NMHC: Block grant only for Koblerville school project

The Northern Marianas Housing Corp. board and staff plan to meet with Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and their counterparts at the Public School System to “clear the air” regarding the proposed junior high school project in Koblerville.

NMHC board members raised concerns during yesterday’s board meeting that PSS officials might have gotten the impression that the CNMI’s housing agency will provide the funds for the new junior high school through the Community Development Block Grant program.

Board chair Marcie Tomokane emphasized that the “original plan” only involved the purchase of land in the first year and the construction of two school buildings after.

NMHC bought in July a private lot in Koblerville where the proposed school will be built and where some 600 students from Hopwood Jr. High School will be transferred.

But planner and grant writer Jeannie Mafnas reported to the board that her email communication with Rachel Fusco of PSS CIP revealed plans to construct 10 buildings: four classroom buildings with 27 classrooms, a cafeteria, a library, a vocational building, a horticulture building, a music building, and a water storage tank.

Mafnas had asked PSS for an estimated project cost, which it previously projected at about $8 million, “but we still have yet to hear from them.”

She said their Nov. 10 meeting with PSS Commissioner Rita Sablan was for the most part about funding the construction of sidewalks in Mihaville and not the new junior high school.

“We basically explained to her.that our funds are actually committed for her school,” said corporate director Joshua Sasamoto. “We made it very, very absolutely clear that it’s just not possible” to fund their project using CDBG funding.

Tomokane noted that NMHC should not repeat their situation in the past when they had “to scramble at the last minute” to spend the grant money and not jeopardize its relationship with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“We’ve done what’s necessary to make sure that doesn’t happen. There’s no danger of that happening this program year, which just started last month,” assured Sasamoto.

Board member Diego Songao pointed out that the board should come up with a position that “it will only authorize up to what was approved and we cannot fund more than that because we’re going to hamper the other community projects in the other islands.”

“We already bought the land and we’re mandated to do something. Right now, that something is the school. If that should not happen, we will come back to the board and come up with an alternate idea,” said Sasamoto.