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Roof repair delay puts off library’s 20th year celebration
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Posted on Jan 06 2012
By Clarissa David
Reporter
Reporter
A delay in repairing the roof of the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library has put off its 20th anniversary celebration in December, according to executive director John Oliver Gonzales yesterday.
Gonzales disclosed that the CNMI Library Council decided to move the anniversary celebration to December 2012, citing also as a reason urgent library operations and administrative matters they have to deal with.
“We definitely welcome the change in the date, which is appropriate and reasonable given the many grants and program initiatives that our NMI state library is currently handling,” Gonzales told Saipan Tribune.
These initiatives include the successful lobbying for adequate funding and restoration of library operations to 80 hours in fiscal year 2012 and the timely and complete compilation of monitoring reports for grants under the Institute of Museum and Library Services, among others.
Gonzales said they will create over the next few months a 20th Anniversary Task Force to plan and organize literacy-related programs and activities in line with the December celebration. These include a literacy-themed parade with float competitions, block party, lecture series poetry and ukulele jams, and book and souvenir sale.
He noted that the roof project “will most definitely be completed in time and before the 20th anniversary celebrations.”
“The roof repair will depend on the proposals to be submitted by bidders to the project, which we hope to address soon when that timeline approaches over the next month or two per the Department of Public Works,” said Gonzales.
He said that Energy Division director Thelma B. Inos will try to help the library by financing the installation of solar panels on their roof through the CNMO State Energy Block Grant Programs “if and when there is funding available.”
