{"id":371356,"date":"2022-06-28T06:06:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T20:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=371356"},"modified":"2022-06-28T06:06:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T20:06:48","slug":"100k-needed-to-maintain-public-cemetery-in-marpi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/100k-needed-to-maintain-public-cemetery-in-marpi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018$100K needed to maintain public cemetery in Marpi\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_371357\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-371357\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Anthony-Benavente-mug-PW.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-371357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Anthony-Benavente-mug-PW-1024x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-371357\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anthony Benavente<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With the Tanapag cemetery already full, the Department of Public Lands and Natural Resources will need to open the Marpi public cemetery already by next fiscal year, according to DLNR Secretary Anthony Benavente last week.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee\u2019s hearing on DLNR\u2019s budget last Wednesday, Benavente estimated they need $100,000 in all to open the Marpi public cemetery.<br \/>\nHe said that DLNR\u2019s Parks and Recreation is obligated to handle the maintenance of that cemetery.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are looking at opening that public Marpi cemetery. We need to start that. It\u2019s very important and the maintenance of that public cemetery is critical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said there is an added cost in terms of maintenance and upkeeping.<br \/>\nIn response to a question of Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota), Benavente said that Parks and Recreation needs $100,000 for the cemetery project.<\/p>\n<p>Benavente said presently, there are 2,500 existing graves at that public cemetery that remain unused and that another 2,500 will be built, for a total of 5,000 graves that will be available to the public.<br \/>\n\u201cSo that\u2019s in the work right now,\u201d said Benavente, adding that the Division of Fish and Wildlife has cleared the other land area of the cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>He said if he is not mistaken, $1 million has already been set aside for that construction of the additional 2,500 graves.<\/p>\n<p>Benavente said it\u2019s time to start using the existing 2,500 graves they\u2019ve been lying idle.<br \/>\nDLNR submitted a total budget request of $3.9 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Of that amount, approximately $3.1 million is proposed for a total of 101 positions. In addition, DLNR requested $783,000 for operations and $7,000 for utility.<\/p>\n<p>However, the governor\u2019s proposal allocates $2.13 million and 93 personnel for personnel.<br \/>\n\u201cThis computes a shortfall of $1.76 million,\u201d Manglona said.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig that there will be a revised budget submission on July 1, which shall include additional funding for operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the Tanapag cemetery already full, the Department of Public Lands and Natural Resources will&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":371357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371356","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=371356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}