Inos signs 3 bills into law

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos last week signed three bills into law: a measure requiring the use divers-down flags on Saipan, a bill appropriating $9,000 from local license fees for poker and pachinko slot machines on Rota, and legislation banning the air-drying of underwear in, among other places, the tourist district of Garapan.

Inos signed Saipan Local Law 17-11 on July 12 and it calls for the “use of divers-down flag for diving activities on the coastal waters of Saipan.”

Authored by Rep. Raphael S. Demapan (Cov-Saipan), House Local Bill 17-38, D1 was introduced after the House found it imperative for the safety of divers, fishermen, and boat operators, especially those who frequent the coastal waters of Saipan, to require the use of a divers-down flag.

The law calls for all divers to stay within 100 feet of the divers-down flag on navigational channels and 300 feet of the divers-down flag on all waters other than navigational channels.

Inversely, Saipan Local Law 17-11 requires any vessel—other than law enforcement or rescue vessels—that approaches a divers-down flag to proceed no faster than necessary to maintain headway and steerageway. Violators of the new law would be fined not more than $100.

On July 13, Inos signed Rota Local Law 17-14 “to appropriate $9,000 from local license fees collected for poker and pachinko slot machines for the First Senatorial District; and for other purposes.”

Introduced by Rep. Teresita A. Santos (Ind-Rota), House Local Bill 17-45, S1 appropriates the $9,000 for 14 dialysis and terminally ill patients for June and part of July 2011 ($8,000), Rota Municipal Scholarship Foundation ($500), and for compensation of affected employees under Public Law 17-31 ($500).

House Local Bill 17-40, meanwhile, became Saipan Local Law 17-10 after Inos signed it into law on July 12.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Joseph M. Palacios (Rep-Saipan) after hearing complaints that the air-drying of personal articles of clothing on balconies “has a propensity to distract drivers and is an eyesore to tourists that visit our island and…the general public.”

The so-called “panty law” now bans “any article of clothing hung outside of a balcony, terrace, porch, deck, or veranda that is within public view of a major arterial or collector road. The activity is also proscribed in tourist-related districts that are zoned as Garapan Core, Garapan East, Beach Road, or Tourist Road.

The law tasked the Zoning Board to promulgate rules and regulations, to include penalty provisions, to enforce the provision.