COTA staff completes FTA training

The Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority Environmental and Sustainability Management System Core Team has recently completed their fourth and final session on training under the Federal Transit Administration ESMS in Virginia.

According to COTA administrator Tom Camacho, he and four other staff attended the training and had began since early 2013 and that this was the last session.

According to Camacho, the FTA established the core team category and requisites such as official capacity and background of staffs were the reason they were selected to be a part of the five-member team.

FTA funded the training through a contract with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the State University that is located at Virginia Tech Facility, Double Tree Hotel and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia.

Camacho said that the result of the training and COTA being chosen was on his part in submitting his interest and application for the FTA in 2013.

“Which resulted to being selected as one of the 10 transit agencies,” Camacho said.

COTA’s newest ESMS team is committed to operating an effective system as part of an “integrated framework” for sustainable environmental stewardship. Camacho said that they will comply with the appropriate environmental and energy statutes, regulations, and executive orders.

COTA’s ESMS team is integrated with the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission to protect human health and safeguard the environment.

“The first actual day started with announcements, homework progress report or presentation of each team’s homework for goals and targets taught in workshop three,” Camacho said.

Camacho also said that the regular training day included the team reports and that CNMI team was the first to present.

The first session started on August 2013, second was on November 2013, third was on February 2014, and the final of the sessions was on June 2014.

According to Camacho the ESMS is a set of processes and practices that enables an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency.

“This is so true and timely since COTA and the CNMI currently operates a Paratransit system then by 2015, COTA’s state-of-the-art vehicle and maintenance facility will be built followed by the launching of the first-ever Saipan Fixed-Flex Route system, expansion of Rota and Tinian transit system and possibly in the very near future,” he said.

Camacho also said that should a feasibility study recommends that a ferry system is a viable operation in the CNMI or between Guam and CNMI, COTA will secure federal financial assistance to buy the needed and appropriate ocean-going vessels and terminal facilities if needed.

“However, operating expenses will come from FTA, local dedicated funding sources and/or private or public partnership,” he said.

Camacho also said that on October of this year and February 2015 a certified “ISO 14001” standard auditor, Bob Herbert from Virginia Tech will travel here to the CNMI to conduct a gap and final audit of COTA’s ESMS plan and fence lines.

“We each take personal responsibility to protect and enhance our local communities. We will promptly report all incidents and unsafe conditions to COTA emergency services,” Camacho said.

“Environmental stewardship is and must be an integral part of every COTA business practice, operation, job, and task. It is incumbent on each of us to assess our own roles and responsibilities and to help fulfill, to the utmost of our abilities,” he added.

Staff that completed the training included COTA’s mobility management and transit coordinator Vince C. Merfalen, administrative officer Mary S. Dickinson, community planner Roy T. Rios, grants management coordinator Christopher R. Sablan, and Camacho himself.