Manta Ray Band, Mayor’s Office ask SNILD for money

The Saipan and Northern Islands Local Delegation opened its doors to two groups seeking funding during their session last Thursday but was not quite ready to open its checkbook just yet.

Saipan Southern High School Manta Ray Band went up to Capital Hill to ask for help in financing their trip to next year’s 2012 London Olympics.

SSHS principal Jesse Tudela said the 50-member band would need about $300,000 to finance their trip, set from July 24 to Aug. 8 in the United Kingdom capital.

Broken down, each band member would need to fundraise $6,000: $2,000 for airfare, $2,000 for accommodations, and $2,000 for food.

Besides the Summer Olympics, the band has also been invited to several other occasions, including an event that will be attended by no less than Queen Elizabeth II, according to Manta Ray Band musical director James Dewitt, who also attended the hearing with two band members.

Tudela said the band had already paid the initial deposit of $20,000 last month, but would need to come up with $25,000 by February 2012 to keep up with payment increments.

He said SSHS would have to forfeit the $20,000 advance in the event it fails to pay future increments. Tudela said, however, that that is not an option.

So far, $2,000 has already been raised by band members and their parents, Tudela said.

“Whatever you give will not go waste. It will contribute to the band members’ educational and musical experience,” said Tudela.

Rep. Ramon Basa (Cov-Saipan) described the $300,000 the band needs as “humongous,” saying it would be a “challenge for the local delegation to come up with that [amount]!”

House floor leader George Camacho (Ind-Saipan) said the amount the band is asking for will not come from SNILD’s “petty cash” but promised that “they will try to figure things out.”

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) said that government finances are really hard up and asked the band if the flight packages they’ve chosen are the most economical.

The Saipan Mayor’s Office, meanwhile, approached SNILD for expenditure authority so the municipality could finally settle judgments involving the Liberation Day fireworks accident in 2007 and another with regards to money it owes Guangdong Hardware.

Saipan Mayor Donald Flores’ special assistant Henry Hofschneider said it needs the delegation’s approval to appropriate money raised from “batu,” cockfighting, and bingo activities to pay $44,000 for the two judgments.

Hofschneider said in the case of the fireworks judgment, the municipality hasn’t paid the three plaintiffs involved in the case in the past three years and this has resulted in awards ballooning from $16,000 to $24,000.

“The principal will only continue to accrue interest” if the mayor’s office doesn’t settle the judgment,” Hofschneider said.