NMTech on schedule with Kobler construction project

A construction project with the end goal being a Northern Marianas Technical Institute facility in Koblerville is “right on schedule,” according to NMTech chief executive officer Jodina Attao during an NMTech board of trustees meeting yesterday.

In her “CEO’s Report” as part of yesterday’s board meeting, Attao shared with the trustees that topographic site surveying was completed on Nov. 28, 2021, and that requests for proposals have been regularly advertised and published in the CNMI’s print news publications. The RFPs were first advertised on Dec. 14, 2021, and will continue to be published once a week until Jan. 14, 2022.

Attao reported that nine vendors have expressed an interest in submitting proposals, and that a pre-proposal meeting with the vendors took place on Dec. 28, 2021. Of the nine who showed interest, four vendors attended, said Attao.

She said the deadline to submit a proposal is Jan. 18, 2022. The next steps for NMTech will be to begin talks on architecture and engineering of the facility itself.

Attao shared with the board that NMTech instructor Rip Stephenson, who has 35 years of construction experience, is NMTech’s in-house project coordinator, and that Stephenson is in close contact with other NMTech instructors to determine what classroom accommodations will be needed at the Koblerville site.

“Mr. Rip [Stephenson] is working closely with all the instructors to make sure that each classroom is equipped [with] what they need and integrating the instructional spaces with the workshop spaces rather than having to walk across the campus to get from one

to another,” said Attao.

One idea is to keep NMTech’s culinary program based at the school’s Lower Base facility and relocate some of the school’s other programs to the Koblerville facility. Attao said the new additional space would allow NMTech to expand and improve its culinary instructional areas.

Attao shared with the board that an expansive kitchen area is a benchmark for most culinary accreditations, and told Saipan Tribune separately that NMTech is working on accrediting its culinary program.

The proposed Koblerville facility will be a 30,000-square-foot two-story building that will feature spaces for administrative offices, classrooms, and open areas for the hands-on portions of NMTI’s trades programs. The project is funded through the $10.3 million grant the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration gave NMTech in February 2021.