90 pct of AMP open for daytime use

Ninety percent of the American Memorial Park is open to the public but for daytime use only. Lights for the walkway and parking area have to be fixed before the park can be opened at night. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)

Ninety percent of the American Memorial Park is now accessible to the public but only for daytime use.

Half a year after Typhoon Soudelor struck Saipan there is still work to be done at the park.

According to park superintendent Jim Richardson, they have yet to receive all the supplies they ordered to replace the walkway and parking area lights that were damaged.

“All of our sidewalk lighting and parking area lights were also destroyed by the typhoon,” Richardson said.

“As we open the park, it’s open only for day use until we get the rest of the lights installed,” he added.

No timeline was given as to when the park will be open for nighttime use, but Richardson said they will install the lights immediately once all of them arrives.

“I keep hoping that the lights will arrive next week and we can go about taking the next couple of weeks to installing the lights,” Richardson said.

He added that even some small areas in the park will not be open for many months due to safety reasons.

Richardson reminded the pubic to adhere to warning signs on certain areas in the park where people are not yet allowed to use.

“We’d like for people to stay out of the areas that are closed because it’s completely about safety,” Richardson said.

The walkways from the beach as well as the pavilion have already been cleared up, the Visitor’s Center was opened last October, although the auditorium remains closed until the park can get contractors to take care of the damage.

“We just got bids. We’re frustrated that it has taken us months to get bids,” Richardson said.

Tennis court

The next priority for the park is the tennis court which has been closed for six months now.

“We’re hoping that we can get the tennis court open for day use sometime in March,” Richardson said.

The court has already been cleared of trees and fencing and lighting materials are already ordered and shipped.

He added that they will also be touching up the playing surface of the court.

“I would expect that installed during this month,” Richardson said.

“Once we receive the lights, we probably have to close them again for a short time period so we can install those lights,” he added.

Aside from about $100,000 that the park used for restoration last fiscal year, they have about $482,000 on top of their regular park money this fiscal year from the National Parks Service to use for park restoration.

Richardson said the challenge for the restoration was the shipment of the materials that they need as well as the many trees that were downed by Soudelor.

Tree replacements

The park estimates that 90 percent of their trees were “either uprooted, broken, or damaged to the point that they may not survive.”

“Many of the trees planted 20 to 30 years ago, turned out not to be so durable,” Richardson said.

He added that the replacements of the trees will need additional money in the future and that they will seek the public’s help on what kind of trees to plant.

“We are planning to replace the trees in the formal landscape which is the memorial area. Once we get our auditorium fixed, so that it’s healthy enough for people to meet there, we’re going to have a meeting and invite the public to help us plan how to put trees back in that formal landscape,” Richardson said.

Most of the work done to restore the park was made by the local park employees themselves, rendering extra hours and most of their days, according to Richardson.

“I give a ton of credit for the local park staff for working so hard and get the park open for the public,” Richardson said.

They were also able to get help from Hawaii and California parks for some weeks and the CNMI government for some equipment.

“I want to thank the public for their patience and understanding. We understand how much people appreciate and love the park,” Richardson said.