Ferry service between Guam-CNMI pushed

Sen. Paul A. Manglona is seeking federal funding for transportation infrastructure on the islands and is proposing the idea of establishing a regular ferry service between the CNMI and Guam.

“Tying our islands’ economies through reliable ocean ferry service would certainly be mutually beneficial to Guam and the CNMI,” Manglona said in an April 30 letter to CNMI Delegate Gregorio C. “Kilili” Sablan.

The only means of transportation between Guam and the CNMI is air travel.

The Rota senator’s letter to Sablan mainly focused on Public Law 109-59 or the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), and the successive legislation that will govern U.S. federal transportation spending.

Manglona said P.L. 109-59 will expire on Sept. 30, 2009, and that Congress is currently working on a replacement bill for the following six-year period.

“If you have not already done so, I respectfully request that your office begin to work with the current administration and the appropriate legislative committees to ensure that the CNMI may secure funding from this proposed legislation,” Manglona told Sablan.

With guaranteed funding for highways, highway safety, and public transportation totaling $244.1 billion, SAFETEA-LU represents the largest surface transportation investment in U.S. history. SAFETEA-LU was signed on Aug. 10, 2005

In 2005, the CNMI was successful in obtaining $12 million under the SAFETEA-LU to improve and maintain transportation infrastructure on the islands. This was in addition to the annual federal highway funding of some $4 million that the CNMI receives.

The 2005 funding was used to initiate the Talafofo highway project which will link neighboring communities on Saipan and enhance the island’s tourism appeal.

Manglona said there are still many transportation infrastructure projects in the CNMI that have been stalled and/or in need of funding, particularly on Rota.

“It is my sincere hope that by working closely with the Obama administration, and with your colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives, you may be able to secure sufficient funding for these projects in the CNMI, and perhaps obtain an increase in the annual appropriations that were set in 2005,” he added.

Manglona met with Jim Hatashima of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during a public hearing on Rota’s transportation master plan, which identifies projects eligible for federal funding.

“I am optimistic that the funding sources mentioned above may also be used toward completing Rota’s master plan and the critical infrastructure projects identified within,” Manglona said.

He also applauded Sablan for his hard work in representing the CNMI in Washington, D.C. and hopes that he will continue to do so as Congress debates legislation for federal transportation funding.