Quarry closure stymies mayor’s office’s job of maintaining roads

The Saipan Mayor’s Office has been unable to carry out its job of maintaining, improving, and repairing secondary roads following the recent closure of the Kannat Tabla quarry by the Department of Public Lands.

Mayor Donald G. Flores said that they suspended this particular service despite being mandated to do so. “It completely stopped us from delivering those services because that’s where we get the corals we use on these secondary roads,” Flores told Saipan Tribune.

DPL closed its Kannat Tabla quarry on April 25 to prevent the Saipan Mayor’s Office and Hawaiian Rock Products from further extracting coral from the site after preliminary findings showed that the mayor’s office has no permit from DPL and its predecessor, Marianas Public Lands Authority, to use the quarry since at least 2005.

Flores noted that they have equipment they have been unable to retrieve from the quarry site due to the lockup.

Flores’ adviser, Henry Hofschneider, said the Saipan Mayor’s Office acknowledges that the permit expired in 2004 and that former mayor Juan B. Tudela wrote a letter to MPLA asking for an extension of the permit.

Both Flores and Hofschneider pointed out, though, that coral was still being extracted even before their administration was sworn into office in January 2010.

Two months later, the Saipan Mayor’s Office entered into a memorandum of agreement with Hawaiian Rock Products so the latter can excavate and provide coral to the former free of charge since the Saipan Mayor’s Office lacks the equipment to do it on its own.

With the closure of the quarry, Flores said they were unable to serve a family that recently requested his office to cover an area that will be used for parking space. The family was going to use the space for a funeral.

According to Flores, most of the coral they receive from Hawaiian Rock are used to improve roads or areas in homesteads, particularly those in Kagman, which still has a lot of unpaved roads.

Hofschneider questioned why DPL would raise the issue at this point even as DPL director of compliance Ray Cruz earlier said that it took them “a little longer” to catch the lack of permit.

“If Ray Cruz says he has only two inspectors to work on compliance issues, are there any more cases like us without them being aware of it? Why start with the Mayor’s Office, which extracts coral for the purpose of delivering it to the community?” asked Hofschneider.

He said their case is similar to that of DPL notifying the Marianas Visitors Authority regarding the unauthorized use of Tachogna Beach for the Annual Tinian Hot Pepper Festival.

One of the biggest crowd-drawing events on Tinian, the festival has been held at Tachogna Beach for several years now, including this year’s celebration held last Feb. 18 and 19.

Hofschneider said that DPL should have given Flores “due courtesy” in addressing the issue. He added that DPL should have raised the issue first and requested for an audience from or written a letter to the Saipan Mayor’s Office before locking up the facility.

Flores said the Saipan Mayor’s Office and DPL are both government entities and should work together for the benefit of the community. Flores and Hofschneider said they are set to meet with DPL within the week to discuss this matter further.