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Kobler basketball court trashed anew
Less than two weeks after it was unveiled with new trimmings, the Koblerville basketball court has once again been trashed and vandalized.
Authorities found yesterday the newly renovated basketball court bleachers riddled with betel nut stains, the ceiling area has markings resembling the letter “R,” and the area surrounding the bleachers have trash scattered all over the floor.
At the court’s ribbon cutting last Aug. 28, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres specifically asked the public to keep the court clean and taken cared of.
Press secretary Kevin Bautista said yesterday that Torres’ priority remains providing “better services and more resources for the youth” in the CNMI.
“The most important thing is that we continue to be vigilant and work together so that we have more of a community involvement when it comes to vandalism like this,” he added.
Bautista said the administration has been vocal about its “dismay and distaste” for vandalisms such as this.
The nearby Koblerville Youth Center was vandalized last Aug. 18, making it the fourth time the center had been vandalized since 2017. The recent incident forced the center to shut down for renovation and safety improvements while upping security measures.
“We have been pretty public about our dismay and distaste for this type of behavior and we encourage our members of the public to really hone in on taking ownership of the [facilities] that have been provided to them, not just by the government but also the private sector and community stakeholders who really believe in empowering our youth,” Bautista said, adding that the basketball court is also a haven for the youth to “grow and develop.”
Rep. Joseph “Lee Pan” Guerrero (R-Saipan) led efforts to have the Koblerville basketball court renovated with funds from the private sector, saying that getting the funds from the government is slower.
Bautista said the Torres administration is going to be collaborating with the departments and agencies “to be able to clean up the vandalism—we are not going to be idle about this,” adding that the administration “wants to be able to maintain it.”
