Cleanup of Oleai, Marpi pool facilities underway

Northern Marianas Sports Association president Jerry Tan uses a slide show to show the repairs they’ve done at the Oleai Sports Complex and Marpi pool during last Thursday’s NMSA general membership meeting. (Mark Rabago)

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the new leadership of the Northern Marianas Sports Association, as the group cleaned up and repaired the Oleai Sports Complex and Marpi pool.

NMSA president Jerry Tan said with the help of the Department of Public Works and Saipan Mayor’s Office crew, they have managed to drain 80% of the water from the former Kan Pacific Swimming Pool.

“From Day 1 what has been bothering me a lot is the swimming pool. Our swimmers have been representing the CNMI well over the years and yet they have to train at the Pacific Islands Club or in the ocean,” he said during last Thursday’s NMSA membership meeting at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Alex Sablan, one of Tan’s special assistants to the NMSA board along with Merlie Tolentino, said the draining of the Marpi pool is being hindered by algae blooms.

“There are a lot of blooms now so the pumps were affected so at this point we had to go in and use the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s vacuum trucks and suck all those stuff out. After that we could go in with water blasters,” he said, adding that to his estimate 150,000 gallons remain from the 600,000-gallon capacity Marpi pool.

Tan also said with assistance from the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, they were able to spruce up the conference room of the Ada Gym, which functions as the official home of NMSA.

“The day of our board meeting, which was a Thursday, when I walked in it was not acceptable. So, we got to work right away. The ceiling, the wall, and we put the proper NMSA logo on the wall.”

He added that NMSA also began cleaning up the Ada Gym’s restrooms Wednesday last week and said clean and functioning restroom facilities should always be available in the islands’ sports venues.

“I personally, I feel like we should always take care of our restrooms. People need to use restrooms and they need to be clean.”

Tan also reported that lighting at the Oleai track and field is back and this has been a boon to both rugby players and joggers at night.

“People can now jog until 7:30pm or 8pm and we can turn it on longer if people want to.”

Tan said after the Oleai Sports Complex and Marpi pool, NMSA will train its sights on other sports facilities in the islands.

“My priority is actually the sports facilities because of the previous typhoon and because of the lack of funding. I’d like to get a chance to take a look at all the sports facilities on island. I want to see where you play, where you train, and see how we can support.”

He said NMSA intends the keep the effort going and take every opportunity to fix the islands’ sports facilities.

“Right now, it’s Oleai [Sports Complex] and the Marpi swimming pool. These are just baby steps we’re taking but definitely we want to provide the right environment for our athletes and hopefully bring the swimmers back into the pool.”