The House of Representatives passed a bill last week appropriating $550,000 as partial funding for the CNMI\u2019s hosting of next year\u2019s Micronesian Games.<\/p>\n
The House approved House Bill 14-378, which aims to tap $550,000 from Managaha Landing fees to construct official grandstands at the Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field and Miguel B. Pangelinan softball field, which are located at the Oleai Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
The construction of these official grandstands have reportedly been identified as the most urgent priority in relation to the hosting of the games.<\/p>\n
The bill was authored by Rep. Justo S. Quitugua and approved by all 16 members during a session Thursday.<\/p>\n
The bill said that it would be the third time that the CNMI has been selected by the Micronesian Games Organizing Committee to host the event.<\/p>\n
The NMI first hosted the regional sports event in 1969 and later in 1990.<\/p>\n
The bill cited that about 1,500 to 1,700 athletes, coaches, and officials are expected to arrive for the event \u201cwith a large part of the recovery cost being derived from a daily per diem rate of $30 that is paid by each participant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, the bill said that local businesses will also benefit from these visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe successful [staging] of this event will further serve to promote the CNMI as a viable venue for holding other regional and international sporting events. In the long term, the community will benefit from improvement and addition of sports facilities,\u201d said Quitugua.<\/p>\n
He said the $550,000 funding \u201caffirms the Legislature\u2019s support of the Games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities earlier said that the CNMI needs some $5.8 million to renovate existing facilities and construct new sports facilities.<\/p>\n
Of this amount, Quitugua said a legislative appropriation of up to $800,000 is needed.<\/p>\n
Of the initial funding, $300,000 is allotted for the baseball stadium official grandstand and $250,000 for the softball grandstand.<\/p>\n
The bill identified the Secretary of the Department of Public Works as the expenditure authority in consultation with the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.<\/p>\n
DCCA still awaits the Commonwealth Development Authority\u2019s assistance to find the needed funding for the whole event.<\/p>\n
CDA board chairman Tom Glen Quitugua earlier said that the agency is \u201clooking to identify funds if we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also looking at other resources to assist the government in making this a reality,\u201d said the board chairman.<\/p>\n
In a recent letter to CDA, Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Juan L. Babauta said $5.8 million would be needed to renovate existing sports facilities and construct additional facilities.<\/p>\n
He said funding is needed to construct a new Olympic-size swimming pool and tennis courts at the Oleai Sports Complex, renovation of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, installation of additional lighting at the Olympic-standard Oleai track and field, renovation of Kan Pacific Swimming Pool, construction of grandstands at the three Oleai Sports Complex fields, and construction of toilet and shower facilities.<\/p>\n
The 2006 Micronesian Games is expected to be held on Saipan on June 23 to July 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House of Representatives passed a bill last week appropriating $550,000 as partial funding for the CNMI\u2019s hosting of next year\u2019s Micronesian Games.<\/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-94245","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\/94245","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=94245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}