The Department of Commerce is asking the CNMI Legislature for some $350,000 funding to implement a public transportation program in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Commerce economic development officer Glenn Manglona said his office hopes the Legislative Branch would grant the funding since it is the reason why a public transport bill was not enacted into law this year.<\/p>\n
Gov. Juan N. Babauta vetoed last month House Bill 14-318, because the measure did not identify a funding source for the proposed office.<\/p>\n
The bill, authored by Rep. Clyde Norita, seeks to establish a CNMI Office of Transit Authority within the Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n
It would be tasked to review, apply, receive, manage, and use federal grants from the Federal Transit Administration to improve public transportation in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need funding to do it. We\u2019re confident that the Legislature will be able to do that,\u201d said Manglona.<\/p>\n
The proposed program is backed by advocacy group Easter Seals Disability Service, which said that the creation of a CNMI Transit Authority would increase the access of people with disabilities to transportation.<\/p>\n
The Commerce Department earlier called for the inclusion of its draft public transportation program into the bill, saying that its proposal is comprehensive.<\/p>\n
The department aims to begin the program in 2006.<\/p>\n
Based on the department’s Public Transportation Development Plan, a task force shall be created and a recommendation report on the proposed program shall be submitted to the governor and the Legislature within this year.<\/p>\n
By February 2006, it shall apply for a grant with the FDA.<\/p>\n
A gradual implementation of the program shall begin in August 2006.<\/p>\n
The department said the goal “is to establish a public transportation system that provides for an improved mobility of our citizens and the transportation of goods and services.”<\/p>\n
The agency said a mass transport is needed in view of the Commonwealth’s anticipated population growth and economic opportunities.<\/p>\n
The public transport system shall include varied transportation options such as buses, carpools, vanpools, curb-to-curb paratransit service, and rail train or a monorail system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Commerce is asking the CNMI Legislature for some $350,000 funding to implement a public transportation program in the Commonwealth.<\/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-95933","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\/95933","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=95933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}