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‘DLNR housed in old leaking warehouse, has constant water ponding’
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Posted on Jun 24 2022
Personnel of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources main office have been occupying an old warehouse in Lower Base that has a leaking roof, whose office front constantly has water ponding.
“It smells like a sewer right in front of our office,” DLNR Secretary Anthony Benavente told members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee during a hearing Wednesday on DLNR’s budget request for fiscal year 2023.
Benavente underscored the need for DLNR’s main office to relocate after Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) questioned the department’s budget request “for all others” in the amount of $269,000. Manglona pointed out that the request differs from other DLNR divisions, where “all others” in the operational budget were categorized.
“Under this Natural Resources Division, it was just lumped into ‘all others’ at $269,000. Would you happen to know what those are for?” Manglona asked.
Benavente said he would be grateful for that funding as they’ve set aside that money for a new office. He said DLNR has been in that warehouse for the longest time and that it’s time to do something since it’s always leaking and flooding.
He noted that across their building is a brand-new office of the Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority.
Benavente said it’s shameful that their office has water leaks and that he believes the warehouse has been there for over 35 years.
He disclosed that the administration has given them two buildings on Capital Hill.
The DLNR secretary said he is hoping that the $269,000 might be sufficient to renovate the two buildings on Capital Hill for the DLNR office and for the Division of Land Registration and Survey to occupy.
“These two offices are in that warehouse facility, [which has] constant overflow, rats dying on the roof, and leaks every rainy season. I mean, we need to get away from that building,” Benavente said.
For next year, that’s their main goal, Benavente said, to fix the two buildings on Capital Hill and move out from the unsafe structure in Lower Base for the safety and health of their employees.
