LibDay committee to finalize 2016 event

The 2016 Liberation Day committee will again meet today hoping to finalize activities for his year’s festivities as the celebration nears. The meeting is set at 9:30am at the conference room of the Saipan Mayor’s Office.

Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang said, in last week’s meeting, that he wants the food and beer concession issues resolved before they meet with interested vendors that will join the Liberation Day carnival.

Last year, the beer concession stand was exclusive to one distributor but now they are opening up to all businesses and even giving the chance to small players to participate and sell their goods.

“We have no problems last year despite alcoholic drinks are being sold. We are going to sit down with wholesalers and talk to them. Whether they want to come in as a wholesaler or retailer,” said Apatang.

A meeting and orientation will be held today, May 5, 6pm at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multipurpose Center for all interested vendors—beer and food concessions.

The committee also wants to finally award a contract for security services after only two companies—G4S and 3S Security Services— submitted their quotation but others can still present their bids.

More wooden pallets were also collected that will be used by the Logistics crew in the carnival grounds, while Gordon Marciano and Gary Sword will be this year’s Liberation Day hosts.

Apatang also said that the U.S. Navy band from Guam will be coming over to join the parade. They will still ask Navy officials how many members will be arriving so they could arrange transportation and food for the band.

He said that they are also expecting most of the ethnic groups in the CNMI to participate in the float parade. They are also working on getting at least three lowboys for the Liberation Day Royal Court, which has a record 29 candidates.

This year also marks the 50th year of the commemoration of the Vietnam War where all who served will be honored as part of the activities. There are at least 30 Vietnam War veterans in the CNMI.

Skywalker Communications Group personnel are also busy visiting the three high schools on Saipan to ask for volunteers. They also announced that the fireworks display will be bigger this year and would last between 15 and 20 minutes.