The American Memorial Park will soon get a much-needed facelift once a proposal to float bonds worth $2 million is approved by the CNMI government to finance three key projects in the popular recreation site, according to Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan.<\/p>\n
Anticipated to be completed before 2001, the plan will call for improvement of the nature trail as well as the construction of a track and field oval and a flower-bearing garden to be called the Marianas Memorial Garden within the park grounds.<\/p>\n
In an interview with reporters last Friday, Sablan said the Commonwealth Development Authority and the Marianas Public Land Trust will jointly undertake the proposed bond flotation.<\/p>\n
This move is in line with the measure passed by the Legislature which allowed CDA to seek loans of up to $2 million for beautification and improvement projects at the Park.<\/p>\n
Under the bill offered by Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, the debt service will be paid through the interests accumulated under the $7 million existing CDA funds set aside from lease on public lands to the federal government.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the island government is eyeing federal grants to build a cultural center also at the American Memorial Park. The project is estimated to cost at least $2 million.<\/p>\n
At present, Washington allots half-a-million dollars each year to the Commonwealth for maintenance and development of national parks on the island, while the local government chips in at least $100,000.<\/p>\n
For FY 2000, CNMI has proposed raising its share to $150,000 while the federal government will increase its assistance to $800,000.<\/p>\n
The development and improvement of the American Memorial Park comes amid attempt by local lawmakers to seek control of the 20-hectare site from U.S. authorities in a move that will remove federal money in the upkeep and maintenance of the park grounds and facilities.<\/p>\n
The Senate has passed a measure that would authorize and empower the governor to request the U.S. Department of the Interior to transfer administration of the park to the CNMI government.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 11-126 or the American Memorial Park Transfer Act of 1999 has been tossed to the House Natural Resources Committee before it heads to the floor for final voting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The American Memorial Park will soon get a much-needed facelift once a proposal to float bonds worth $2 million is approved by the CNMI government to finance three key projects in the popular recreation site, according to Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47211","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}