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Marpi Cemetery to open 2nd week of September
Saipan will finally have a solution to its lack of burial sites after Department of Land and Natural Resources Secretary Richard Seman said the Marpi Cemetery will finally open in the second week of September.
“We’re happy that the cemetery is finally moving forward and it will be open because the cemetery at Mt. Carmel is full and it is time to use what was given years ago. Although it is far away, it is a non-denominational public cemetery and other people can use it,” Seman said.
“We’re preparing for the grand opening and the bid is out for facilities but we will still do the maintenance and get to move the project toward the second week of September,” he added.
To this end, former House speaker Oscar Babauta said he is currently working on the bidding process for the cemetery.
“We have an invitation to bid for the construction of the generator housing, the procurement of a generator, and the wiring of the facility to power the big water well and provide power for the water pump,” said Babauta, who has been given the responsibility to fast-track the public cemetery’s opening.
Babauta said that request for proposals would be published in the newspaper next week for those interested in doing ground maintenance for the public cemetery, which includes burial and the making of headstones.
DLNR, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Division of Public Health’s Bureau of Environmental Health, and other government agencies are working with Babauta on the opening of the Marpi Cemetery.
It is a non-denominational public cemetery and has 2,500 double-stack occupancy crypts for a total of 5,000 burials. The cemetery is said to have the potential to provide over 50,000 crypts for 33 years.
The $2.9-million Marpi Cemetery was made possible by funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior through a Capital Improvement Project grant in early 2011.
