Expressing doubts on the local government’s capability to manage park facilities efficiently, an official of the National Park Service or NPS is opposing a proposal to localize the administration of the American Memorial Park.<\/p>\n
“We would like to continue the collaborative relationship that we have with the commonwealth in the management of the American Memorial Park,” NPS superintendent Karen Gustin said.<\/p>\n
Gustin was commenting on Senate Bill 11-126, which seeks to authorize and empower the governor to request the secretary of the Department of the Interior the transfer of the administration of the American Memorial Park to the local government.<\/p>\n
The bill, introduced by Senate vice president Thomas P. Villagomez, was recently passed by the Senate, and tossed to the House Committee on Natural Resources.<\/p>\n
“We can accomplish a lot more together than either one of us can on our own and the future can be very exciting for the park with careful planning and a common focus,” Gustin said in a letter to committee chairman Rep. Manuel A. Tenorio.<\/p>\n
“Another factor to consider is that if the transfer were to occur, what responsibilities the CNMI would have to the United States in ensuring proper care and management of the memorial.,” Gustin said.<\/p>\n
Gustin reminded the local officials that the federal government would stop funding the park if its management and operations are transferred to the local government.<\/p>\n
For the current fiscal year, the NPS’s federal funding obligation amounts to $504,000, which mostly goes to personnel costs, supply and equipment.<\/p>\n
The American Memorial Park, located in Garapan, also receives money from the Marianas Public Lands Trust for its improvement.<\/p>\n
“We would suggest that should a management transfer ultimately occur, the entire current balance of the trust fund remain in the trust to continue to be invested and managed in accordance with current Marianas Public Land Trust policies. That would include the current policy of only spending the income from the principal on park operations,” Gustin said.<\/p>\n
Gustin noted that NPS has been entrusted to manage the American Memorial Park, along with other national parks in the U.S.<\/p>\n
“Because it is managed by NPS, it belongs to a very important group of protected areas and sites which include treasures such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and the Statue of Liberty,” Gustin said.<\/p>\n
What NPS wants to do, she added, is tap a network of professionals from other national parks as well as the local community to help in the improvement of the American Memorial Park.<\/p>\n
The park was established in 1978 to honor the war dead who fought during the Mariana Islands Campaign of World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Expressing doubts on the local government’s capability to manage park facilities efficiently, an official of the National Park Service or NPS is opposing a proposal to localize the administration of the American Memorial Park.<\/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-47220","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\/47220","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=47220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}