Valley Inn eyed as temporary housing for Rota, Tinian patients

The Northern Marianas Housing Corp. is now working with the Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy Systems, Inc. to make the Valley Inn property compliant with standards for accessible design as required by the American Disabilities Act.

The Valley Inn is a 17-unit apartment rental property in As Lito right across the former Happy Market, which the corporation bought in July, along with the private lot in Koblerville where a proposed junior high school will be built.

“The plan for the Valley Inn would be to house medical referral patients from the islands of Rota and Tinian,” Jacob Muña, NMHC planning administrative assistant, told Saipan Tribune.

Muña disclosed that the ADA compliance was “the utmost priority” brought up during a meeting with representatives from the Tinian and Rota guest houses, which are used to accommodate medical referral patients from both neighboring islands.

Based on an initial room inspection, Muña said the units at Valley Inn cannot accommodate wheelchairs and the building itself does not have a ramp entrance.

Muña, during Thursday’s board meeting, said they will start working on the issue by scheduling inspections within the week for ADA compliance.

But Muña noted that the corporation can only do up to 20 percent rehabilitation work at Valley Inn to make it ADA-compliant, so they are looking at having one ADA room each for the east and west sides of the building.

Muña also revealed at the meeting that the management agreement contract for Valley Inn ended Thursday. While his recommendation is to extend it until the end of the month, Muña said he would consult with corporate director Joshua Sasamoto if the corporation would extend the contract.

Muña reported to the board that 10 tenants have already been relocated since the corporation acquired the property in July.

Two tenants, however, have already asked that they be allowed to extend their stay at Valley Inn. Muña said one tenant “asked the governor” to extend her stay until Nov. 15, which has already been approved by Sasamoto. Another tenant, who’s requesting to extend her stay until Nov. 30, already told the Valley Inn resident manager that he will seek help from the governor about his request.

“I don’t think the governor needs to be bothered by this,” said board chair Marcie Tomokane, who instructed Muña to have all tenant inquiries and requests forwarded to NMHC.

Muña said payment of tenants who extended their stay at Valley Inn are made to NMHC. “Any money that we incur with Valley Inn will go to program income,” he added.

Given the usage of Valley Inn for medical referral patients, Muña said they are trying to meet with Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta to discuss the corporation’s roles and responsibilities in managing the property.

“At this point, we can’t get a meeting scheduled because everything, according to Dr. [Jon Joyner], is on hold at CHC,” Muña informed the board.

Muña is also poised to recommend to the corporation that two of the units at Valley Inn—one two-bedroom unit and one three-bedroom unit—be allocated to visiting specialists since it already has the amenities that they need during their stay on island.

“Instead of having the government pay money to the hotels, at least they could stay here because it’s a full facility,” he said.