Propst: Garapan needs a facelift

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) called on his colleagues in last Tuesday’s House of Representatives session on Capital Hill to work together and help Precinct 3 representatives clean up Garapan.

Garapan serves as the primary tourism area in the CNMI, where majority of hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers do business, providing for the island’s economy.

Propst raised three issues: parking, trash, and the casino.

“Parking is impossible. The small businesses complain that they are losing out on customers because they could not find parking, and it is true,” he said.

While emphasizing that adequate parking is necessary, Propst also cited the Parking Act of 2015 that gave birth to parking meters that are intended to and could have generated income for the CNMI, but instead, do not work, and need to be replaced.

The legislator also talked about the trash problem in Garapan. “We see all the trash, overgrown tangan-tangan, and things are dilapidated and falling apart all over. …Garapan needs a facelift, needs a bulldozer. …How can we allow trash on the main road, Paseo [de Marianas], to just sit there and exist?” he added.

Throughout 2019, with help from volunteers from the PDM Promoters, Kinpachi Restaurant, and the Saipan Awaodori Team, an average of almost 500 lbs of trash a month has been collected in the area.

Stressing that tourism is everyone’s business, and that the CNMI government spends millions to bring tourists to the island, Propst appealed to his colleagues, saying they need to care and collectively do better so there would be a better offering for tourists when they come to Saipan.

Propst also talked about the possibility of the Imperial Pacific Resort and Casino becoming an eyesore if it remains on its construction phase.

“The biggest eyesore that may happen is if that casino is never finished. This is right in the tourist mecca,” Propst said. “We risk not finishing that because someone, a former legislator, took out the completion bond that was in there and removed it. For what his reason was, I don’t know. But it was removed, and now, if that is not going to finish, how is that going to make our islands look?”

In an interview with Saipan Tribune last month, IPI vice president for construction Eric Poon said that construction of Phase 1 of the resort hotel is expected to be completed on Dec. 31 this year.

Phase 2, the construction of the tower hotel’s level 3 and level 13, is set to be completed on June 30; Phase 3 of level 2 VIP gaming and level 14 sky level is expected to be completed on Sept. 30; and Phase 4 of the Beach Club to be completed on Dec. 31, all next year, in 2020.