817 square meters is zoned as rural district.<\/p>\n
The company estimated $15,000 as budget of the project, including cost of material, labor, planning, engineering, and studies.<\/p>\n
The Zoning Board encouraged the public to comment on the company\u2019s proposal at the hearing. <\/p>\n
Marianas Behavioral Health International Inc. vice president D.J. Sablan in a phone interview on Friday said hopefully the CNMI will soon have the first drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities.<\/p>\n
D.J. Sablan said Marianas Behavioral is a non-profit corporation and has board members.<\/p>\n
He said they are waiting right now for the budget from the Legislature to be approved.<\/p>\n
He said Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres has to approve the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the target. Once we get funding from the government we will open,\u201d said D.J. Sablan, adding that they are eyeing September or October 2016 as their opening.<\/p>\n
In his remarks during the graduation ceremony for police cadets last week, Torres announced that he has committed $1 million in his budget proposal to establishing a substance abuse treatment center to go alongside the newly established drug court.<\/p>\n
Torres also disclosed that he has asked the Legislature to provide an additional $1 million from the casino gross revenue tax this year to the Community Guidance Center to work toward treatment of alcohol and substance abuse illness immediately. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A non-profit organization headed by Marianas Counseling Services counselor Chris Sablan is planning to open…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,8608,26,7309],"class_list":["post-233806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-chris-sablan","tag-cnmi","tag-marianas-counseling-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233806","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}